Several tornadoes touched down in several Oklahoma counties Saturday evening, leaving a trail of destruction with several injuries and at least one person dead.
The region remains on high alert for severe weather after thunderstorms and tornadoes touched down Friday and Saturday from Texas to the Great Lakes. About 106 tornadoes were detected Friday in six states, including Nebraska and Iowa hit hardestofficials said.
In Oklahoma, emergency services confirmed that a tornado passed through western Hughes County around 11 p.m. Saturday evening, destroying or damaging several buildings in its wake.
Mike Dockrey with Hughes County Emergency Management confirmed to CBS News that at least four people were injured and one person died.
In nearby Sulfur, a small town of about 5,000 people 80 miles south of Oklahoma City, at least two tornadoes were reported, while another struck Marietta and crossed directly across the Interstate 35.
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Videos and photos posted on social media early Sunday morning showed heavy damage in Sulfur, including scattered bricks, wooden beams and toppled trees. Buildings downtown had windows blown out and walls missing.
The Oklahoma Red Cross said it was opening a shelter in Sulfur and was in contact with authorities to address the immediate needs of affected residents across the state.
The communities of Garfield, Grant, Kay, Payne and several other Oklahoma counties also suffered damage to homes and other structures, officials said.
The National Weather Service in Norman said early Sunday that flash flooding was now the main threat after tornado warnings were lifted.
More than 39,000 people in Oklahoma and Texas were without power as of Sunday morning.
In Kansas, the National Weather Service confirmed that a “large and dangerous tornado” touched down near the town of Howard Saturday afternoon.
THE National Weather Service confirmed Saturday that several tornadoes touched down in at least three North Texas counties the day before, including three tornadoes in Navarro County. Two of them were EF1 tornadoes with wind speeds over 100 miles per hour. The third EF0 tornado touched down north of Frost. Some homes are leveled with trees and metals lining the area.
Friday night tornadoes wreaks havoc in the Midwestparticularly in Nebraska and Iowa, causing a building to collapse with dozens of people inside and destroying and damaging hundreds of homes.
The sounds of chainsaws filled the air Saturday in the Elkhorn neighborhood of Omaha, a city of 485,000 with a metropolitan population of about 1 million.
Josh Funk / AP
“We saw it land about 200 yards over there,” Elkhorn resident Pat Woods told CBS News. “And then we went for cover and we came, but we could hear it go by. When we came back up, our fence was gone and we looked to the northwest and the whole neighborhood was gone.”
The National Weather Service was still assessing the number and strength of tornadoes.
Nearly 47 million people are at risk of severe weather Sunday, from East Texas north to the Upper Mississippi River Valley.
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