Residents of Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, Texas, Iowa, and Nebraska reported at least 80 tornadoes since Monday, with at least 22 tornado reports by late Wednesday, including a "violent tornado" in Jefferson City, Missouri, that may have caused fatalities. At least seven people have been reported dead from storm-related causes, mostly in Missouri, ABC News reports. And days of heavy rains have caused near-record flooding in the Midwest, especially Oklahoma, where 9 inches of rain have fallen on saturated ground since Sunday.
The Arkansas River is 9 feet above flood stage in parts of Oklahoma, and two barges that broke away in the flood prompted evacuation orders for several small towns on the other side of a dam downstream. The Missouri and Mississippi Rivers are at or approaching flood stages from Iowa and Illinois down to Missouri — the Mississippi is expected to crest 12 feet vote flood stage in St. Louis on Monday. And the rain-swollen Cimarron River is eating away its banks toward homes about 34 miles north of Oklahoma City.
In fact, at least one unoccupied house slipped into the Cimarron on Tuesday and floated away. Others are at risk of sliding into the river, too.
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The extreme weather is expected to linger in the Plains states Thursday but part of the storm will head east, delivering heavy rain, strong wind gusts, hail, and tornados to parts of the East Coast, from New England to West Virginia.
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