SLEEPER, Mo. – Stormy weather brought high winds and flash flooding to parts of Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas, sweeping a crowded van off a bridge and killing one of its passengers.
Areas of Tulsa flooded early Thursday, knocking out power for about 9,000 homes and businesses, Public Service Co. of Oklahoma spokesman Stan Whiteford said. Fire officials in Broken Arrow, which got up to 5 inches of rain, reported rescuing people from at least two vehicles.
Northeastern Oklahoma was under a flash flood watch through Thursday night.
In Missouri, the van was carrying eight people Wednesday when it tried to drive across a concrete slab over a creek bed that normally has little water, said Jonathan Ayres, the Laclede County emergency management director.
The rainfall swelled the creek to as high as three or four feet, carrying the van away, Ayres said. The dead man's body was found about a mile downstream, Ayres said. The others survived.
Thunderstorms with wind gusts of up to 82 mph raked portions of West Texas for a second night Wednesday, snapping limbs, blocking roadways and downing power and phone lines in Clairemont and Jayton.
Lightning ahead of the storms sparked wildfires near Peacock in Stonewall County, and wind damage was reported in Kent County and Anton, northwest of Lubbock, authorities said.
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