Tornados kill four in central US

The violent storm system blamed for four deaths in three US states flooded parts of Texas as it moved eastwards, stranding drivers in high water and forcing dozens of elderly people to evacuate an assisted living centre.

Many smaller roads in the area were still closed this morning.

Up to seven inches of rain fell in the area. About 60 elderly residents from an assisted living centre were taken to a church on higher ground for safety, said Eric Meyers, Navarro County Emergency Management co-ordinator.

The spring storm unleashed more than 65 tornadoes in Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Colorado and Nebraska on Wednesday and Thursday, the National Weather Service said. A twister yesterday afternoon in Oklahoma City injured at least five people – two of them critically.

On Wednesday, the storms were blamed for four deaths in Oklahoma, Colorado and Texas.

A seven-year-old Oklahoma girl was treated at a hospital for cuts yesterday, and two people were injured when a van was thrown from the Kilpatrick Turnpike into a concrete culvert by the storms, said Oklahoma City Deputy Fire Chief Tony Young.

Residents in several states from North Dakota to Iowa and Texas were bracing for more severe weather today.

The same storm system had dumped snow on Wyoming, causing highway pile-ups and closing large portions of three interstates. In the Wind River Mountains, 58 inches of snow had fallen by yesterday morning. At least 800 homes in north-central Wyoming were without heat and electricity yesterday, down from about 2,200 the day before.