Flooding has hit the central US state of Oklahoma in the wake of a series of tornadoes that killed at least five people, media reported Saturday. According to dpa, large parts of Oklahoma City were inundated, as heavy storms dumped up to 25 centimeters of rain in a short time, local media said. There was water on the ground floor of City Hall, a spokeswoman said. The city's Will Rogers Airport evacuated passengers to an underground tunnel, the airport wrote on Twitter. Some 50,000 people were without power, Oklahoma Gas & Electric said. The National Weather Service issued flash flood and severe thunderstorm warnings for the area. It had declared a tornado emergency late Friday for the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. Parts of the interstate highways that pass through Oklahoma City and Moore, were "a parking lot," as rush-hour commuters were trapped by the storms, the weather service said. State highway troopers reported numerous car crashes across the region, with roads also blocked due to violent thunderstorms causing flash flooding.
