Record rainfall forces evacuations and rescues in Oklahoma as a storm leaves 3 dead in Pennsylvania
The storms drenched much of southern Oklahoma and northern Texas, flooding and washing out roads and causing flights to be canceled and delayed at major airports.
In Wewoka, Okla., a city of about 3,000 located about 80 miles southwest of Oklahoma City, there had already been four water rescues from vehicles by early Wednesday afternoon, said Wewoka Fire Chief Kevin Green.
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He said with the ground saturated from previous rains, the creeks were overflowing onto the streets.
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'People are just driving through the water - they're not thinking,' Green said.
In Lexington, Okla., a city of about 2,000 located about 40 miles southeast of Oklahoma City, a handful of homes were evacuated Wednesday as flood waters rose and several streets were closed, officials said.
Oklahoma City set a record on Wednesday with 11.94 inches of rain in April, surpassing the 1947 mark of 11.91 inches, said Oklahoma State climatologist Gary McManus.
Meanwhile, he said, Oklahoma was poised to break the 1942 record for statewide rainfall average of 8.32 inches for the month of April.
In the Dallas area, departures were grounded at Dallas Love Field and Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport for part of the day because of thunderstorms, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Hundreds of flights were canceled at DFW International Airport and dozens at Love Field, according to FlightAware.
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More than 425,000 customers were without power in Pennsylvania and another 40,000 were in the dark in Ohio after Tuesday night's powerful storm, according to PowerOutage.us. Neighboring states, including Michigan, New York, and West Virginia, also reported thousands of outages.
'This is a natural disaster, folks, the level of which we don't see very regularly,' said Matthew Brown, the emergency services chief for Pennsylvania's Allegheny County.
A spokesperson for Pittsburgh-based Duquesne Light called the storm's damage 'unprecedented' for knocking out electricity for some 250,000 of its customers and toppling trees and snapping power poles. The utility was bringing in outside help to restore electricity, and outages could last a week, the spokesperson said.
A Pennsylvania man was electrocuted on Tuesday evening while trying to extinguish a mulch fire near a utility pole as severe weather hit the State College area, police said. The 22-year-old man died at the scene, police said in a news release. State College police said they believe the man's death to be storm-related.
In Pittsburgh, first responders were called to the South Side Slopes area for reports of a person electrocuted by live wires, and that person died on the scene, according to a Pittsburgh Public Safety Department social media post. The department urged residents to use extreme caution when moving through the city, citing multiple hazards such as downed trees and possible live wires.
Allegheny County officials confirmed that a 67-year-old man was killed by a fallen tree at a home in Ross Township, just outside Pittsburgh.
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The National Weather Service's Pittsburgh office said destructive wind damage was seen across its region. Straight-line winds gusted over 80 miles per hour to 90 miles per hour, which is stronger than many EF0 and EF1 tornadoes typically seen in the area, the weather service office said in a social media post.
A line of thunderstorms that swept across Pennsylvania on Tuesday night formed what's called a 'bow echo,' or a bow-shaped line of incredibly strong winds that are strongest at the apex of the curve, according to weather service meteorologist John Bowen in State College. Damage was most severe where the apex passed, he said.
Pittsburgh International Airport recorded its third-highest wind gust in modern history at 71 miles per hour, according to Liana Lupo, a meteorologist with the weather service's Pittsburgh office. A team investigated wind damage in Wilkinsburg, just outside Pittsburgh, but could not conclusively say a tornado had touched down, Lupo said.
The Storm Prediction Center's storm report map for Tuesday included tornado reports from Oklahoma and Missouri, dozens of hail reports and more than 580 high wind reports stretching from Oklahoma to New York, including reports of downed trees and power lines and roofs blown off buildings.
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