Storms bring flash floods, tornado threats to parts of US

Authorities searched for a person missing after flash flooding swept away a vehicle in Missouri and a suspected tornado touched down early Friday in north Texas as a volatile storm system threatened to spawn tornadoes in several Southern states.

The National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center forecast severe weather through Friday evening primarily from the lower Mississippi Valley to the lower Ohio Valley.

Forecasters said the greatest threat of tornadoes would come Friday afternoon and evening in portions of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee. Storms with damaging winds and hail were forecast from eastern Texas and southeastern Oklahoma into parts of southeastern Missouri and southern Illinois.

Heavy rain Thursday night and Friday morning caused flash flooding in parts of Missouri, where authorities said a vehicle became stranded near the town of Fordham. Rescue crews responded late Thursday near a low-water crossing at the Finley River, officials with the Logan Rogersville Fire Protection District said on Facebook.

SUSPECTED TORNADO TOUCHES DOWN IN NORTH TEXAS, NO INJURIES REPORTED

Two people were rescued but a third remained missing Friday morning. Crews planned to use boats and have searchers walking along the river bank.

Some areas of southern Missouri have received 3 inches of rain since Thursday, the weather service said, and rainfall was expected to continue into Saturday morning. Most of southern Missouri was under a flash flood watch or warning Friday.

In Texas, a suspected tornado struck about 5 a.m. in the southwest corner of Wise County, damaging homes and downing trees and power lines, said Cody Powell, the county’s emergency management coordinator. Powell said he had no reports of injuries.

The weather service had not confirmed a tornado, but damage to homes was also reported in neighboring Parker County, said meteorologist Matt Stalley, and investigators likely will go to the area later Friday to make that determination.

The two areas are about 10 miles apart on the western edge of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, and Stalley said the storm system was expected to move east of the region by early Friday afternoon.