Mother and her baby killed as tornadoes hit Oklahoma City area AGAIN: Tragic parent in flipped SUV among five dead as twister causes chaos and leaves 50 hurt

A mother and child were among the five killed as multiple tornadoes rolled in from the prairie and slammed Oklahoma City and its suburbs on Friday, crumbling cars and tractor-trailers along a major interstate.
The broad storm hit during the evening rush hour, causing havoc on Interstate 40, a major artery connecting suburbs east and west of the city. To the south, winds approaching 80 mph were forecast for Moore, where a top-of-the-scale EF5 tornado killed 24 on May 20.
Police say the woman was driving an SUV along the interstate near El Reno when the powerful twister flipped the vehicle over.

Tragic: Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers found the bodies of a woman and an infant near their vehicle. Police believe the woman was driving an SUV near El Reno when the powerful twister flipped the vehicle over

Storm: The tornado that wreaked havoc near Oklahoma City was reported to be a mile wide with winds reaching up to 8mph

Stranded: Vehicles trapped by flash flooding sit underneath on the road in Oklahoma City after severe thunderstorms brought tornadoes, high winds, heavy rain and hail to the area

Waterlogged: Cars driving on the interstate through Oklahoma City wade through dangerous flood waters brought by the thunderstorm. Police warned vehicles to stay off the road

Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Betsy Randolph said troopers found the bodies of a woman and an infant near their vehicle. Randolph said it's not known if the woman was driving into the storm when it hit around 7 p.m. Friday.
Two other victims were found in a car in Union City.
One victim was also found on a road in El Reno, KWTV reported.

In addition to the death toll about 50 people were hurt in the storm, five critically, hospital officials said.

Amongst the injured was a meteorologist from The Weather Channel. Meteorologist Mike Bette is nursing minor injuries after the "tornado hunt" car in which he was riding was thrown some 200 yards by the storm.

The network said though Betts was hurt, he and the car's two other occupants were wearing safety belts and were able to walk away from the banged-up vehicle.

Though the tornado alert expired, the powerful rain continued to hit the area and floodwaters were collecting in the streets.
Flood waters up to 4 feet deep hampered rescue attempts and frequent lightning roiled the skies well after the main threat had passed to the east. 

Injuries: A meteorologist from The Weather Channel was injured after his car (seen here) was thrown 200 yards by the storm

Danger: Forecasters warned of a 'particularly dangerous situation,' with ominous language about strong tornadoes and hail the size of grapefruits 4 inches in diameter. Photographed with a wide angle lens, the mile-wide tornado, is seen near El Reno

Salvaging: Residents retrieve belongings from a home destroyed by the tornados that tore through central Oklahoma

Damage: An Oklahoma home destroyed, its roof partially torn off after the tornado rips through

Emergency officials reported numerous injuries were reported in the area along I-40, and Randolph said there were toppled and wrecked cars littering the area. Troopers requested a number of ambulances at I-40 near Yukon, west of Oklahoma City.
Hail and heavy rain pelted the metro area to the point that emergency workers had trouble responding to 'widespread' reports of injuries.
'We're scrambling around,' said Lara O'Leary, a spokeswoman for the local ambulance agency. 'There is very low visibility with the heavy rain ... so we're having trouble getting around.
'The damage is very, very widespread.'
Standing water was several feet deep, and downtown Oklahoma City looked more like a hurricane had gone through than a tornado.
Tornado warnings were also posted Friday night near Tulsa and near St. Louis.
At least six semis on their side at a weight station on I-40 near Oklahoma City, photographer Jim Beckel reported.
Numerous vehicles were damaged in the storm and that many motorists were left stranded.

More than 86,000 people are without power in the Oklahoma City area and that number is expected to only grow, according to ABC News.
Oklahoma City's Will Rogers World Airport was evacuated as the city braced for the tornado, that was moving at 40 mph.
Local news reported an estimated 1,200 people were at the airport.
NBC News reported that the passengers were herded to the basement and told to put their hands on their heads as they waited out the storm.

Extreme weather: Oklahoma City was on a tornado alert as a massive storm approached the city (pictured a wall cloud forms in Purcell, Okla. on Thursday)

Devastating: A storm on May 20 in Moore killed 24 people, including 10 children. Moore borders Oklahoma City's south side

Powerful: An overturned semitrailer rests on its side on the eastbound lanes of Interstate 40, just east of El Reno, Okla.

Storm chasers with cameras in their car transmitted video showing a number of funnels dropping from the supercell thunderstorm as it passed south of El Reno and toward downtown Oklahoma City.
Police urged motorists to leave the crosstown Interstate 40 and seek a safe place.
The storm was headed toward Oklahoma City, which has more than a million people in the metro area.
'If you live in downtown Oklahoma City, please go below ground. Do it right now,' local news forecasters told viewers.
The Weather Channel storm chaser van, Tornado Hunt, that was following the approaching tornado was reportedly thrown 200 yards as it tried to track the twister.

Livestock: People stop traffic to help one of several loose horses across I-40 in Oklahoma City as the rain pours down

Jack-knifed: Traffic slowly moves around a semi tractor-trailer that was blown off the highway by the tornado on Oklahoma Interstate-40

Rain: Parts of Oklahoma City experience extreme flooding after multiple tornado's passed through Central Okla

Television cameras showed debris falling from the sky west of Oklahoma City and power transformers being knocked out by high winds across a wider area.
The National Weather Service had called the storm 'a particularly dangerous situation.'
The scene was eerily like that from last week, when blackened skies generated a top-of-the-scale EF5 storm with 210 mph winds.
A storm May 20 at Moore killed 24 people, including 10 children. Moore borders Oklahoma City's south side.

Rick Smith, the warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service at Norman, said that while the storm packed a powerful punch, it wasn't as strong as the Moore tornado.

The region was fortunate because the storm touched down mostly in rural areas and missed central Oklahoma City.

Take cover: The Highway Patrol is urging motorists to get off Interstate 40 and drive to the south. A tornado touched down near El Reno and the storm moved to the east, toward Oklahoma City

'It's not even close to anything like what we had last week,' Smith said. 'We were very concerned this would move into downtown. It would have been a major problem. It made all the difference that it was out in the country.'

Well before Oklahoma's first thunderstorms fired up at late afternoon, the Storm Prediction Center in Norman was already forecasting a violent evening. From the Texas border to near Joplin, Mo., residents were told to keep an eye to the sky and an ear out for sirens.
Forecasters warned of a "particularly dangerous situation," with ominous language about strong tornadoes and hail the size of grapefruits — 4 inches in diameter.
This spring's tornado season got a late start, with unusually cool weather keeping funnel clouds at bay until mid-May. The season usually starts in March and then ramps up for the next couple of months.
Most tornadoes in the United States are relatively small. Of the 60 EF5 tornadoes to hit since 1950, Oklahoma and Alabama have been hit the most - seven times each.

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