The Latest on flooding: Music festival evacuated in Oklahoma
May 23, 2015, 8:31 PM
Amarillo police officers make an emergency water rescue of an stranded motorist after heavy rain showers flood much of the city, Saturday, May 23, 2015 in Amarillo, Texas. Amarillo received 1.7 inches of rain according the National Weather Service. (Michael Schumacher/The Amarillo Globe News via AP)
(Michael Schumacher/The Amarillo Globe News via AP)
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — 10:20 p.m.
A music festival in Oklahoma is being evacuated because of inclement weather.
Officials with the Rocklahoma festival in Pryor, about 50 miles west of Tulsa, urged attendees around 9 p.m. to head to their cars or the nearby camping area to wait out the incoming weather. They later stressed the campgrounds were not being evacuated.
The Oklahoma Department of Transportation says at least 15 highways have been closed across the state due to high water from the recent flooding. It also caused damage to a gas station and mall in Oklahoma City.
Evacuation orders have been issued in Elk City, Oklahoma, and Wichita Falls, Texas, amid warnings from the National Weather Service about potentially historic flooding.
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9:20 p.m.
A powerful storm that has flooded roads across much of Oklahoma also has caused major damage at a gas station in the state capital of Oklahoma City.
KOCO-TV reports heavy winds peeled the roof off a Shell station and caused other damage. Motorists were stranded on a nearby road due to flooding.
The station reports city fire officials received 80 high-water calls over a two-hour period. Flood water got inside one mall in the city and nearly covered cars in the parking lot of another.
The Oklahoma Department of Transportation says at least 15 highways have been closed across the state.
Evacuation orders have been issued in Elk City, Oklahoma, and Wichita Falls, Texas, amid warnings from the National Weather Service about potentially historic flooding.
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9:05 p.m.
The Oklahoma Department of Transportation says at least 15 highways have been closed across the state due to high water from the recent flooding.
Heavy rainfall also made roads impassable Saturday night across much of the Oklahoma City metro area. The southbound ramp of Interstate 44 leading to I-40 was among the closures.
KOCO-TV reports Oklahoma City fire officials received 80 high-water calls over a two-hour period. The heavy water flooded one mall in the city and nearly covered cars in the parking lot of another.
Evacuation orders have been issued in Elk City, Oklahoma, and Wichita Falls, Texas, amid warnings from the National Weather Service about potentially historic flooding.
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8:15 p.m.
Cities in northern Texas and southwestern Oklahoma are ordering some residents to evacuate amid warnings from the National Weather Service about potentially historic flooding.
A judge in Wichita Falls, Texas, near the Oklahoma border issued an order Saturday urging residents of the city and the surrounding county to evacuate if they live within a half-mile of either side of the Wichita River.
Evacuations also were ordered in Elk City in southwestern Oklahoma after torrential rain forced the closure of part of an interstate highway and threatened to flood homes. Elk City firefighter L.J. Geist said 4.5 inches of rain had fallen on the area that was already saturated by rainfall earlier in the week.
Several roads were impassable Saturday evening in Oklahoma City due to the rainfall.
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