Severe weather kills 11 in Missouri, Oklahoma
(CNN) — At least 11 people were killed in Oklahoma and Missouri on Saturday as tornadoes and other severe weather swept across the Midwest, according to the National Weather Service.
A tornado touched down about 5:42 p.m. in Ottawa County, Oklahoma, killing five people and heavily damaging buildings in a 20-block area, the service said.
Michelann Ooten, spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management, said there were a number of people unaccounted for in Picher, Oklahoma.
She said the town enlisted the help of firefighters from surrounding areas who went house-to-house, sifting through the rubble and searching for survivors.
Three more people were killed when a tornado touched down about 6 p.m. between Seneca and Neosho near the Missouri-Kansas border. Numerous injuries were reported, and U.S. 60, which runs into Interstate 44, was closed due to debris covering the road.
About 6:20 p.m., a person was killed when thunderstorms knocked a tree onto a mobile home about four miles east of Carthage, Missouri, the weather service reported. And less than an hour later, another person was killed when a tornado damaged a church and several homes and mobile homes in the area of Purdy, Missouri.
