© ReutersDamon Braley carries his mother’s dog Sammy, which he rescued from under the wreckage of his parents’ RV.
Victims from a 51-twister outbreak across Tornado Alley sifted through rubble Thursday while experts issued ominous forecasts for the coming days.
Tornadoes hit Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and north Texas on Wednesday. Most were small and chewed up only farmland, but a pair crossed into Oklahoma City and damaged homes and businesses. A few injuries were reported — including about a dozen at an Oklahoma City trailer park — and one woman drowned in an underground storm shelter that flooded.
© Zuma wireA large tornado passes just to the west of Halstead, Kansas, on Wednesday.
"There is a hotel on Interstate 35 that sustained major damage — it just looks destroyed," said Oklahoma police Sgt. Gary Knight. "We've been going room to room."
The Storm Prediction Center had warned that severe weather would come to Tornado Alley and said more storms were possible later in the week. Meteorologist John Hart said the greatest threat for severe weather Thursday was in southern Oklahoma and north Texas. Even two days out, the center was warning of a "moderate risk" of severe storms Saturday from the high plains of Kansas to the Red River area north of Dallas, including much of western Oklahoma.
"The conditions are right; it's the right time of year," forecaster John Hart said. "There are just a lot of things that make you think over the next three days there will probably be big tornadoes across the southern Plains."
Grady County authorities said Wednesday that a tornado destroyed 25 homes in Bridge Creek, a community southwest of Oklahoma City.
Comment: Below is footage of another tornado that tore through Texas last month: