we will be live all night long on cnn, bringing you the latest developments, here is what we know so far. tornadoes are terrifying attention getters. flooding causes awn as much or more damage in a storm's wake that is the threat right now in oklahoma. a spokeswoman for oklahoma city a short time ago said that flooding is all across the metro area. the storm dumping between eight and 11 inches of rain in a fairly short amount of time. the officials say low lying apartments are swamped. metro buss are stranded and water on the floor of city hall.

five people were killed. so far as the number of injured, that stands at 71. in the oklahoma city area, george, describe what you are seeing, and the situation on the ground. >> reporter: we are seeing the sky line of oklahoma city. i can tell you that, you know, driving in off interstate 35, the highway is free and clear. there is rain coming down. heavy rain in spots, the drive in was not bad. it was fine. we do hear the reports of flooding. the reports of water rescues from our affiliates. we hear five people are confirmed to have died in the storm. we will know more in the light of day after the damage the

storm caused. you drive into oklahoma city, you see the intermittent showers, and hits the heavy rain. it has subsided in the city itself. we want to check out, as you mentioned a minute ago, the reports of flooding in the city itself. we will see what is there now. >> the the word to all residents is, don't get on the streets unless you have to. how do you describe the flow of traffic r people heeding that advice? western avenue will take us into the city to see what the case is on the streets. i can't say at this point. i-35, and now, interstate 40, it

seems passable. you will run into heavy rain showers, when you look at the radar, you can tell, it is not the same storm it was earlier. we are getting heavy rain now. a messy storm out here. >> visibility is difficult. can you see flashing lights, if you are seeing a large first responder presence as you make your way into oklahoma city? >> repeat. >> i think asking if you are seeing first responders as you make your way into oklahoma city? >> they are responding to different situations, right now. on the highways, cars headed

back home, a lot of people did leave oklahoma city, driving back. the traffic is not bad. the weather aside from heavy rain from time to time is not bad. george howell, joining us from oklahoma city. it is dark, there there, the. it is important that he is there and getting a first hand view. george, be safe. we will continue to check in with you. >> george has covered hurricanes, he was saying he needed to get off the phone because of the intense rain. gives you an idea of what they are dealing with. >> you have been telling us, this is a serious rain maker after the threat of tornadoes have passed. >> so much energy built up. back until 5:00, we are talking about 94, 95, all that fuel

building up. atmospheric cap, that inhibits the storms, they were so strong, bursting through the cap, you had the energy dissipate over the next six or seven hours, it is shifting off to the east right now. there is i-40. null get to dustin. the heaviest rainfall, up to six to eight inches of rainfall across this area. if you have ever been to oklahoma, flat as a pancake, it won't drain well, unless the rain stops it is not a third world country, we have a great drainage system, but you see the flood warnings, in the red. right across oklahoma city. 50 miles of area, and

springfield, on to st. louis. some of the most densely populated areas, and 11 of the last 15 days this will be a problem out there. st. louis, getting heavy rainfall. the pattern for severe thunderstorms, some are left in place. the discussion comes back to the tornadoes that we saw 11, 12 days ago. ef 5 touched down in this region. the national weather service releasing the tracks of the three tornadoes across oklahoma city. one toward i-40, another one, north of moore, but our estimates, 15 or so north of the previous damage track of moore. people are watching in moore, seeing perhaps their neighborhood miss the storm. they see another one within a few miles of it. scary sight. and a third one, coming down to the east of that three

independent storms and tornadoes across this region, you see the satellite imagery. it goes from 5:00 to 6:00 in the afternoon, we know chad myers was outside. he said, there was a few clouds in the afternoon, a few, and within a matter of two, three hours, 50 miles across, and 50,000 feet, that turned the storm violent. it is beginning to fan out across the state at this hour. >> we will continue to talk with you. it has been amazing, the pictures we have seen. many states, not out of the woods yet. >> it is approaching ten minutes past 2:00, cnn is live throughout the night. chad myers has been out in this dangerous weather all day. chad is on a main road.

chad, what is the latest? >> it is raining heavily this. is just exactly what they do not need. a place that picked up between seven and nine inches of rainfall. the weather radar shows this rain all the way along i-40, developing further. typically, eight night, storms don't get stronger. this could rain all night long and train, one storm after another, moving along the same train tracks. rainfall and flooding, there is no place for this water to go that is coming down now. i don't know if you can hear it, the water hitting the

windshield. probably at now, an inch and a half to two inches an hour at this rate. if it rains like this for another 30 minutes, another inch of water in places that are already flooding. it will be a tough nirt and probably a tough morning for the people if it is still raining. we started out this afternoon, 92. muggy. one of those days, you step outside, and say, could be be this wet? you felt like you were breathing in the humidity. it went up 50,000 feet. the tornadoes on the ground almost instantly. 45 minutes from when it started to go up, we had tornado warnings in oklahoma. one storm after the other. moving south. in america, we expect the storms to travel to the north. like a northeast early path.

the storms were going in a different direction. it is not totally rare, they are called right movers, not for as long as this one did. trying to get to the gulf of mexico moisture. we have the gulf of mexico, we have big mountains to the west. that allows dry air to come down, then we have the cold to the north, down into the plains, all of those things coming together in tornado alley. >> talk to me about the winds, and the problems they pose right now. >> reporter: i don't see anything when it comes to that

thunderstorm warnings are over, the winds are done. it is hard to find tornadoes damage. two, three hours destroyed up here. when we went by the houses, we could smell natural gas or propane in the air. there is enough damage to the home that there is a gas leak. some of the car lines are line. there are tens of thousands if not 100,000 without power in the central plains, it will be a bumpy night. not because of severe thunderstorms. at night, flooding is hard to see. there were neighborhoods we wanted to go to, but we aren't

driving into flood waters at night to see how deep that water might be. >> we will continue to check in with you, thank you. as we all know, it is dark there on the ground in oklahoma it is hard to get a full strength. we are beginning to get details. we are getting this information now, from oklahoma, by way of the county. emergency management agency director, saying several homes have been totally dedestroyed. a the lot of damage to barns and sheds. that is coming to us from, there

is a power outage over 200,000 people it is dark, night. we will bring you the information as it becomes available. >> elreno and union cities, what happened there. one of the many stuck at the airport right now, it is shut down. stay with us.

>> in the last hour we have heard the number of people injuried in the storms in oklahoma, risen to 71, five have died in and around oklahoma

city, after a tornado touched down friday evening. they overturned trucks and tossed vehicles from the road. >> the winds knocked out power to 50,000 homes and businesses, and the city's international airport in the dark. we are about to talk more about that. six more states hit by the storms, emergency officials say 212,000 homes and businesses are without power right now. oklahomans were racing for koenk, we have heard a lot of horror stories on the road. denise was stuck in the oklahoma city airport when it struck. tell us what you experienced. you took photos as well. >> reporter: i did.

i am from california, an earthquake girl opposed to tornadoes. i was waiting for my flight back to l.a., and all of a sudden, the ticketing agent came on and said that the flight was cancelled. three seconds later, sirens started blairing, and a voice came on, saying evacuate to the basement. all the passengers waiting in the lounge proceeded down to the basement. it was kind of a wide corridor, 25 feet wide. it ran the length of the terminal temperatures long, could fit a lot of people. a thousand people if not more taking cover in this area. underneath the airport. someone had us sit down and put

our head between our knees, the lights went dark for a few seconds. as i understand it later on, the whole terminal lost power, and it was clicking over to generator. that was the first tornado that passed if not directly over head. they made us wait down there for 45 minutes, to wait out what they were calling swirlers. we were down there. everybody was safe. once they gave the all-clear, they brought out the employees, first. then the passengers. they had us wait near the front, opposed to going back to the lounge. the screening for security, that was down. there was no electricity. they had kind of the bear minimum of lights on. people were trying to leave. that was difficult. the roads were impassable.

and if we were trying to rent a car, all the rental car agencies counters were dark. they couldn't get into their computers to pass out cars. they eventually opened up the lounge area, where people wait to get on to the planes. there was minor damage, the flights had been cancelled. they were waiting to see what damage to the runway and the airplanes are. >> we don't know when it will reopen. that is our producer. you were there to produce a special for the last victims. after what happened in oklahoma city, being told to put their head between their knee, we know what happened to the hospital there. glad to know they weathered

things fine in the airport. we will wait until day break to get a better view of the situation on the ground. our coverage continues. up next, a storm chaser who was right in the path of the tornado. stay with us. [ male announcer ] erica had a rough day.

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it is approaching 2:30 in the morning on the east coast of

the united states. tornadoes brought fresh chaos to oklahoma. we are getting new video of one of the areas that was hit by a tornado. this is, look at that this is elreno, oklahoma. just outside of oklahoma city. someone confirmed earlier, can you see it there, it did get hit by a tornado. one in elreno, another in union city. we have been told that five people have died in the series of tornadoes there in oklahoma city, and 70 people have been injured. right now being as we have been telling you, a massive amount of rain that is what the people experienced there this evening in oklahoma. >> we got information from the emergency management director

told us that suffer homes had been totally destroyed. saying, it was dark. they would be able to get a better sense of the situation and the scale of destruction once live comes in the morning. >> the system is moving through momo, illinois, kansas, and indiana. emergency officials say a total of more than 200,000 homes and businesses are without power. it is the dark of night. it must be a scary situation for people that know that these storms are continuing to track across the midwest region. when you see the pictures that provoke terror, and fleeing from these dangerous storms, some run

into their paths. sullivan had an experience he may not want to repeat. we spoke with him earlier. >> we were northwest of union city, west of oklahoma city. we could tell a tornado was imminent at any time. the tornado formed, it became very large, very fast. we knew it was time to go south. the tornado crosses maybe a half mile behind our car. the in-flow was so strong t ripped the barn apart, and began carrying debris, that you saw on the video. it smashing into our car. we had no choice but to move slowly as the debris came toward us. i knew we weren't in the tornadic circulation, in the

inflow, i wasn't concerned about being picked up or carried away by the tornado. my main concerns were flying debris, and possibly, getting tipped over by the winds. i told everybody to duck down, try to cover their eyes, avoid flying glass, we had to wait it out there for 30 seconds, the tornado grew very large, and turned right came right at us. i would say, that moment of the tornado coming right at us was more scary than the debris hitting my car. at that point in time, when the debris is hitting the car, i knew we were out of the tornadic circulation, i knew i was getting damage to my car, it was better than being swept away by the tornado. the camerases on the front dash,

we are able to capture pretty much anything that happens. >> >> hearing storm chases say they didn't know what to do with this one, how ominous it was, it tells a lot. >> so many storms bearing down on you in a few hours, you have one place you want to go, another storm is coming, and another behind that. that set up oklahoma. the amount of rainfall we have touched on, showing the radar this is 2:00, friday afternoon. you see the significant accumulations, across the city and the i-40 corridor, many stuck on the high school. a lot of storms were putting

down tornadoes, and the heavy rain slowing people down. oklahoma city, they get four naand a half inches every may. they picked it up in the the month's worth of rainfall. police officers saying parts of downtown are under water. even areas that don't flood during flooding events one of the largest floods we have seen in this area in decades. look at this. the bottom of the screen this is within the city of oklahoma city. eight feet to thursday. friday morning, things quiet down. friday evening, up to 20 feet. that is the water levels across that area. and the forecast is expected to come down, and they are looking

at good news. of course, a lot of water will be on the ground. >> one bright spot. we continue to watch the developments, much going on still. >> tornadoes rolled through several states. we are on top of it all. a live report from george howell, right after this break. stay with us. ♪ ♪

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...and we inspected his brakes for free. -free is good. -free is very good. [ male announcer ] now get 50% off brake pads and shoes at meineke. welcome back to cnn's continuing coverage of the terrifying storm systems that have rolled through oklahoma and the midwest. we thank you for staying with us, we stay all night, tornadoes devastating parts of the oklahoma city area. >> friday night's storms killed five, panicked residents rushed

to find cover. >> it has moved across oklahoma now, under a state of emergency, following the may 20th tornado. we know that a tornado touched down outside of oklahoma city, and right now, the storm system is threat thing two other states, missouri and illinois. after several days of heavy rain, flooding, as we continue to here, missouri has been drenched by heavy rain. >> warning illinois to brace for strong winds, and the threat of more tornadoes. they knocked out power to 212,000 homes and businesses, can you imagine all of the people trying to get out of harm's way. we are told by the city's

spokesman, a busy evening, athletes were in town for the women's college world series, they were playing softball. instead of continuing on, a couple of games tonight, they had to take cover in oklahoma. julie, you were having dinner when you first got the first warning that something is going on from the weather? >> yes, the yacc sent out an e-mail, they would notify us whlt games would beginning, hopefully, it will start tomorrow, saturday. >> once you heard, when did you realize were you under deveer

weather. head back to where you were staying? >> we knew we weren't going to the game. did go to the hotel. as it got worse, most of those in the hotel were in the tv there in the lobby. >> did you hear sir enssirens? there you are, getting called up in another storm system, what were people around you saying? what were you feeling? >> hard to believe it was hitting again so quickly after it hit before. i talked to a woman whose home

was lost. >> many from many states, happen to be there. playing in the college world series. a picture of them taking cover on our screen. waiting it out. i don't know if it was a hotel or stadium. waiting this out. has to be aitously time i guess you are feeling relief that everybody is okay. what can you tell us, if you are seeing flooding, what part of oklahoma city are you in? >> we are on the northern side,

northwest expressway is where we are saying. we are glad you are safe. we hope everybody gets to play soft ball tomorrow another. >> stay with us, as we continue the rolling coverage, i after a the rolling ♪ verage, i after a

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so you can make easy, no-fee reloads with cash and checks... ev♪ ♪etter. and know you're not on your own. so you can get the reloadable card that keeps up with you. chase liquid. so you can. welcome back to our continued breaking news coverage of the storms in oklahoma moving across the midwest. we continue to get amazing video and pictures of the terrifies clouds and dark, ominous skies in oklahoma. >> some of them now. you see the terror that was

brought on by the images. who wouldn't be scared when you see the clouds like that? the heavy rain, that rain continues to come down. talking to meteorologist chad myers, it is hard to get to people, power is out, the rain continues to come down. moore, oklahoma, may 20th, now, he is west of oklahoma city after another storm barrelled through the state. >> we are at a point where we

have passed all the heavy rain. i tell you this, if you brawn it it down, we pulled off to the side of the road. and that is where, once we got off the road, you could tell, many of those roads were flo flooded. as we get light of day, a better assessment of the damage drying throu through. i am assuming, i am presuming

that storm passed over the high school at one point this storm cave through. we will have a better -- are you seeing crews on the ground trying to repair the situation? >> perhaps in the again, you know, that it is dark.

the downed power lines that is the cipe to move back. you can see the signs, even in the dark, when the and there is a dangerous situation there on the road. we ask you to be safe. we will continue to check in with you. thank you, george. >> this is the tornado that touched down in elreno. joins us from norman, oklahoma, reed, tell us about, you can --

>> reporter: they are tall and dangerous, the multiple vortex south del reno, union, it is a spinning the wall the updraft it

would have been further -- we pulled them out of their homes, and we went to the damage path of the ef 5 i live, just two, three miles south of that.

it will take years too rebuilt. you you did say, you rescued people from their car. can you tell us more about that? >> they had minor lacerations and cuts. their vehicles that roll they don't have that pre -- you have

one house with complete damage, up, close and personal that is an obsession of mine. try to better grt them. >> we appreciate your time and video. norman, oklahoma. he witnessed two one at west of

oklahoma city. over to pedro. >> it is approaching 3:00 a&m what are you seeing? >> the thunderstorms approach, into the morning hours, you look at the vert -- 18 responds of tornadoes in the vushlly, into a month's worth of rainfall so

much matter. the officials saying, you work your what is left of them as least. severe weather the next couple of days. the secondary tornado. l

literally. you are seeing it go through there it was sheer panic. 35 and 40 looked like a parking lot the latest we are hering as the high presses o right now, the other story. the firefighters tried to save

their colleagues. >> it will go down in the history of the houston fire departme department. >> the dead fireifiers include three men and one woman. new york authorities in texas at least fen -- >> a small plane crashed two people in the plane and one person on the ground were injured.

that plane, simply rain out of gas we are live every hour. >> we will have more for you

and welcome bac