Large tornado hits south of Oklahoma City, two dead

OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) – A large and violent tornado hit an area south of Oklahoma City on Monday, causing at least two deaths and reducing at least three homes to splinters, authorities said.

The hardest-hit areas were about 70 to 80 miles southeast of Oklahoma City, where a tornado reported to be more than a mile wide ripped through the area.

One person was killed in Garvin County, about 60 miles south of Oklahoma City, when a home was destroyed by a twister, an emergency official said. Another person was killed near the town of Connerville, about 110 miles south of Oklahoma City, the Johnston County Sheriff’s Office said.

The National Weather Service described that twister as large and destructive, warning people: “You are in a life-threatening situation.”

At least one other tornado was reported to have hit Oklahoma, the service said. Local news showed photographs of two of the destroyed homes by the twisters.

The National Weather Service issued a tornado watch for large parts of southern Oklahoma into western Arkansas. It also said two tornados have been reported in Nebraska.

(Reporting by Heide Brandes in Oklahoma City, Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Texas, and Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by Sandra Maler)