Oklahoma tornadoes, flooding kills at least 9 (VIDEO)

GlobalPost
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A violent storm system spawned several tornadoes in the Oklahoma City area Friday night, killing at least nine people and injuring at least 50.

The storm, the second fatal twister to hit the area in less than two weeks, toppled cars and trapped commuters trying to beat the system home.

A massive EF5 tornado killed 24 people in the suburb of Moore on May 20.

A mother and her baby were among the dead, killed when their vehicle on Interstate 40 west of Oklahoma City was picked up by one of Friday night's twisters and they were sucked out of it, Reuters reported.

"What got me scared was being stuck in traffic with sirens going off," motorist Brandi Vanalphen, 30, told Reuters. "I started seeing power flashes to the north, and I said 'screw this.' I started driving on the shoulder. People started driving over the grass."

The National Weather Service declared a rare tornado emergency.

Oklahoma City's Will Rogers Airport was shut down and passengers were evacuated to an underground tunnel.

Several more tornadoes touched down in the area, bringing with them torrential rain that flooded parts of Oklahoma City.

Floodwaters topped 4 feet in some areas. Across east and central Oklahoma, repeated rounds of heavy thunderstorms have dropped 4 to 7 inches of rain since midnight Saturday.

On Thursday, storms in Oklahoma and Arkansas killed at least three people.

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