Severe Weather in the Plains: Tornadoes Reported in Missouri, Flash Floods Swamp Omaha

By Sean Breslin
Published: September 9,2014


 
A round of severe weather is underway in parts of the Midwest, bringing large hail, damaging winds, flooding rains and even some reported tornadoes Tuesday night.
(MORE: Track Severe Storms As They Develop)
Heavy rains drenched Omaha on Tuesday afternoon, leaving high water on roads just in time for rush hour. To make matters worse, the city's 911 call system went down, according to Omaha.com. There was no immediate word what caused the outage.
Tuesday afternoon, firefighters in Omaha had to rescue a woman and two infants from a car that was swamped by floodwaters in an underpass, according to WOWT.com.
"In a situation like that, low-lying areas are going to flood – especially when you have rain that's hitting your car so loud that you can't even hear yourself think," said Jim Cantore, storm tracker for The Weather Channel.
One Weather Underground Personal Weather Station in midtown Omaha recorded 0.96 inch of rain in a 10-minute span between 3:31 and 3:41 p.m. local time Tuesday afternoon – a rate of nearly six inches per hour.
In northwestern Missouri, tree and power line damage were reported in Fairfax by storm chaser Kelly Lange. To the east, flooding caused vehicles to be stranded in North St. Louis as heavy rain moved through the area.
Law enforcement reported a tornado on the ground shortly after 7 p.m. near Maitland, Missouri, a Holt County town of about 340 people. There were no reports of damage, but trees and power lines were down.
In Atchison County, Missouri,  the city of Tarkio lost power just before 6 p.m. as winds with sustained speeds of 70 mph blew through.
(WATCH: Dash Cam Captures Tornado in Action)
Reports of more than six inches of rainfall Tuesday afternoon and evening were relayed from Union County, Iowa, and more rain was expected to fall.
Golf ball-sized hail was reported south of Omaha in Otoe County, Nebraska, and large hail was also reported by storm chasers in southwestern Iowa Tuesday evening.
The severe threat is expected to push into the eastern Great Lakes by Wednesday, and then possibly bring heavy rain and high winds to the Northeast on Thursday. You can get the latest from the weather.com severe tracker here.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.