Tornadoes hit near Oklahoma City, airport evacuated

A series of tornadoes, including a major twister, touched down southwest of Oklahoma City on Wednesday as a storm system brought severe weather to several Great Plains states, officials said.

A spokeswoman for a paramedic service in the Oklahoma City area says the company transported 12 patients from a trailer park that was damaged by severe weather to local hospitals.

Lara O'Leary with Emergency Medical Services Authority said Wednesday night that she had no further details about the extent of the patients' injuries.

She says the trailer park in south Oklahoma City sustained major damage from the storm. She had no immediate reports of fatalities.

Passengers, visitors and employees at the Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City were evacuated to a pedestrian tunnel for about 30 minutes as the storms moved through the area, the airport said on its Twitter feed.

The tornadoes flipped cars, downed power lines and snapped trees. Several roads were closed because of debris, the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management said.

A flood emergency has been declared in Oklahoma City after storms dumped several inches of rain.

City spokesman Kristy Yager says it's the first flood emergency in Oklahoma City's history.

Yager says the southern part of the city saw more than 6 inches of rain Wednesday.

The National Weather Service has issued a tornado watch for an area stretching from central Texas to central Nebraska, where millions of people live.

More storms were possible later in the week.

"People just really need to stay weather aware, have a plan and understand that severe storms are possible across portions of the southern Plains almost daily through Saturday," National Weather Service meteorologist Jonathan Kurtz said.

In Oklahoma on Wednesday, Grady County Emergency Management Director Dale Thompson said about 35 homes were destroyed.

As the storm system moved to the east, forecasters declared a tornado emergency for Moore, where seven schoolchildren were among 24 people killed in a storm two years ago.

Wednesday's storms didn't appear to have been nearly as strong.

The Storm Prediction Center said bad weather was possible over the next few days, and the National Weather Service said Wednesday night it was particularly worried about flooding.

Wire services