Tornadoes touched down across the souther plains states destroying houses and killing at least 5, and injuring another 29, and hit a hospital. They were part of a larger storm system that has been hitting the area since Friday night in what forecasters at the NWS have called High End, Life Threatening storms in their advanced warnings.
Oklahoma City, OK -
More than a dozen tornadoes have been reported across larges portions of Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma Saturday with more severe storms on the way Saturday night.
Tornadoes sirens sounded across the plain states while reports of tornadoes include Johnson and Nemaha County Nebraska, Boone County Nebraska, the town of Petersburg, Dodge City, along the Kansas-Nebraska border, Creston Iowa, Salina, Kansas, Pratt, Stafford, Rush and Hodgeman Counties, Russell County Kansas and Woods county Oklahoma.
The National Severe Storms Prediction Center in Normal Oklahoma has issued a rare early warning of severe storms and tornados across a wide path of the central United Stated ahead of a tornado hitting Norman Oklahoma earlier this evening.
So far at least 10 people have sustained injuries according to a spokesperson at the Norman Regional Hospital, where many of the storm victims have been treated.
Washington D.C. -
President Obama has rejected a fast-track approval of Keystone XL Energy's proposed new oil pipeline that would run through the sandhills of Nebraska and the Ogallala aquifer saying an alternative route should be explored.
The requirement to either give fast-track approval or deny it with an explanation to congress was required as part of the last budget deal in Washington.
As expected, the denial has set off bitter partisan fights with republicans saying Obama is killing 20,000 American jobs and putting the nations energy at risk.
Amtrak's California Zephyr, Train #6, has derailed in rural southwestern Nebraska after hitting an agricultural vehicle that was on the tracks causing both locomotive engines and three railcars to leave the tracks.
The train was traveling from San Francisco (Oakland) on Wednesday for Chicago when the accident happen around 9am this morning. Dundy County Hospital Spokesperson Sandy Noffsinger said three people have been hospitalized as a result of the train accident, but none were life threatening.