Homes Fall Into Cimarron River In Deadly Midwest Storms: Video

Severe storms, including dozens of tornadoes, continued their march across the central U.S. Wednesday, bringing heavy rain to already waterlogged parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and Iowa. At least four people are dead.

People are being evacuated from their homes all across northwest Oklahoma, hardest hit among the states that have been battered for days by the storm system. The state has been punished with heavy rainfall since Sunday, and the soil is so saturated that water draining from Kansas simply has nowhere to go.

Dramatic scenes are playing out across Oklahoma. Near Crescent, located about 34 miles north of Oklahoma City, two unoccupied homes have already fallen into the swollen Cimarron River and others perched precariously on its banks could collapse soon, authorities said.

The 600 residents of Webbers Falls, Oklahoma, located about 70 miles southeast of Tulsa, were evacuated Wednesday as the Arkansas River reached near-historic levels. The northwest corner of Oklahoma, where more than 9 inches of rain has fallen since Sunday, remains under a flood warning through the Memorial Day weekend.

Residents of two other towns — the Tulsa suburb of Sand Spring, and Fort Gibson, located about 50 miles southeast of Tulsa — were urged to leave their homes. Flooding closed highways in at least 22 Oklahoma and 17 Kansas counties, and more than 330 roads in Missouri were covered with water. Amtrak suspended train service from St. Louis to Kansas City because of congestion and flood-related delays.

Evactuations were encouraged in Kansas as well, including in parts of the city of Iola, along the Neosho River. If the river reaches its predicted crest of 27.8 feet Thursday, it would be the second-worst flood ever for the town of about 5,400 residents.

A tornado that touched down in Adair County in western Iowa early Wednesday morning took the life of Linda Brownlee, 74, and critically injured her husband, Howard Brownlee, 78, who was in stable condition, the couple's family said in a statement.

“We greatly appreciate the thoughts and prayers from our friends and the community at this difficult time. … At this time we request privacy, as we focus our energy on our father’s recovery and the remembrance of our stepmother,” the family said.

No tornado or severe thunderstorm warnings had been issued for Adair, located about 80 miles northwest of Omaha, Nebraska. The National Weather Service said temperatures were in the mid-50s, which is atypical for tornadoes, and the twister struck at an unusual time. Most severe storms occur during the heat of the day, and fewer than 5 percent occur between midnight and 6 a.m., the weather service told news station KCCI.

The tornado packed wind speeds of 120-130 mph, destroying three outbuildings at the Brownlee farm and damaging two nearby houses. Debris was scattered along nearby Interstate 80, the National Weather Service said.

Authorities said heavy rain was a contributing factor in the deaths of a Willard, Missouri, couple, Brandon Beasley, 23, and his wife, Christin Beasley, 24. They were traveling near Sprinfield when their SUV hydroplaned across the highway and struck a tractor-trailer.

In Oklahoma, authorities with the state patrol said a woman who drove around a barricade near Perkins, about 45 miles northeast of Oklahoma, apparently drowned. She has not been identified, and her body was taken to the state medical examiner's office for an autopsy to confirm the cause of death, according to Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management spokeswoman Keli Cain.

Others narrowly escaped death, including a woman in Oklahoma who was clinging to a tree after she was pulled into fast-rushing that covered a busy highway Tuesday morning. Three bystanders used a tow rope and jumper cables to pull her back to safety, news station KFOR reported.

The National Weather Service is forecasting more rain is expected in Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri Wednesday night into Thursday. The long-range forecast calls for more of the same across a wide swath of the Midwest through the Memorial Day weekend and beyond.

“The biggest concern is more rain. I mean, there's more rain in the forecast for Tulsa, for northern Oklahoma," Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt said during a news conference following an aerial tour with Tulsa Mayor G.W. Bynum and other officials Wednesday morning.

There is simply nowhere for the water to go as it flows downstream from Kansas, Oklahoma State Climatologist Gary McManus said.

"Any rainfall we get just continues to saturate the soils that are already saturated," he said. "Especially rivers and streams."

Video via KOCO news in Oklahoma.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.