More than
six feet of snow falling in parts
of Southern California.
Hurricane force winds
whipping up blinding
dust storms in Texas
and powerful tornadoes
ripping through Oklahoma. And Kansas.
Take a look at this.
This is a scene out of Norman,
Oklahoma, just south of Oklahoma City
where a tornado touched down.
Police and firefighters are searching
through the wreckage this morning.
They say at least 12 people are injured.
No reported deaths so far.
Listen to this woman
who was inside her home
with her family when the tornado struck
Before I can even blink,
I could hear the wind coming.
All of a sudden,
all the back windows
where the kids bedrooms are.
I can hear them
just crashing, busting out.
And I got up
and then the wind just threw me back
and I'm screaming.
It was like a blizzard
inside the house
with all the debris flying.
And I was screaming for my kids,
you know,
because they were in their bedrooms.
I didn't know
they were hurt or anything.
Terrified mother.
Ed Lavandera
joins us this morning on the ground
in Norman, Oklahoma.
Ed, it looks terrible behind you.
What happened
Well, this storm system ripped
across this state in breathtaking speed,
but it has left
haunting images
like these massive pieces of plywood
left in trees
A massive storm system
barreled through the Central Plains
Sunday night
to traditionally
the southern plains and Tornado Alley,
if you will.
It doesn't really start to come alive
with these tornadoes
and these severe weather outbreaks
until maybe March,
especially April and May.
That's the peak
tornado, severe season here
in the southern plans.
But, you know,
so this is quite an early wakeup call.
Multiple tornadoes
touched down in the region as well.
In Norman, Oklahoma,
a tornado caused downed power
lines and road closures.
This is terrible
to have this tornado
going through Norman like this.
It's just past 48th and Lindsay
moving up to the northeast.
And we're going to try to get
back on I-40 and get out
ahead of it again.
We're going as fast as we can.
That is not good
right there on the West Side
at Thunderbird, guys.
Oh, it's getting even stronger.
The storm ripped roofs off homes
and damaged cars.
A lot of real strong wind.
I was standing out in the garage.
My wife went to
the neighbor's to get in a shelter.
Oh, a wooden debris
started flying and hitting things.
So I jumped in the back seat of a car
in the garage.
Real quick,
two tornadoes were reported
in Kansas on Sunday,
leaving homes in the area destroyed.
Winds in the triple digits were felt
the highest in Memphis, Texas,
where winds hit a staggering 114
miles per hour,
the equivalent of a Category
three hurricane in Lubbock, Texas.
A dust storm rolled through,
leaving visibility in the area
to less than a mile.
And in Albuquerque, New Mexico,
winds topped over 70 miles per hour,
leaving overturned
trees and businesses damaged.
I'm in shock, you know, but
because we love our restaurant,
we we love our work,
this amount of damage with this wind.
I haven't seen anything like this
for the 20
plus years I've been living here.
This storm system started in California,
where parts of Southern California
saw a rare storm
that dumped massive amounts
of snow in the area.
Huge snow
totals were seen throughout the region,
including Mountain High,
which recorded
93 inches of snow through Sunday morning.
Rain was dumped
on other parts of California,
causing flooding
and leaving cars stranded
California firefighters were seen
rescuing this driver
by helicopter
as floodwaters continue to rise.
The storm left the ground so eroded
that this RV
fell into the Valencia River.
I'm just kind of afraid
or not to evacuate if it gets any worse.
And probably if
there is a couple of silver linings
to all of this.
The worst kind of storm damage
like you're seeing behind me
has been very isolated into the areas
where some of these tornadoes fell down
rather quickly.
So that is good news
in terms of
just it's not widespread
damage across the state,
but also with this wind event
and the intense winds
that we've seen over the last 24 hours
here in the state,
there was a great concern
of widespread power outages.
We're about
30,000 customers in the state of Oklahoma
without power this morning.
And we've noticed that
that number has been dropping
rather quickly in these overnight hours.
So hopefully that's something
that gets under control
rather quickly for residents
here in Oklahoma as well.
I really hope so.
Ed Lavendera,
thank you to you and your team
for being there.
Let's get to our meteorologist now.
Chad Myers said
this is some very strange weather.
A friend in L.A.
out of her home for three days.
Her power was out,
downed trees in her neighborhood.
This is in Los Angeles,
right?
Especially in the L.A.
mountains, too, with all of that snow,
some spots over 60 inches of snow.
It's the same energy,
the same low pressure
that moved through Oklahoma yesterday
with a very serious situation here.
And as Ed alluded to, over 100
mile per hour wind gusts.
These storms, though,
we're moving at 80 miles per hour.
Those are storms you can't chase
you can't get out of the way.
When you hear your warning
for storms
like this,
you must get in the basement
or someplace safe.
Here's 10:00 last night.
Here's Oklahoma
City and Norman especially
now look where this storm is now.
You could hardly drive that quickly
to where it is now.
To Little Rock, Arkansas.
The severe weather will be to the east.
Winds are still gusting about 55 miles
per hour.
The severe weather
centered over Indianapolis
and also over Columbus, Ohio.
But look at this for 11:00 tonight.
It starts to snow in New York City
and then it even begins
to snow in Boston.
I haven't really said
Boston and snow in the same sentence
all year.
So this could be a one
to five inch snowfall across
parts of the Catskills,
probably closer
to two to four for the city
and then two to four for Boston itself.
We'll still watch this,
but a slick morning commute coming up
tomorrow morning for sure.
Don, when was the last time you said
New York City and snow as well
in New York? I know.