5 dead, including children, 80 injured in tornado in Texas and Oklahoma

“I can also tell you that number is going to go up,” Sappington told WFAA about the death toll. “I don’t want to speculate or give you a number.”

Search and rescue operations remain ongoing at the gas station and in a nearby neighborhood.

“It took some time to get back there because the power lines were so damaged and trees were down. It was kind of a monumental task just to get back to where they were,” Sappington added.

Sappington urged locals to stay away from the storm damage as there were numerous reports of downed power lines and gas leaks that could cause serious injuries in an emergency.

Nevertheless, the sheriff was confident that they would recover from this severe and deadly storm.

“We’re going to rebuild,” he said. “It’s Texas. We can rebuild property, and as horrible as this looks, in two or three months it won’t look like this. It’ll be better. But the loss of life is just tragic. It’s always tragic. That’s what hurts the most.”

Sappington said two children were also reported missing in Cooke County following the storm.

Meteorologists issued tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings for parts of both states on Saturday as heat records were broken during the long holiday weekend.

As the storm moved through the region, it overturned mobile homes, downed power lines and trees, and made some roads completely impassable.

On Saturday evening, the National Weather Service office in Norman, Oklahoma, warned areas north of Oklahoma City to “seek shelter immediately!” In a follow-up post at 10:05 p.m., the agency noted that the storms had left the area and were moving across North Texas.

At 10:24 p.m., the Fort Worth Weather Service began warning of the storm moving through the region and issued a severe weather warning that could potentially bring “golf ball-sized hail.”

The Norman office compared conditions Saturday to “a gasoline-soaked brushwood” and meteorologists warned that storms would likely bring heavy hail, damaging winds and tornadoes.

The storm system was expected to move east over the Memorial Day weekend, bringing with it rain that could delay Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 auto race and bring additional severe storms to Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and Kentucky.

Meteorologists expect the threat of severe weather to move to North Carolina and Virginia on Monday.

With post wires.