There are no reported injuries from the flood.
SPRINGFIELD — Storms packing more rain and rough weather hit southwest Missouri and southeast Kansas on Saturday, sparking flash flooding and evacuations, officials said.
The National Weather Service also issued a series of tornado warnings Saturday for southwest Missouri. The Polk County sheriff’s office said Saturday it had reports of tornadoes on the ground, but there were no reports of damage or injuries.
“Various sections in the south of town are under water, and the water is climbing,” said Corey Schinstock, assistant city administrator of Iola, Kan. “We have had over 15 inches of rain the last three days. ... All the creeks are flooding.”
The storms followed at least two days of rainfall in the region. The heaviest rainfall came in Butler, Cowley, Chautauqua and Elk counties in southeast Kansas, where 7 inches of rain Friday was reported.
The Springfield area saw as much as 2 inches of rain in one hour Friday, said Doug Cramer, a meteorologist with the weather service.
“It doesn’t take much of a storm to produce flash flooding in the Ozarks because of the way the terrain is,” he said.
The Crawford County Sheriff’s Department said emergency workers used ropes and a harness to rescue two teenagers from the top of a pickup truck after the truck became wedged against a tree at a low-water crossing in southeast Kansas.
At least two homes were evacuated in Dexter, Kan., on Friday, and volunteers were sandbagging to keep floodwaters from reaching a care home, said Mayor Steve Joyce. No injuries had been reported.