OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- A tornado raked Oklahoma City on Friday night, just a day after a twister struck the city's south side and destroyed more than 300 houses and businesses.
Five people were injured, said Paul O'Leary, spokesman for the Emergency Medical Service Authority.
``But what I am hearing is it may not get above a dozen, which is unbelievable when you look at the pictures and that it went right across the metro,'' he said.
Television footage showed debris scattered along roadways, smashed vehicles and bent highway signs.
Tornadoes also touched down Friday night in Missouri, near the Kansas City area, as a thunderstorm with large hail and strong rain moved east across the state.
Oklahoma City police Sgt. Mike Klika said Friday's tornado touched down south of Interstate 40, moved north into Oklahoma City, the suburbs of Bethany and Warr Acres and then moved back into the city. The tornado then turned northeast back along I-44 and continued to track toward Tulsa, officials said.
``I think our citizens had early warning and I think they learned their lesson, they took heed and took cover,'' Bethany Police Chief Neal Troutman said.
In southwest Mustang and El Reno to the west, there was extensive damage, including at a fast-food restaurant, a gas station and a bank, authorities said.
Earlier Friday, firefighters went from one wrecked home to another in the southern Oklahoma City suburb of Moore and spray-painted a big, red X on each roof if no one was trapped from Thursday's tornado.
Authorities said that remarkably, the twister that carved a 19-mile path through the most densely populated part of the state did not kill a single person.
``We were lucky, basically,'' said Gary Bird, deputy fire chief in Moore. ``We had warning from the National Weather Service, and Moore had replaced and upgraded all of its warning sirens, so that helped a lot. People pay a lot more attention.''
The state insurance commissioner estimated damage at more than $100 million from Thursday's tornado. But in a week where tornadoes killed 42 people in Missouri, Tennessee, Kansas and Illinois, officials here were counting their blessings.
More than 100 people were treated for injuries after the tornado, but only 21 remained hospitalized Friday, said O'Leary. At least three were in critical condition.
Thursday's tornado ripped through southern Oklahoma City with winds the National Weather Service measured at about 200 mph.
Blaring tornado sirens and TV and radio bulletins provided 10 to 20 minutes' warning in most cases, enough time for thousands of people to scramble into cellars, closets and safe rooms and pull mattresses over their heads before the twister peeled off roofs, blew away walls and uprooted trees Thursday afternoon.
Mary Pace and her husband, E.O., scrambled into a neighbor's cellar when the sirens went off in Moore.
``It boomed just like a big explosion,'' said Mary Pace, 76. ``It looks like a bomb hit, too.''
Their red brick house was missing its roof and two walls. The rest of the structure was a mess of insulation, tar paper, roofing and clothes, but she and her 80-year-old husband were not hurt.
It was the third twister to hit Moore in six years.
``I just can't imagine why it keeps coming down the same path,'' said Shearon Cunningham, standing outside her daughter's home, which had caved-in walls and no roof. ``Every day in May and June you live on pins and needles.''
About 50 homes and 10 businesses were heavily damaged or destroyed in Oklahoma City. In nearby Choctaw, nearly 100 homes were damaged and 10 to 15 were destroyed, fire officials said.
The heaviest damage was in Moore, where the tornado chewed up a path a quarter-mile wide and 3 1/2 miles long. Bird said 300 homes and 35 businesses were destroyed.
Jim and Frances Clark sat on lawn chairs in their front yard, waiting for their insurance agent. Their roof was blown off and a neighbor's washing machine was hurled through their garage roof and landed on their car.
``We'll start trying to pick up as soon as the insurance man tells us what to do,'' Frances Clark said. ``Homes can always be replaced.''
For some, the twister rekindled memories of the May 3, 1999, tornado that ripped through the Oklahoma City area and killed 44 people.
Frances Clark said she hid in the same spot for both tornadoes.
``It is Tornado Alley, so you get used to it,'' she said.
In the South, floodwaters blamed for at least one death began receding in Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia. Hundreds of people fled their homes this week because of high water on the Tennessee River and other streams.
The Tennessee reached its highest level since 1973, damaging nearly 500 buildings and causing millions of dollars in damage in Chattanooga, Tenn. Some 300 people left West Point, Ga., 75 miles southwest of Atlanta, as the Chattahoochee River reached its highest level since at least 1961.
Police in Chattanooga found the body of a man in a flooded tire lot. In nearby East Ridge, some of the more than 1,000 evacuees were returning to their houses, apartments and a retirement center.
``A lot of the water has receded. It's like somebody has pulled the cork out of the drain,'' Deputy Fire Chief Ken Gann said.
