Drowning Death Attributed To Oklahoma Storms

Monday, May 7th 2007, 12:55 pm

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Storms that pounded Oklahoma for a fourth straight day on Monday led to heavy flooding across the state that wiped out roads and bridges and led to the drowning death of a Canute man whose car was swept from a county road in western Oklahoma. Henry H. Fletcher, 71, was driving along a county road from Elk City to his home during a thunderstorm about 9:30 p.m. Sunday when he drove into running water and was swept off the roadway, said Highway Patrol Trooper John Webb.

Fletcher's nephew discovered his body early Monday morning about 275 feet from the road.

"He was headed home from work during the storm," Webb said. "They had a flooding rain last night."

The National Weather Service issued flash flooding warnings for 10 counties since Sunday as heavy rains continued to fall.

"We have reports of street flooding in the town of Madill, which is expected with this area of thunderstorms producing extensive rainfall amounts since the early morning hours," forecaster Forrest Mitchell of the NWS in Norman said Monday. "I'm sure we'll receive similar stories in the Durant area and Tishomingo as these heavy storms continue to move across the area."

Thunderstorms are expected to continue until about Thursday before a large upper-level storm system finally pushes east of the state, Mitchell said.

"The biggest concern is heavy rain causing flash flooding," Mitchell said.

Heavy rains in Oklahoma City early Monday knocked out a bridge over Lightning Creek in southeast Oklahoma City after it eroded a bridge approach, said assistant city engineer Laura Story.

Strong storms that began moving into the state on Friday spawned at least a half-dozen tornadoes in western and east-central Oklahoma. The most destructive was a large twister on Saturday that heavily damaged the Erick-Sweetwater school and destroyed several homes in the tiny community hugging Oklahoma's border with the Texas Panhandle.

Another tornado Sunday touched down east of Seminole and caused damage but no injuries.