Gilbert-Spawned Rains Sweep North, Flood Oklahoma Town
Hurricane Gilbert’s remnants swept from Texas to Illinois today with heavy rain and flooding that forced evacuations in one Oklahoma town. The storm earlier spun off 41 tornadoes and killed three people in Texas and Oklahoma.
The low-pressure system that last week was the strongest hurricane on record in the Western Hemisphere spread showers and thunderstorms along a line toward the northeast, with gusts to about 40 m.p.h. this morning.
Meanwhile, workers in Monterrey, Mex., searched for the bodies of up to 200 people swept away when a river swollen by hurricane rains poured over its banks and overturned four buses.
Late Sunday, the storm moved over Wichita Falls, Tex., with rain and high wind. An area west of Wichita Falls was deluged with 4 1/2 inches of rain, and roads in Ozona, in western Texas, were under water. The mass of moisture extended to Chicago.
Parts of Oklahoma received up to 8 inches of rain in two days, causing minor flooding.
About a dozen residents of a low-lying area in Kingfisher, Okla., were evacuated late Sunday, and others were told to be ready to leave.
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