WASHINGTON, April 21, (AP): A slow-moving, active storm system brought heavy rain, large hail and tornadoes to parts of Texas and Oklahoma and left three people dead as severe weather warnings Sunday continue to threaten parts of the south-central and Midwest US. On Easter Sunday, communities in Texas and Oklahoma were beginning to assess the damage wreaked by tornadoes.

There were 17 reported events Saturday, according to Bob Oravec, lead forecaster with the National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center. Five were confirmed in south-central Oklahoma, including one that inflicted substantial damage on a small town that was still recovering from a March tornado. The storm also brought heavy rain to a broad swath of north-central Texas across central-eastern Oklahoma, much of which saw 2 to 4 inches (5 to 10 centimeters) accumulate Saturday into Sunday.

Police in Moore, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) south of Oklahoma City, received dozens of reports of "high-water incidents” over the weekend, including two cars stranded in flood waters Saturday evening. One car was swept away under a bridge, and police said they were able to rescue some people, but a woman and 12-year-old boy were found dead.

"This was a historical weather event that impacted roads and resulted in dozens of high-water incidents across the city,” Moore police said in a statement Sunday. Moore has about 63,000 residents. The storm also killed one person about 80 miles (129 kilometers) farther southeast after a tornado touched down in Spaulding, according to the Hughes County Emergency Management.

The department wrote on Facebook that several homes and structures were destroyed and there were "numerous washouts” of county roads. The National Weather Service said the preliminary survey of damage showed that tornado was at least EF1, with wind speeds between 86 and 110 mph (138 to 177 kph), as was another south of Oklahoma City in Love County.

Oravec said the system wasn't moving much over Texas and Oklahoma Saturday, leaving the area stuck under a very active thunderstorm pattern that produced large hail, flash flooding and tornadoes. Bill Macon, emergency management director in Oklahoma's Marshall County, said their early assessments show a tornado "skipped and jumped around” over a path of 6 to 7 miles (about 10 to 11 kilometers) in the rural area that left at least 20 homes damaged, with some destroyed completely. Macon said people were mostly home when the late night tornado came through, downing "huge” trees and dozens of electric poles and power lines, but there had not been reports of injuries or fatalities.