SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- Strong storms that tore through the Dakotas early Thursday brought reports of tornados and flash flood warnings and left two men injured in a small central South Dakota town.
Two tornadoes were reported near Dupree, the National Weather Service said. Either tornados or high winds blew off roofs and downed electrical lines, causing power outages in the town of 460 people, Ziebach County Sheriff Robert Menzel said.
Menzel said it looked like some mobile homes "kind of disintegrated."
A man was inside in a car when strong winds blew a mobile home on top of the vehicle, Menzel said. The man was taken to a Bismarck, N.D. hospital. Another man was hit by flying debris also was taken away in an ambulance, the sheriff said. He did not identify either man and their conditions were not known Thursday afternoon.
Red Cross officials were traveling to Dupree on Thursday, and state Department of Public Safety spokesman Terry Woster said the agency was surveying the community's needs.
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A mobile home and some grain bins were damaged in nearby Lantry, according to the town's state representative Dean Schrempp. Schrempp also visited Dupree.
"It was really devastating," he said. "Lots of damage and 7 inches of rain."
Similar amounts of rain fell in other parts of the Dakotas late Wednesday and early Thursday, the weather service said. Officials cautioned that could flood small waterways and put roads and low-lying areas under water.
In south central North Dakota, water was reported over Interstate 94 west of Bismarck early Thursday. The state Transportation Department said traffic was moving normally.
In the North Dakota city of West Fargo, driving was difficult after a morning deluge. Assistant Police Chief Mike Reitan said small cars were getting stranded on flooded streets, and street department crews were racing around town setting up barricades. The water was up to the running boards on his truck, he said.
"If I was driving anything other than my four-wheel-drive, I wouldn't be at work yet," he said.
In northeast and east central South Dakota, NorthWestern Energy reported wind-caused power outages in several towns early Thursday, affecting about 300 people.
