By KEN MILLER

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A tornado touched down Tuesday near Tulsa International Airport, injuring at least one person and damaging about a dozen homes, amid storms in the Southern Plains that brought a deluge of rain and powerful winds, closing an interstate and flipping campers at a raceway.

Storms could bring more tornadoes and flash flooding to parts of Arkansas, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma on Tuesday.

Storms Monday evening flipped campers at Lucas Oil Speedway in Hickory County, Missouri, injuring seven people, four of whom were taken to hospitals. The speedway’s grandstand also was destroyed, forcing cancellation of racing this weekend that was expected to draw about 3,000 campers. Details about injuries were not immediately available.

The twister touched down at about 6:30 a.m. about 4 miles (6 kilometers) from the airport.

“We had to rescue a man, he was pinned under a tree this morning,” said Tulsa Area Emergency Management spokeswoman Kim MacLeod. The man’s condition was not immediately known.

“We’ve had some other reports of damage to homes and trees down,” and damage assessments would continue throughout the day, MacLeod said.

Flooding was also an issue. The Oklahoma Department of Transportation shut down Interstate 40 in El Reno, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) west of Oklahoma City, because of high water. The National Weather Service says up to 5 inches (13 centimeters) of rain had fallen since Monday.

In El Reno and Stillwater, home to Oklahoma State University about 55 miles (88 kilometers) northeast of Oklahoma City, emergency responders were rescuing people from their homes because of high water.

St. Louis’ major sports teams — the NHL’s Blues and baseball’s Cardinals — said they were both prepared for storms that could be rolling through just as they’re playing blocks apart on Tuesday night.

The Blues said in a statement that they are coordinating with St. Louis emergency managers and police to monitor the weather. Fans are told to stay in their seats if a strong storm hits during one of the biggest games in franchise history: A win against the San Jose Sharks would send the Blues to their first Stanley Cup Finals since 1970.

The Cardinals, in a statement, said Busch Stadium has clearly marked storm shelters and a detailed plan to alert fans in case of a weather emergency. The Cardinals are playing the Kansas City Royals in the opening of a series against their cross-state rivals.

“Busch Stadium is the first ballpark in Major League Baseball certified as a ‘Storm Ready Facility’ by the National Weather Service,” the Cardinals said.

Heavy snow melt from the north and significant spring rains have led to waves of flooding in Missouri, and President Donald Trump on Monday issued a major disaster declaration for 13 counties in the state damaged by March flooding.

The Missouri River is expected to reach major flood stage by the end of the week at Jefferson City, Hermann, St. Charles and elsewhere. The levee near Jefferson City’s airport holds back water up to 30 feet (9.14 meters), Cole County Emergency Manager Bill Farr said, but the National Weather Service expects a crest of 32.3 feet (9.85 meters) Thursday. Sandbagging won’t help because the levee is too long, he said.

“We’re just keeping our fingers crossed,” Farr said.

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Associated Press writer Jim Salter contributed to this report from St. Louis.

By ERRIN HAINES WHACK

A billionaire technology investor stunned the entire graduating class at Morehouse College when he announced at their commencement Sunday that he would pay off their student loans __ estimated at up to $40 million.

Robert F. Smith, this year’s commencement speaker, made the announcement while addressing nearly 400 graduating seniors of the all-male historically black college in Atlanta. Smith, who is black, is the Founder and CEO of Vista Equity Partners, a private equity firm that invests in software, data, and technology-driven companies.

“On behalf of the eight generations of my family that have been in this country, we’re gonna put a little fuel in your bus,” the investor and philanthropist told graduates in his morning address. “This is my class, 2019. And my family is making a grant to eliminate their student loans.”

The announcement immediately drew stunned looks from faculty and students alike. Then the graduates broke into the biggest cheers of the morning and stood up, applauding. Morehouse said it is the single largest gift to the college.

Though college officials could not provide an estimate of the exact amount owed by the current graduating class, students graduate with an average debt of $30,000 to $40,000, said Terrance L. Dixon, vice president of enrollment management.

Smith, who received an honorary doctorate from Morehouse during the ceremony, had already announced a $1.5 million gift to the school.

Smith said he expected the recipients to “pay it forward” and said he hoped that “every class has the same opportunity going forward.”

“Because we are enough to take care of our own community,” Smith said. “We are enough to ensure that we have all the opportunities of the American dream. And we will show it to each other through our actions and through our words and through our deeds.”

In the weeks before graduating from Morehouse on Sunday, 22-year-old finance major Aaron Mitchom drew up a spreadsheet to calculate how long it would take him to pay back his $200,000 in student loans — 25 years at half his monthly salary, per his calculations.

In an instant, that number vanished. Mitchom, sitting in the crowd, wept.

“I can delete that spreadsheet,” he said in an interview after the commencement. “I don’t have to live off of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I was shocked. My heart dropped. We all cried. In the moment it was like a burden had been taken off.”

His mother, Tina Mitchom, was also shocked. Eight family members, including Mitchom’s 76-year-old grandmother, took turns over four years co-signing on the loans that got him across the finish line.

“It takes a village,” she said. “It now means he can start paying it forward and start closing this gap a lot sooner, giving back to the college and thinking about a succession plan” for his younger siblings.

Morehouse College president David A. Thomas said the gift would have a profound effect on the students’ futures.

“Many of my students are interested in going into teaching, for example, but leave with an amount of student debt that makes that untenable,” Thomas said in an interview. “In some ways, it was a liberation gift for these young men that just opened up their choices.”

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Whack reported from Philadelphia. Associated Press writer Ben Nadler contributed to the report from Atlanta.