Classes relocate in wake of storm

LITTLE ROCK — As many as 465 students in the Mena School District will have to attend school in either a local church or a school building 12 miles away in Hatfield after Thursday's tornado destroyed the district's middle school.

The tornado, which killed three people, damaged Mena Middle School so severely that it will have to be condemned, school officials and Polk County Judge Ray B. Stanley said Monday.

Also Monday, Gov. Mike Beebe declared Ashley and Miller counties state disaster areas. On Friday, he declared Polk, Howard and Sevier counties as disaster areas.

The two tornadoes in Polk County, including the one that crippled Mena, damaged or destroyed up to 1,000 homes.

In Mena, as many as 300 seventh- and eighth-graders will attend classes at an old middle school in Hatfield, and about 165 sixth-graders will go to Dallas Avenue Baptist Church for the remaining six weeks of the school year, said Debra Parnell, administrative assistant to the superintendent.

School officials said classes are expected to resume this week.

Meanwhile, about 340 workers at one of Mena's largest employers, U.S. Electrical Motors, are working daily in two shifts to help rebuild the damaged plant, said Mark Polzin, a spokesman for its parent company, Emerson Electric Co. in St. Louis.

Polzin said the tornado ripped off a good portion of the roof on one end of the plant, heavily damaging three wallsand tossing equipment around.

He said the 44-year-old plant produces motors for wastewater treatment, offshore oil rigs and irrigation pumps, and for industrial applications.

"Our goal is to get back up and running as soon as we can," Polzin said.

Stanley, the county judge, said four trailers were being set up Monday to house the county sheriff, the Mena police chief, 911 dispatchers and officials with the Polk County juvenile court.

Stanley said the county's courthouse and jail were damaged. The county's 20 inmates were transferred to jails in neighboring Sevier and Howard counties; the Arkansas Department of Correction picked up five additional inmates who were awaiting transfer to state prison, Stanley said.

"You talk about a mess," Stanley said. "You always see this stuff on television, and you say, 'Oh I feel so sorry for those people losing their homes and everything.' But buddy, let me tell ya something, when it's at home it's a whole different ball game."

Arkansas Department of Emergency Management and Federal Emergency Management Agency officials began surveying damage in Mena on Saturday, said Tommy Jackson, a spokesman for the state agency.

"We're working with the state and local officials to determine ... whether it reaches the criteria for a federal disaster," FEMA spokesman Charles Powell said. "For the people who live here, it looks pretty bad."

The American Red Cross is stationed at the Dallas Avenue Baptist Church, where they're providing vouchers for clothing and food, according to a news release.

In all, the National Weather Service on Monday confirmed that six tornadoes struck Arkansas on Thursday evening.

An Enhanced Fujita 3 tornado, packing winds between 136 to 165 miles per hour, barreled through Mena and did most of the damage. There was one more in Polk County, one in Miller County, two in Howard County and another in Ashley County, the Weather Service said.

The EF2 tornado in Ashley County had wind speeds up to 130 mph and heavily damaged or destroyed 15 homes, according to the National Weather Service in Jackson, Miss.

Another EF3 tornado that began in eastern Oklahoma's Mc-Curtain County went through Sevier County before destroying a dozen mobile homes inDe Queen in Howard County. Seven people were injured in De Queen, said Jason Hansford, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Shreveport.

Hansford said the tornado - which also destroyed Dierks' water plant - ended in Pike County. Its path was more than 40 miles long.

Dierks Mayor Terry Mounts said the city is running water from Nashville through 2 1 /2-inch fire hoses and connecting them with water lines. He said the Arkansas National Guard would take two portable treatment plants to town today.

Meteorologists confirmed a second EF3 tornado with a path 3 miles long and 250 yards wide in Howard County near the Center Point community. Hansford said there is evidence that the tornado was a rare breed, one of only 1 percent of tornados that rotates clockwise.

That tornado severely damaged a house and injured its resident, Hansford said.

Another EF3 tornado touched down just inside the Arkansas line in southwestern Miller County and traveled 10 miles before ending 2.5 miles north/ northeast of Kiblah, south of Doddridge in Miller County.

The tornado was widest and strongest when it crossed the intersection of Miller County Road 31 and 32, where it uprooted and snapped numerous trees, Hansford said.

In 2009, there were no tornadoes in Arkansas through April 8, according to the National Weather Service. Last year, there were 36 tornadoes by then.

For the five counties declared state disaster areas, the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration is extending its filing deadline to Aug. 15, according to a news release from the agency.

In addition, the department will waive the failure to file, failure to pay and interest charges for businesses unable to make withholding deposits and/or individuals or businesses unable to make estimate tax payments due between April 9 and May 27.

To claim the special extension on a return, taxpayers should write "Disaster Storms" on the front of the envelope and on the top left corner of the tax return, the news release said.

Information for this article was contributed by Nancy Cole of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.