Sheriff identifies storm victim
By The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
This article was originally published March 11, 2010 at 11:34 a.m. Updated March 11, 2010 at 1:14 p.m.
Sheriff speaks on tornado fatality
Sheriff Marty Moss speaks about the tornado fatality of a man in Cleburne County.
LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Department of Emergency Management and county officials reported one fatality and four injuries Thursday from Wednesday night’s tornadoes and storms as officials assess damage.
Cleburne County Sheriff Marty Moss identified the man killed as 79-year-old Ward Baldridge. He said the storms severely injured Baldridge’s wife, Iva Jean, and their grandson Blake Baldridge, who is in his early 20s.
The couple lived in a wood-frame house in the Pearson community near the junctions of Arkansas 16 and 25. Blake Baldridge lived in a mobile home behind his grandparents but was with them when the storm smashed their home at roughly 9 p.m. Wednesday, the sheriff said.
Iva Jean and Blake Baldridge were later transferred from the Heber Springs hospital to a Little Rock hospital.
A fourth person suffered lacerations and shoulder injuries, Moss said, when the vehicle in which he was traveling on Arkansas 107 in Cleburne County “got picked up and tossed around.”
Emergency officials reported that the National Weather Service confirmed three tornadoes hit Wednesday night, one each in Cleburne, White and Saline counties.
Homes were damaged in each county, and one injury was reported in White County.
Read tomorrow's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.
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