Storms swat Arkansas

LITTLE ROCK — Dozens of homes and buildings were damaged Wednesday night as reported tornadoes and strong thunderstorms packed with hail swept across Arkansas.

Hempstead, Saline, White and Cleburne counties reported the heaviest damage.

Three people suffered “major injuries” when their home off Sawmill Road in Pearson in Cleburne County was destroyed, said Renee Preslar, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management. Two of the three injuries were considered critical. Lawenforcement officials there also reported damage along Arkansas 107 and Arkansas 25.

Another person suffered a minor leg injury in White County during the storms, a dispatcher for Arkansas State Police Troop B said. As of 10 p.m., crews were still searching the area.

The National Weather Service office in North Little Rock received numerous reports of hail and high winds with the storms that moved northeasterly across central parts of the state. The storms knocked out power to at least 2,500 Entergy Arkansas customers.

“We’ve had a bunch of funnel cloud reports,” meteorologist John Robinson said.

One building in Hempstead County had minor damage where one confirmed tornado touched down, snapping trees and downing power lines, about five miles west of Ozan in the community of Yancy, Robinson said. In the White County community of Center Hill, the storms damaged nine homes along with the Fire Department building and Center Hill Baptist Church on Arkansas 36, Preslar said.

It was unclear Wednesday how heavily the church and Fire Department were damaged.

In Saline County, as many as seven homes along Arkan-sas 5 were damaged, and possibly five more on Arkansas 298 north of Benton, said Saline County sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Scott Courtney. No injuries were reported.

Chief Wayne Walker of the Salem Volunteer Fire Department said he suspects that more than 20 or 30 homes were damaged in Saline County.

The Fire Department’s building was among those that suffered extensive damage when the storm moved through the county about 7 p.m.

“It’s still standing, but it’s tore up,” Walker said.

Damaged homes and downed trees littered Arkansas 298 near Ed Allen Road northwest of Benton in Saline County about 8 p.m.

Residents were attempting to clear limbs and debris by flashlight as most of the homes were dark or candlelit.

A downed tree pinned a power line just down the road, blocking one lane of traffic on the road.

On Arkansas 5 near Nob Hill Road, Lillie Orrell, 80, had just lain down in her home about 6:30 p.m. when the storm roared through.

“I didn’t have any electricity. I just heard the roar,” she said about an hour and a half later as rain pelted the roof of her damaged home.

Orrell, who uses a walker and a wheelchair, took shelter in an interior hallway about 3 feet wide.

There, she said, she could “hear glass breaking and things flying around” her home of about 40 years.

After the storm, debris littered her yard. A tangle of rafters and metal was lodged in trees across the highway from her house.

Her daughter, Loretta Mansfield, who lives nearby, said the roof of her mother’sbarn had been torn off. But like many whose homes were damaged Wednesday evening, it was too dark to see the full extent of the damage.

The National Weather Service would not be able to confirm that a tornado caused damage along Arkansas 5 in Saline County until meteorologists inspect the damage today.

Only one family had accepted the Red Cross’ offer to put them up in a hotel for the night, Saline County Judge Larry Fite said. No shelters had been opened.

Benton police scoured the city looking for damage and found none, but much of the city was without power north of Interstate 30, said spokesman Lt. Kevin Russell.

Tornado warnings were issued Wednesday evening for parts of central Arkansas, triggering sirens.

No damage was reported in Little Rock or North Little Rock, Preslar said.

In downtown North Little Rock, diners at the Starving Artist Cafe sat quietly eating their meals - for several minutes unaware that the sirens were blaring.

Read the UPDATE.