LITTLE ROCK — The tornado-producing storms Wednesday night that cut through central Arkansas, killing one person and injuring at least four others, marked the beginning of what weather forecasters said Thursday forebodes to be a volatile spring.
Meteorologists with the National Weather Service in North Little Rock said Thursday that three tornadoes touched down, one each in Saline, White and Cleburne counties. The weather service bureau in Shreveport said a fourth twister was spotted in Hempstead County.
The storms ripped roofs off homes and toppled trees and power lines, knocking out electrical service to thousands. Most power was restored by Thursday.
J. Ward Baldridge, 79, a retired firefighter and former Cleburne County justice of the peace, died when a twister hit his wood-frame home along Sawmill Road in the Pearson community in southwest Cleburne County. He was pronounced dead at Baptist Health Medical Center in Heber Springs, Cleburne County Sheriff Marty Moss said.
“He loved to talk and just visit with people, always a smile on his face,” Cleburne County Judge Claude Dill said of Baldridge.
Baldridge’s wife, Iva Jean Baldridge, and their grandson, Blake Baldridge, were injured in the storm, Moss said. They were transported to a Little Rock hospital.
A Cleburne County man also received minor injuries when wind blew his truck off Arkansas 107.
In White County, a man was injured when a tornado struck the Center Hill community near Arkansas 36and Arkansas 305, said Renee Preslar, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management.
The storms formed Wednesday afternoon in southwest Arkansas as a cold front pushed into the state, meeting with moist, warm air, said Lance Pyle, a weather service meteorologist in North Little Rock.
Officials reported that 1-inch diameter hail covered the ground in Pike County at 4:40 p.m. Wednesday. About 40 minutes later, Pyle said, baseball-sized hail began pelting the area.
John Robinson, the weather service’s warning coordinator, toured damaged areas in Cleburne, White and Saline counties Thursday. The damage-causing twisters were short-lived, he said, traveling only a few miles before dissipating.
About 550 Entergy Arkansas customers remained without power Thursday afternoon, down from about 2,000 at the storm’s peak.
Workers with First Electric Cooperative restored power Thursday to all 3,000 customers who lost service Wednesday evening, said Rob Roedel, spokesman for the Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas.
“IT CAME REALLY QUICK”
J. Ward Baldridge, whom people called “Jasper,” was at home with his wife of more than 50 years and their grandson when the storm hit Cleburne County.
The tornado that struck the Baldridges’ home was rated as an EF-2, with wind speeds reaching 135 mph, Robinson said.
Relatives searching for photographs and other items at the debris-littered lot where the Baldridge home stood said they had tried to call the family but couldn’t get through.
“It came really quick,” their nephew, Tim New, said as chain saws buzzed and tractors rumbled nearby.
“I don’t think they knew the situation was as bad as it was.”
New, who lives four miles from the Baldridges, said he ran into his storm shelter when the storm approached. The Baldridges had a shelter but did not make it there in time.
Police said J. Ward Baldridge and his grandson were thrown about 150 feet from the house, which the storm leveled. Iva Jean Baldridge was carried about 100 yards and dropped in the family’s pasture.
Though J. Ward Baldridge was talking after the storm, he later died of head injuries, New said.
His wife suffered a broken hip, collarbone and sternum.
Friends remembered J. Ward Baldridge as a prankster. Ralph Bivens, Iva Jean Baldridge’s cousin, said Baldridge would drive over to Bivens’ house in his shiny blue pickup, ring the bell and then hide.
“Every time,” Bivens said, smiling. “He was always joking around.”
The blue pickup sat battered in a field Thursday, tossed there by Wednesday’s tornado.
Dill said, “he was just full of life. ... He loved to be around people and visit people, and he was always willing to help with anything going on in his community.”
DAMAGE AROUND STATE
Much of Wednesday’s damage was restricted to rural areas, Robinson said. In White County, 19 homes were damaged. The Center Hill Fire Department and the Center Hill Baptist Church received minor damage, Preslar said.
In Saline County, two homes were destroyed, and 20 others were damaged. The Salem Volunteer Fire Department was also hit.
Raymond Smith’s home in the Salem area was among those hardest hit.
“I hit the floor,” Smith said Thursday, recalling what had sounded like a freight train approaching.
“Two seconds later, here comes the damn tree,” he said.
The wind uprooted an oak tree in his front yard and slammed it onto his roof, opening his living room to the sky.
“This is a total disaster,” he said before grabbing a small bag of toiletries and sneakers and leaving.
Behind Smith’s property on Chivers Street, Michella and Alam Khan fretted over what to do with their horses and donkeys.
The storm tore the roof off their barn and knocked down fences. They don’t have a safe place to keep their animals, which include a blind horse that the couple adopted after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
The Kahns were in their home when they heard a “whistle” sound.
“I threw him in the closet,” Michella Kahn said of her husband.
After the storm passed, they emerged to find the windows blown out of their new sunroom and rain pouring in.
Trees, with aluminum siding sheets tangled in the limbs, were uprooted around their property.
White County Judge Michael Lincoln toured Center Hill on Thursday morning to assess damage from the twister that hit about 10 miles west of Searcy at 8:35 p.m. Wednesday.
Past Arkansas 36 and Arkansas 305, the tin roofs on many homes were peeled back like banana skins. Giant oak and pine trees stretched across the ground, with roots and chunks of red earth exposed.
Jessica Kostreva and her husband, Joseph, of Center Hill considered hiding in their storm shelter Wednesday night but changed their minds when a television weatherman said he thought Center Hill, population 200, was in the clear.
“We weren’t in the house two minutes [before it hit],” she said.
Mark, their 2-year-old son, had just stepped away from a window in the front bedroom when a 50-gallon drum flew in.
The family ran to the center of the house. Joseph Kostreva wrapped his arms around his wife and children, and they began to pray.
“Everybody asks if it sounds like a freight train,” Jessica Kostreva said. “Honest to goodness, all I heard were my children.”
VOLATILE SPRING
According to the National Weather Service, the U.S. tornado season began slowly this year. Before a twister hit Hammon, Okla., on Monday, there were only 42 reported tornadoes this year.
Typically, there are 70 to 100 tornadoes by early March.
Cold weather in February, along with plenty of moisture, creates conditions for the possibility of a tornadic spring, Robinson said.
He compared this year to 2003, which saw a long, cold winter followed by an above-average number of storms.
“We’ll have an abovenormal chance for severe weather this spring,” Robinson said.
He said that in Arkansas, tornadoes seem to follow the Interstate 30 corridor to Little Rock and then U.S. 167/67 toward the northeast.
“The highways follow the division between the hills and the flat part of the state,” he said. Tornadoes “follow the path of least resistance.” Information for this article was contributed by Debra Hale-Shelton of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 03/12/2010