DENNING — A tornado tore through towns in western Arkansas overnight, killing at least four people and injuring several others.
The deaths occurred as the storms bombarded Franklin and Johnson counties, according to Tommy Jackson with the Department of Emergency Management. One woman died as the tornado raked the tiny community of Denning, about 45 miles west of Russellville, and another woman was killed in nearby Etna. Another person died in Bethlehem in Johnson County. A fourth death was reported late Wednesday morning in Strawberry, also in Johnson County.
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The tornado wiped out numerous homes along Highway 23 in Etna, stripping bark from trees, wrapping metal siding around splintered power poles and blowing possessions hundreds of yards.
Chief John Barbour with the Altus Police Department confirmed the woman who died in Denning was killed at a trailer on Carbon Plant Road that was destroyed by the tornado. Barbour said the woman's 4-year-old child was transported to the hospital in critical condition.
Most roads into Denning are blocked by downed power lines and trees.
Officials said at a Wednesday morning news conference that three critical patients were transported to a hospital from the Etna area, and about 10 with mostly minor injuries were transported from near Altus and Denning.
In one pile of wreckage in Etna, a teary-eyed woman sifted through the broken boards and tattered remains of her former home. Nearby, O.J. Gray worked to see what he could salvage from his brother-in-law's destroyed home.
"It's gone," Gray said. "They don't have anything anymore."
The living room and hallway of Johnny Breedlove's home on Highway 23 remained standing, but much of the rest of the structure was destroyed or heavily damaged.
Breedlove, his wife and his son crouched in the hall during the storm, finding safety just feet from a bedroom where the roof collapsed and debris came flying in.
"I thought we were going to die," he said. "It was bad."
National Weather Service Senior Forecaster John Lewis in Little Rock said Wednesday that the tornado first touched down about midnight Tuesday in Franklin County and continued to touch down before dissipating about 1 a.m.
State Department of Emergency Management spokesman Renee Preslar said Wednesday morning that there is not yet an estimate of damage and that more severe weather expected Wednesday could delay the assessments.
Franklin County Sheriff Anthony Boen said searches were ongoing Wednesday morning but there were no reports of any missing people as of 8 a.m.
"As far as we know, everyone is accounted for in the Etna area and in the Denning area," Boen said.
Franklin County Emergency Manager Fred Mullen said 15 people so far have been transported to area hospitals with injuries.
Johnson County Judge Mike Jacobs said two tornadoes moved through Clarksville. He said one tornado went from the southwest corner to the northeast corner of Johnson County, and the second tornado started southwest of Clarksville and came through town.
Power lines and trees are down all over town, Jacobs said, and both Clarksville and Lamar are without power.
Jacobs said he hasn't seen the entire town, yet, but what he has seen includes several severely damaged homes and buildings, and the Clarksville Light and Operations building is missing the roof. "The apartments on Carter Street are pretty much gone," said Jacobs, "They're still standing but the roof and walls are gone."
In Denning, a small community of about 400 people south of Altus, rescue crews gathered at the town middle school, going out in all-terrain vehicles, pickups and at least one helicopter as the search and rescue process continued.
Barbour said there is damage from Carbon Plant Road northeast to Highway 64. Along South Cherry Street about a mile from the middle school, power poles were snapped in two, homes had their roofs ripped off and multiple trailer homes were demolished.
Candias Diehl's home lost a quarter of its roof and caved in, and a dog kennel in her yard blew away completely. Diehl said she waited out the storm with about 15 other people in a tornado shelter at the mayor's house.
"It's crazy," she said, standing outside her damaged home. "It makes you sick."
Hugh Ritter was at work when the tornado picked up his trailer and sent it flying into his neighbor's pasture. The base landed near a creek and his possessions were strewn across the area in a mangled mess of broken siding, shattered glass and shards of wood.
"It's hit me pretty hard," Ritter said, taking a short break from sifting through the wreckage (VIDEO).
Next door, an older man picked his way through the wreckage of another destroyed trailer. He declined to be interviewed, but said he didn't know what he would do since he had no insurance.
"And it's too late for me to start over," he said.
Violent storms also killed at least five people in Oklahoma and two in Kansas.
The storms came just two days after an EF-5 tornado tore through the southwest Missouri town of Joplin and killed 122 people.
Lewis said tornadoes are likely to develop again Wednesday afternoon in northeastern Arkansas, southeastern Missouri, western Kentucky and western Tennessee.
Read tomorrow's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.
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Information for this article was contributed by The Associated Press.