A strong storm system ripped through the state Wednesday, damaging homes, downing power lines and uprooting trees.
At least four people received minor injuries in Van Buren County and were treated at the Ozark Medical Health Center in Clinton after the storm destroyed a church in Botkinburg, about five miles north of Clinton, authorities said.
The National Weather Service in North Little Rock hadn’t confirmed whether a tornado touched down in Van Buren County on Wednesday evening, but meteorologists suspected that it was a twister on the basis of reports from spotters, the track the storm took and the damage left behind.
“It was likely a tornado,” said meteorologist Brian Smith in North Little Rock. “All evidence points to it.”
The storm system formed when a cold frontal boundary from the west collided with warm, moist air over Arkansas on Wednesday afternoon.
“When warm air and cold air duke it out, warm air wins,” Smith said.
Authorities reported damage along a swath from Yell County to Izard County, said Tommy Jackson, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management.
High winds toppled trees along Arkansas 7 south of Ola and damaged a farm building in Yell County, he said.
The storm entered Van Buren County about 4 p.m., tearing the roof off the Four Square Church in Botkinburg, where the four people were injured. Jackson said 33 houses and one business was damaged in the county.
Van Buren County Judge Roger Hooper said three of the injured were treated and released. The fourth was admitted to a local hospital with nonlife-threatening injuries.
Authorities also reported downed trees and minor damage to homes in Conway, Garland, Montgomery and Stone counties. A tree fell onto a home in Morrilton, he said.
High winds also overturned boats on Crown Lake in Horseshoe Bend in Izard County, where 15 houses were damaged by high winds, Jackson said.
Two house fires were started by lightning in White County, he said.
A truck carrying medical-grade liquid plastic crashed near the Eleven Point River bridge on U.S. 62 west of Pocahontas about 8 p.m. Wednesday.
Martin Cagle, the Randolph County Office of Emergency Management director, said the truck flipped over, and officials at the bridge reported that the plastic was slowly leaking from the vehicle’s tank. The driver was not injured.
The plastic was not leaking into the river, he said. The county’s hazardous-materials team was called to the scene.
The accident occurred in a rural area, and there were no evacuations, Cagle said. He said it was raining Wednesday evening, but he was unsure whether the weather caused the accident.
The National Weather Service in North Little Rock issued at least four tornado warnings Wednesday afternoon and evening.
As the frontal system passed, temperatures dropped more than 30 degrees in some areas.
Russellville reported 81degrees at noon Wednesday. By 5 p.m., the temperature in the Pope County town had dipped to 49 degrees.
The National Weather Service in Tulsa issued freeze warnings in Northwest Arkansas for Benton, Carroll, Crawford, Franklin, Madison, Sebastian and Washington counties. Fayetteville recorded a reading of 38 degrees Wednesday evening, dropping from 51 degrees earlier in the day.
During the storm, power was knocked out to more than 9,000 Entergy Arkansas customers, with the most disruptions in Faulkner, Garland, Independence and Stone counties. First Electric Cooperative reported that about 1,600 homes and businesses lost electrical service Wednesday evening.
By 10:30 p.m., Entergy was down to 5,612 customers without power and First Electric was down to 361, according to the utilities’ websites.
Southwestern Electric Power Co. customers in Fayetteville and surrounding areas also suffered power failures early in the evening, but service was quickly restored.
North Little Rock Electric reported about 200 homes and businesses were without power briefly Wednesday evening, but service was restored by 7:30 p.m., city spokesman Nathan Hamilton said.
The storm system was expected to leave the state early this morning, and temperatures were forecast to dip to the 40s and 50s in northern Arkansas and mid-50s in the central part of the state.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 04/11/2013