Meteorologists believe multiple tornadoes likely struck parts of Arkansas on Monday morning, part of a storm system that killed a man in Northwest Arkansas and injured at least two people after causing chaos in a major Texas city.
A survey team from the National Weather Service in Memphis preliminarily declared Monday that an EF1 tornado hit Tyronza. City Clerk Donna Wood said the storm tore across a portion of the Poinsett County town shortly before 6 a.m.
Two people were hurt when a service station was nearly "leveled" by storms shortly, Poinsett County Sheriff Kevin Molder said. The sheriff said he didn't know the individuals' conditions.
In Benton County, a man died early Monday after a tree fell on his Pleasant Ridge home at about 12:30 a.m., Rogers Fire Chief Tom Jenkins said.
County Coroner Daniel Oxford said his office was called to the residence east of the Rogers city limits at 1:01 a.m. Monday. Oxford said that a large oak fell on the home, and crashed through the roof and ceiling. The man's body was found beside a couch in what appeared to be the living room, the coroner said.
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In Siloam Springs, several subdivisions were severely damaged, and a tractor-trailer was blown over at the intersection of Arkansas 59 and U.S. 412, forecasters at the National Weather Service in Tulsa said.
The weather service said it had dispatched a team to Arkansas to survey Benton County, and meteorologist David Jankowski said the team found tornado damage. The team didn't have any additional details on what type of tornado it was or how far it traveled.
Barry Moehring, county judge of Benton County, signed an emergency declaration Monday, citing the severity of the storm.
"Given the property damage I've seen from touring the impacted areas, I believe a declaration is appropriate," Moehring said. "If the monetary damages of the storm are significant enough, then we'll be able to receive additional assistance for repairs."
Multiple parts of southern Arkansas also suffered damage from high-speed winds, but no tornado was recorded, said C.S. Ross, a hydrologist at the Shreveport weather agency.
"A line of thunderstorms went through the Fouke to De Queen area just before midnight doing damage," he said. "We got reports of damage in Taylor and Emerson in Columbia County along with damage in Lafayette County."
Ross said the weather service had also recorded one-inch hail in the area.
The storm system that tore through Arkansas was part of a squall line that caused problems in several states, said Dan Koch, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service North Little Rock office.
"This happened when cold air from a Pacific Northwest storm system collided with the warm air from the Gulf [of Mexico], causing an explosive combination," he said.
The Associated Press reported that radar confirmed a tornado struck near Dallas' Love Field Airport in Texas around 9 p.m. Sunday.
There were no reports of fatalities or serious injuries in Texas on Monday, but Fire-Rescue spokesman Jason Evans said that three people were hospitalized for evaluation of injuries that were not life-threatening.
The wire service quoted statistics from Flightaware.com that showed 63 flights were delayed and 18 were canceled at Love Field on Monday, while 78 flights were canceled at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and more than 200 were delayed.
The weather service in Fort Worth determined that the estimated maximum winds for the tornado in Dallas reached 140 mph, consistent with an EF3 rating.
Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said at a news conference that the city was lucky this time.
"I think we should consider ourselves very fortunate that we did not lose any lives -- no fatalities and no serious injuries -- in last night's storms. I think we should all be very grateful for that," Johnson said.
A survey team with Tennessee's weather service reported a preliminary EF1 tornado in Memphis as well.
"Fall storms like this will produce shorter and weaker tornadoes than the big super-cell storms that form those large tornadoes in the spring," Koch said. "It is more difficult to pick up the tornadic activity because they are smaller, weaker and shorter lived."
Gov. Asa Hutchinson posted on Twitter about the "significant storm damage" in Arkansas, confirming that one person was killed. The state Department of Emergency Management is "monitoring and supporting local first responders," he wrote.
Two commercial sites in Rogers -- a strip mall at Eighth Street and New Hope Road, and O'Reilly Auto Parts on Eighth Street -- were damaged from the storm, Jenkins, the city's fire chief, said.
The storm also caused significant roof damage at Rogers High School, said Charles Lee, assistant superintendent for general administration. Part of the roof on the campus' main building off Dixieland Road peeled off, and rain caused water damage in some of the classrooms, he said.
The severe weather also caused roof damage at the indoor field house, knocked over a flag pole at the football stadium and blew portable bleachers onto the football field, Lee said.
Carroll Electric Company reported Monday evening that at least 130 power poles were broken. More broken poles were expected in Benton and Carroll counties.
"This significant storm event will take multiple days to recover from," according to a statement on the company's website.
About 9,500 customers were without power Monday evening.
The storm caused a power outage at the Northwest Arkansas regional airport, said Chief Operating Officer Kelly Johnson. Generators were being used at the terminal, and airlines were noting boarding passes manually.
Roads into the airport from the south were blocked by downed trees and power lines at about 9 a.m., she said.
Black Hills Energy reported 65 customers without service shortly before 9 a.m. Monday. By 5 p.m., approximately 25 customers remained without gas service. Repairs took most of the day due to the difficulty of reaching areas with downed trees and power lines, the utility said in a news release.
In Tyronza, the East Poinsett County School District canceled classes after a school building was "heavily damaged," according to Molder. The town also reported several trees had fallen on houses and power lines had been downed, though officials were still assessing the extent of the damage.
"Other than that, we're here," said Wood, the Tyronza city clerk.
Roughly 2,500 Entergy customers were without power shortly before 2 p.m., according to a map on the utility's website.
Central Arkansas experienced downed trees and snapped power lines, but avoided most of the serious damage that other parts of the state suffered, Koch said.
"It was pretty active across Central Arkansas, but no tornadic activity," he said. "The risk was definitely there. We just kind of got lucky on this one."
Koch said the storm could have been much worse if it had occurred during the day.
"It was cooler at night so the wind damage was on the lower grid," he said.
October tornadoes are not common, and cities are rarely hit, tornado scientist Harold Brooks of the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Okla., told the Associated Press.
A study by Brooks last year found that only one-third of the most violent tornadoes hit communities of more than 5,000 people.
An October tornado isn't unusual when it comes to Arkansas, Koch said.
"We will get what we call a secondary severe weather season in the fall," he said. "It happens when the cold fronts from the north collide with the warmer and more humid air from the Gulf."
Once or twice a decade the state will deal with a really active fall season, but it has been a while since the state dealt with one, he said.
"We will just have to see how it goes," he said.
Meteorologists said they expected the weather to be sunny and dry for the next few days.
Information for this article was contributed by Josh Snyder of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; by Alex Golden, Tom Sissom and Seth Campbell of the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; and staff members of The Associated Press.
A Section on 10/22/2019