A tropical storm Thursday toppled trees, cut power to tens of thousands of Arkansans, damaged crops and deluged parts of the Natural State with 4-5 inches of rain, but the damage fell short of forecasters' worse projections.
The National Weather Service confirmed Friday that an EF2 tornado ripped the roof off a house in Randolph County, about 4 miles southwest of Maynard. There was also a report of a funnel cloud over St. Charles in Arkansas County on Thursday, according to the weather service.
By the time Hurricane Laura pushed into Arkansas from the south on Thursday, it had been downgraded to a tropical storm, meaning it was a tropical cyclone with maximum sustained surface winds ranging from 39-73 mph, according to the weather service. A hurricane is a tropical cyclone with winds exceeding 73 mph.
Tropical storms are rare in Arkansas, meteorologists said.
About 24 hours after the northernmost storm bands reached Little Rock, there were no reports Friday of weather-related injuries or deaths in Arkansas.
"We're very thankful for that," Gov. Asa Hutchinson said during a Friday news conference. "Our citizens responded very carefully and safely to this emergency."
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Forecasters are watching another storm front approaching today that could deluge the state again.
By the early afternoon, showers are forecast for northern and Central Arkansas, according to the National Weather Service in North Little Rock. That storm system is expected to linger into early Sunday, forecasters said.
There is up to a 60% chance of heavy rain from Fayetteville to Memphis and as far south as Arkadelphia, said Lance Pyle, a weather service meteorologist.
"There could be some damaging winds and possibly some hail," Pyle said, adding that up to 3 inches of rain is possible for the northern part of the state, where the worst of the storm is likely to hit.
By comparison, Thursday's storms struck hardest in the south, though there were pockets of hard-hit areas in northeast Arkansas.
The storm first reached landfall early Thursday in southwestern Louisiana as a Category 4 hurricane, causing havoc across that state and claiming at least six lives, according to news reports.
It continued to barrel north and was downgraded to tropical storm status by the time it reached Arkansas that afternoon, causing wind gusts as high as 57 mph in El Dorado, according to the National Weather Service.
The state's highest reported rain total was in Ravenden, about 50 miles northwest of Jonesboro, where 5.31 inches fell. The next-highest rain total was in Fordyce, about 50 miles southwest of Pine Bluff, which recorded 5.25 inches, forecasters said.
Ravenden and Fordyce are 230 miles apart, indicating that the storm maintained a long reach even as it weakened.
Had the storm slowed and lingered more, those rain totals could have been higher, which would have caused greater flooding in low-lying areas, meteorologists said.
Instead, the speed of the storm and its breakup after passing over Louisiana meant that Laura's winds were felt more than her rain, weather service meteorologist Dan Koch said.
"It certainly could've been worse," Koch said. "It looked like it was going to come through Arkansas more slowly, and that would've caused more rain."
Still, there were several reports of water running over roadways throughout south and Central Arkansas, including in parts of Little Rock, according to the weather service.
Trees were knocked over in parts of south Arkansas. One meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Shreveport confirmed that trees were knocked over by strong winds and blocked two lanes of Interstate 30 in Hope in Hempstead County.
Rivers across the southern half of the state also have swelled since Laura's arrival.
The Little Red River could reach flood stage today because of the abundance of rain, but "nothing catastrophic" is expected, Koch said, adding that some flooding of forestland and farmland will likely be the extent of it.
Laura flattened some crops across the state, but the scattered damage was less than expected, according to the University of Arkansas Agriculture Division's Research and Extension Service.
The storm arrived as corn and rice harvesting began in Arkansas.
"Overall, the damage is scattered and minimal," said Ryan McGeeney, an extension service spokesman.
One trouble spot for the state's soybean crops was in Jackson County, he said. Some crops were left in a "severe lean" but not flat across the ground.
"All that should stand back up, but not completely," McGeeney said.
Jason Kelley, an extension service wheat and feed grains agronomist for the Agriculture Division, said the corn crop suffered some random damage from the tropical storm, but nothing too significant. On Friday, he drove across a large section of the state -- from Little Rock to Lake Village -- and saw only pockets of damage.
"In general, the southern part of the state, where our biggest possibility of damage was, turned out better than what we anticipated," Kelley said. "Hopefully, we can get the crop out with minimum damage overall."
Residents were still dealing with power outages late Friday afternoon. Entergy, the state's largest electricity provider, reported that more than 23,700 customers statewide were still without power as of 5 p.m.
The area with the most electrical outages was Union County, which still had more than 6,800 Entergy customers without power Friday afternoon, according to the utility's website.
