Work was underway on Monday to estimate the extent of damage from tornadoes that tore through northeast Arkansas on Friday night, killing two people, leaving thousands without power and damaging hundreds of homes.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson said more than 300 structures in Arkansas were damaged, including homes and businesses in Craighead, Jackson, Mississippi, Poinsett and Woodruff counties.
"Agricultural losses attributed to the tornado are still being tracked," Hutchinson said Monday. "It is too soon to assign a cost estimate to the damage caused by the tornado on Friday. FEMA will be in the state on Wednesday to work with local officials to determine if the damage meets the federal threshold for a presidential disaster declaration."
The National Weather Service had investigators in Craighead, Mississippi and Poinsett counties on Monday to assess the damage, according to a message on Twitter.
"These surveys will take some time to complete but information will be released as it becomes available," according to the tweet.
[Gallery not loading above? Click here for more photos » arkansasonline.com/1214tornado/]
On Friday night, a storm spawned tornadoes across much of Middle America, with Kentucky taking the brunt of the damage.
Some of those tornadoes started in Arkansas.
"The storm spawned one or more deadly tornadoes from northeast Arkansas into southeast Missouri, northwest Tennessee, and western and central Kentucky," according to the National Weather Service office in North Little Rock. "It went on a rampage for more than 250 miles, and caused massive destruction."
The supercell thunderstorm may have produced a record-breaking tornado.
"Storms like this are very dangerous because they can feed on unstable air without disruption, and can last for hours," according to the National Weather Service. "In rare instances, they can crank out tornadoes that stay on the ground for more than a hundred miles. There was a real chance that this storm had a tornado that persisted longer than the historic and unprecedented Tri-State Tornado of March 18, 1925 (219 miles through Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana). This has yet to be determined."
Barbara Lewallen, the mayor of Trumann in Poinsett County, said an estimated 2oo houses were damaged in the city of about 7,400 residents.
"We're in the relief stage and trying to work toward the recovery stage," she said Monday afternoon. "Today, our workers are out picking up debris, brush. Entergy's in town restoring power. We're set up in our sports complex to provide relief items to people who cannot be in their homes either because it's damaged, has no power or is flattened."
Entergy Arkansas said about 25,000 customers were without electricity because of the tornadoes. Power was restored to all but about 250 of those customers by 5 p.m. Monday, said Brandi Hinkle, a spokeswoman for the company.
Tornadoes also hit Leachville in Mississippi County, where one person died when a Dollar General store collapsed, and Monette in Craighead County, where a tornado destroyed Monette Manor nursing home, killing another Arkansan.
Trumann is also served by Craighead Electric Cooperative, but most of its power stayed on through the storm, said Lewallen. Craighead Electric's online outage map showed 102 people in the area without power on Monday afternoon.
The mayor said she was on the phone with a Trumann firefighter Friday night checking on the storm situation.
"The sirens were going off," she said. "Our Fire Department, they have storm spotters. I called the Fire Department. They thought it might just graze us to the south. About that time, it took the roof off the Fire Department."
Lewallen said she had just hung up the phone when the tornado ripped the roof away.
Randy Mills, county judge in Poinsett County, said two tornadoes hit the county, one near Weiner and another in Trumann.
"I was in Trumann by 9 o'clock," said Mills. "I saw a whole bunch of ambulances, fire trucks, police vehicles. The worst damage was on Wayne Street. One house was out in the street."
Mills said there were no fatalities in Poinsett County.
"I think five people were taken to the hospital," he said. "That's all I know of right now."
Mills said the tornado that touched down near Weiner is the one that tracked through the Missouri bootheel, across the Mississippi River and into Kentucky.
Based on preliminary damage estimates in Monette, Leachville and Weiner, the tornado that ripped through those towns was at least EF-3 in intensity, according to the National Weather Service in Memphis. The agency estimated that the other tornado, which hit Trumann, was also at least EF-3.
EF-3 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale means winds were estimated to be between 136 and 165 miles per hour.
During television interviews on Sunday, Hutchinson said it was a miracle that only one resident of the Monette nursing home had died, praising the "heroic efforts" of the staff.
There was also a 20-minute warning, notifying people that a tornado was in the area, he told CNN.
"Because of that, they were able to get the residents in the hallway," said Hutchinson. "And so preparation makes a big difference. The investments [in] those early warning systems saved a lot of lives in this instance."
President Joe Biden, according to the governor, said he would cut through any red tape to ensure Arkansas gets a disaster declaration once the state gets certain figures and justifies a declaration.
In a CBS interview that aired Sunday, Hutchinson said hundreds of homes and businesses had been damaged.
Arkansas is having to spend more time preparing for extreme weather events, he said.
During his CBS interview, Hutchinson touched on the Biden administration's infrastructure package, which federal lawmakers passed weeks ago.
"We're trying to build the resiliency. We're trying to build our recovery efforts," he said. "And, you know, the infrastructure bill that was passed in Congress will help us to address some of these needs."
In particular, the governor indicated the measure will help deal with needs in the state's water infrastructure, levee system and irrigation systems.
Past White House estimates have said Arkansas would secure more than $4 billion in funding for a variety of broad infrastructure sectors over five years under the package, which was a major legislative priority for the Biden administration ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.
That measure includes funding for highways, bridge repairs and replacements, broadband access and water infrastructure.
Under the federal infrastructure legislation, Arkansas over five years would get $528 million to boost water infrastructure and ensure clean drinking water, according to the White House.
Over the weekend, Biden declared a major disaster in hard-hit Kentucky, something that authorized federal assistance for survivors in specific counties.
A major disaster declaration can give a "wide range of federal assistance programs for individuals and public infrastructure," which includes money for permanent work, according to FEMA's website.
U.S. Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., along with his staff, have been updated regularly on the clean-up and recovery efforts, according to his office.
The American Red Cross opened a shelter on Sunday for people affected by the tornadoes, according to a news release. It's located at Earl Bell Community Center, 1212 S. Church St. in Jonesboro.
Sharon Watson, regional communications director for the Red Cross, said independent shelters also opened at:
• Healing Hands Church, 1817 W. Main in Trumann
• First Assembly of God Church, 27316 W. Main in Trumann
• Landmark Church, 129 Locust St. in Trumann
She said nobody stayed in the Red Cross shelter on Sunday night, possibly because it opened after people had already found shelter. She said 27 people stayed in the other three shelters on Sunday night.
Gallery: Storm damage clean up
