Storms in Arkansas leave 2 hurt, thousands without power

Michael Compton (right) and Joey Piwetz use chainsaws to remove parts of a tree on Cedar Creek Road in North Little Rock after severe weather caused the tree to fall across the street Sunday, May 15, 2022. No injuries were reported at the scene. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Colin Murphey)
Michael Compton (right) and Joey Piwetz use chainsaws to remove parts of a tree on Cedar Creek Road in North Little Rock after severe weather caused the tree to fall across the street Sunday, May 15, 2022. No injuries were reported at the scene. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Colin Murphey)

Two people were injured Sunday after a tree fell on a vehicle in Russellville during storms that also uprooted trees, damaged a home and left thousands of Arkansans without power, the National Weather Service said.

The two who were injured, near East Fourth Street, were freed from the vehicle and taken to an area hospital for treatment, according to a storm report from the weather service. 

A weather station at the Little Rock Air Force Base recorded wind speeds of about 57 mph on Sunday, forecasters said. 

In addition to rain and strong wind, much of the state saw hail during Sunday’s storms. According to the weather service, hail in Newton County was as large as a golf ball.

The strong winds caused trees to fall on several other vehicles, including a camper in Prairie County and an RV in Lake Village, reports state. In Hot Spring County, a roof was blown off a storage building and a business in Poyen reported roof damage.

A tree also fell on a house near North Detroit Avenue in Russellville.

No injuries were reported in any of those incidents.

Just under 6,000 Entergy customers in Arkansas were without power at about 1:30 p.m., the utility’s online outage map indicated. Pulaski County reported the most outages, with about 2,300, followed by Hot Spring County, with roughly 950.

Around the same time, Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas reported about 500 customers without power. Cleveland County had the most outages, 190, followed by about 173 in Grant County.

Forecasters predicted a chance for isolated to scattered showers and storms for much of southern and eastern Arkansas on Monday. 

High temperatures are expected to be in the 80s for most of the state, the weather service said.

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