National Weather Service storm teams scoured the state Friday for damage from Thursday evening’s storms and confirmed that a tornado touched down in Lonoke County.
Teams from the weather service’s stations in North Little Rock and Memphis also will inspect areas in western Arkansas and near Bay in Craighead County today for signs that twisters struck, said Brian Smith, a weather service meteorologist in North Little Rock.
Two people were injured Thursday in the storms. The driver of a tractor-trailer was hurt when his truck was blown off Interstate 40 near Brinkley by 70 mph straight-line winds and awoman was injured when a tree fell into her home near Hot Springs.
The storms developed Thursday afternoon and were most severe in the central and southern regions of the state. Temperatures reached the upper 70s when the system passed through, the weather service said.
A weather service damage team confirmed that a tornado with winds of up to 112 mph struck near Lonoke, damaging the roof of an Arkansas National Guard armory building.
The storms knocked out power to more than 27,000 customers of Entergy of Arkansas Inc., on Thursday evening. Utilities were restored to all but a handful of residents in rural areas by Friday afternoon, said James Thompson, a spokesman for the utility.
“It was everywhere,” Thompson said of downed power lines. “It was pretty much from Little Rock south.”
The weather service teams plan to inspect damage in Prairie and Perry counties today.
A tornado is suspected to have downed trees and damaged a Central Arkansas Water reservoir building at Lake Winona in Perry County.
Chrissy Ferguson, a North Little Rock firefighter and the organizer of a race today at Lake Winona, helped clear trees Friday from the roadway for runners.
“It looks like a tornado came through,” Ferguson said. “It twisted the tops of the trees off. There’s a lot of debris.”
Rodney “Rocky” Johnson, the park’s warden, said more than 50 trees were toppled and uprooted at Lake Winona.
“It came up a heck of a wind,” he said. “It was blowing rain so hard, you couldn’t see 20 yards ahead.”
Johnson and his family headed for a storm shelter by their house at the park, but the storm was over before they made it.
“It lasted a minute or two,” he said. “But by then, we had trees laying everywhere. The cleanup will be a booger.”
Northeast Arkansas avoided the brunt of the storms, but heavy rainfall created flash-flooding.
In Black Rock, the Black River rose to 16 feet Friday - 2 feet above flood stage in the Lawrence County town - and low-lying farm fields were submerged.
The White River in Newport rose from 1 foot to 13.13 feet after a deluge there. Flood stage in Newport is 26 feet.
The weather service is calling for more storms Sunday, although they should be less severe, Smith said. Forecasters expect showers and thunderstorms will enter the state late Sunday afternoon.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 02/26/2011