Wicked wind rips northeast in state, kills 2

Trees go down; power is lost

High winds from a powerful storm system knocked out power Thursday to thousands of homes and businesses, and blew a freight train off its tracks along U.S. 49 at the Poinsett-Craighead county line.
High winds from a powerful storm system knocked out power Thursday to thousands of homes and businesses, and blew a freight train off its tracks along U.S. 49 at the Poinsett-Craighead county line.

JONESBORO -- Two people were killed and thousands were left without power when a storm system swept across north Arkansas on Thursday afternoon, spawning winds up to 80 miles per hour that downed trees, ripped off roofs and tossed train cars onto a roadway.

The storm left widespread damage in Jackson, Independence, Craighead, Lawrence, Mississippi and Poinsett counties, Arkansas Department of Emergency Management spokesman Brandon Morris said.

      

National Weather Service meteorologist John Moore of Memphis said the winds were part of a derecho, or straight-line winds produced by a fast-moving series of thunderstorms.

Retired Jonesboro police officer Tom Sanford was killed when a tree fell onto his Jonesboro home, Craighead County Coroner Toby Emerson reported.

Lawrence County Sheriff Jody Dotson confirmed that a woman died in Black Rock when a tree fell onto her van. At least three others were trapped inside the vehicle but were not injured seriously, he said.

Dotson would not release the name of the woman, saying family members had not yet been notified.

"This is the worst I've ever seen," Dotson said of the storm. "I've never driven in anything as bad as this in my life. We've got people clearing trees off the roads everywhere. We're making lists of ... all the places we've got lines down."

Power was knocked out to more than 27,000 Entergy customers -- from Harrison to the Memphis area -- Thursday afternoon, Entergy spokesman Sally Graham said. Mississippi County was the hardest hit, she said, with more than 8,000 homes and businesses without power.

More than 25,000 North Arkansas Electric Cooperative customers -- from Mountain Home to Jonesboro -- lost power in the storm, spokesman Rob Roedel said. The Salem-Mountain Home area in Baxter County saw heavy damage, he said, and more than 8,000 homes and businesses there were left without power.

Roedel said crews were dispatched as soon as the storm hit to assess the damage and begin restoring power.

Most of the power failures were from damage sustained in the straight-line winds, he said.

By 8 p.m. Thursday, Entergy Arkansas reported that about 15,000 homes and businesses remained in the dark. North Arkansas Electric Cooperative reported that only about 1,400 customers were still without power Thursday evening.

"We follow a proven, coordinated plan of power restoration and power will continue to be restored where it is safe to do so," Entergy's Graham said in a news release.

She added that storm teams would be dispatched today.

"Today's deadly storm packed lightning and high winds, snapping utility poles and power lines and breaking equipment in both our distribution and transmission operations in the hardest-hit counties," Graham said.

Derechos are not uncommon in convective thunderstorms during the late spring and early summer, said National Weather Service meteorologist Brian Smith of North Little Rock. As a complex band of thunderstorms form and create a "bow-echo," or curve-shaped radar signature, strong, rain-cooled outflow winds are created.

Those winds pick up speed when interacting with stalled frontal boundaries and upper-level low-pressure systems.

These winds are different from downbursts, which are short-lived gusts of wind created by a dying thunderstorm. Downbursts may travel several hundred yards to a few miles before ceasing. Derecho winds, however, can top 100 mph and travel for great distances -- in some cases up to 200 or more miles -- Smith said.

The damage from a derecho is comparable to an EF0 tornado, Smith said.

The last derecho to hit Arkansas occurred on June 12, 2009, and caused widespread wind damage from Johnson and Pope counties to White and Lonoke counties.

Thursday's derecho formed in Kansas and traveled through northern Arkansas and into northwest Tennessee, Moore added.

The powerful winds knocked a freight train from its track and scattered about 30 rail cars into ditches and onto the roadway along U.S. 49 at the Craighead and Poinsett County line north of Weiner and Otwell, Arkansas State Police spokesman Bill Sadler said.

There were no injuries, and no hazardous materials were spilled, Sadler said.

The Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department closed part of the highway until the scene was cleared Thursday.

In Jonesboro, trees were blown over throughout town, striking homes and blocking roads.

Officials with the Jonesboro City Water and Light reported about 90 percent of the town was without power after the storm passed through. A Main Street electrical transformer had been struck by lighting and burst into flames, knocking out electricity to the downtown area.

Traffic slowed to a crawl at busy intersections as traffic signals went dark, leading police to direct motorists through the crossways.

The wind also flipped several airplanes on the tarmac at the Jonesboro Municipal Airport, said Philip Steed, a former airport manager.

"Planes that were tied down on the ramp came lose and flipped over," he said. The high winds also tore awnings off the airport's terminal building and damaged hangar doors, Steed said.

The high winds ripped roofing off the United Methodist Church on South Main Street in downtown Jonesboro during a northeast Arkansas district meeting of clergy, dropping debris into the streets and causing ministers to scramble for safety.

Water poured into the 125-year-old church building, and ceiling tiles collapsed, associate pastor Patty Soward said.

"The sun was shining when we sat down for our dinner," Soward said. "Then we lost power. We went to check, and it [the storm] was here. Water was coming in from everywhere."

She said ministers gathered young children from the church's nursery and took them to an underground shelter.

"We were protecting babies," she said. "It was horrible.

"We went back to the third floor and looked up. We could see sky. We're blessed nobody was hurt."

On Thursday evening, workers used lifts to place tarps over the gaping holes in the roof as dark clouds formed overhead. The weather service called for another round of rain and wind early this morning.

Throughout Jonesboro, residents cleaned up fallen limbs, blown-over fences and other debris.

The large signs at the Sonic Drive-in restaurants on East Nettleton Avenue and Johnson Avenue were shattered. Yellow shards of plastic lay across the restaurants' lots.

Large wooden signs promoting businesses and advertising land for sale were blown over throughout town.

Brian Hiles, a delivery driver for the Jonesboro Pizza Inn, was still going out with pizzas despite the widespread power failures across much of Jonesboro. The Pizza Inn on Caraway Road where he works saw power restored late Thursday afternoon, he said.

"The phones have been ringing off the hooks," he said. "There are tree limbs down everywhere, and the traffic signals are out. I just delivered to a home that had a [gasoline] generator running their power."

Bill Spurlock said he stood in the carport of his east Jonesboro home and watched as the 80-mph winds toppled trees in his neighborhood.

"It was the baddest I've ever been through," he said. "It lasted for 15 minutes. I saw the wind pick up, and then it was raining sideways.

"We had the [tornado] sirens going off, and the trees were falling in both directions," he said. "I was sure it was a tornado."

Rita Jones, a teacher at Jonesboro School District's Success Achievement Academy on North Fisher Street, said she left the school to pick up lunch Thursday afternoon and when she returned, she found someone had taken her parking space.

She was forced to park in another space but was glad for it later.

"I looked out the window after I got back and saw the storm come in," she said. "A pecan tree uprooted and landed on the car right where I had parked before. It could easily have been my car if I hadn't have moved."

Jones and other teachers herded students into the cafeteria after electricity was knocked out, leading them with the illumination from iPhones.

Arkansas State University in Jonesboro had power lines and trees knocked down, and the roofs on some campus buildings were damaged, Chancellor Tim Hudson said.

About 500 students living in the residence halls, and others attending cheerleading camp there were evacuated to the Convocation Center when the storm hit. There were no injuries reported, Hudson said.

The campus was closed for the remainder of the day Thursday and will stay closed today to "allow officials to continue to respond to the storm damage and to give employees time to manage their personal situations," Hudson said in a news release.

"All students and employees should continue to use extreme caution and avoid entering dangerous areas," the release said.

Marlene Mickelson, another meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Memphis, said roofs were blown off homes and businesses in Greene County, as well. In Poinsett County, the King Transportation building in Trumann was destroyed, Mickelson added.

The fire station and the City Hall in Swifton in Jackson County were heavily damaged, and National Weather Service meteorologist John Robinson in North Little Rock said there was a report that the roof of the courthouse there sustained damage.

Reports to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Storm Prediction Center included trees and power lines down in Bull Shoals in Marion County, roof damage in Gassville in Baxter County and downed trees and power lines blocking the intersection of Arkansas 126 and Arkansas 5 northwest of Mountain Home in Baxter County.

Three tractor trailers and a camper were overturned, and two power-line poles were down along Interstate 55 in Osceola in Mississippi County, one report said.

More severe weather is expected today and will likely continue through the weekend, Mickelson said. A strong, cold front will become stationary over much of the central and northern area of the state and could set off severe thunderstorms and flooding.

"There is absolutely more coming in," Mickelson said.

A section on 06/06/2014

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