A line of thunderstorms and high winds plowed through Arkansas on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, soaking the state with up to 5 inches of rain and causing flash flooding that washed out roads and deluged homes and businesses.
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High winds damaged at least two houses and toppled scores of trees and utility poles in Dermott, but there were no injuries in the Chicot County town, said Dermott Assistant Fire Chief Damond Coffey.
A National Weather Service survey team from Jackson, Miss., planned to inspect the area Thursday to determine if the destruction was caused by straight-line winds or a tornado.
The storm system entered western Arkansas on Wednesday afternoon and blew across the state that evening and early Thursday. Several storms "trained," or repeatedly formed over the same region in a relatively short period of time, and produced extraordinary rainfall, said National Weather Service hydrologist Tabitha Clarke of North Little Rock.
"The front set up with heavy rain, and then the system slowed down," Clarke said. "We saw strong moisture with this, and the [storms] just got on top of each other."
Searcy reported receiving 5.4 inches of rain, the state's highest 24-hour rainfall amount from 7 a.m. Wednesday to 7 a.m. Thursday. North Little Rock received 5.1 inches, Jonesboro recorded 5.04 inches, and Fordyce received 4.8 inches.
The system moved Thursday into Mississippi, spawning possible tornadoes and flooding. The Associated Press reported that residents in about two dozen homes in Sunflower County in the Mississippi Delta were evacuated because of rising water.
On Wednesday, a tornado swept through northern Tulsa and Owassa, Okla., and damaged a residential area.
In Pulaski County, flash flooding prompted the need for several swift-water rescues Wednesday night, and high water stranded motorists across the state. Turbulence associated with the storm system also forced an American Airlines plane traveling from Dallas to Memphis to make an emergency landing Wednesday in Little Rock. Two attendants received minor injuries.
Late Wednesday, officials barricaded dozens of roads around Little Rock, said Pulaski County Office of Emergency Management spokesman Jarrod Johnson.
"All the water in the ditches was overwhelming," Johnson said.
In Searcy, rapidly rising water flooded the loading docks of the Land O'Frost facility on Hastings Avenue, said White County Office of Emergency Management coordinator Tamara Jenkins.
"We had a few cars get stranded in the county by high water," she said. "We had a lot of flooding."
In Jonesboro, E911 Center director Jeff Presley said more than 40 cars were stranded in flooded roadways Wednesday night. Water washed out a lengthy section of Reynolds Road in southwest Jonesboro, and homes in the central part of the town had up to 2 feet of water in them, Presley said.
The city opened a temporary shelter at Allen Park for residents displaced by flooding.
Jeramie Felton, a sales manager at the Toyota dealership on Red Wolf Boulevard in Jonesboro, watched as water quickly rose on the car lot about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. He and another worker began moving the cars to higher ground.
"It came up so quickly," he said. "Once it started, it didn't take long."
He and the other worker moved about 40 cars. None was damaged.
"I called my wife and told her I would wait to come home before this blew over," Felton said. "It never blew over."
Water also poured into a lobby of Kays Hall, a first-year residence hall at Arkansas State University, late Wednesday. A video of a student swimming in about 2 feet of water that has been shown countless times on news stations and over the Internet exaggerated the flooding, said ASU Residence Life director Patrick Dixon.
The area flooded was a recessed lobby, he said. Students could enter the hall, and then use stairs to reach the first floor where residences are.
"There were no rooms flooded," he said. "That video has made social media, and it enhanced what we had. I think some of the students took advantage of what nature had to offer."
Because a storm drain on the roof of the Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock was blocked, water caused significant damage at the center Wednesday evening, Executive Director Todd Herman said. Several ceiling tiles broke and fell, and rain poured in, damaging the lecture hall, museum school gallery and a hallway leading to an elevator.
The city's insurance provider assessed the damage Thursday and said it could be a few days before there's an estimate on the repairs, Herman said. The lecture hall will remain closed until April 12 for repairs.
None of the artwork was damaged.
Wednesday night's storms also knocked out power briefly to Arkansas Department of Correction prisons in Newport and Dermott. Also, wind damaged the roof at the Delta Regional Unit in Dermott.
Coffey said he and other Dermott firefighters spent Thursday assessing the damage from Wednesday's storms.
"The wind picked up last night, and it was raining so hard you couldn't see," Coffey said of the storm's 11 p.m. approach. "All the power was out. You couldn't tell what all we had wrong."
He said the wind flipped heavy farm equipment upside down along U.S. 165 just north of Dermott.
The weather service forecasts dry weather for the weekend and next week with temperatures rising to the upper 60s and 70s.
Information for this article was contributed by Chelsea Boozer of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
State Desk on 04/01/2016