A Tornado Sweeps Through Little Rock, Ark. and Then a Second
Mike Wintroath/Associated Press
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- The National Weather Service says an unknown
number of people were injured when a tornado swept through the Little
Rock, Arkansas, area last night. At the North Little Rock Air****t, the
tornado destroyed a hangar and several small planes and left several
others flipped over onto their wings.
Gregory Greene has lived in this part of Tornado Alley for all of his
39 years and had never seen a tornado.
Until, that is, Thursday night.
''I thought I was going to die,'' Greene said after a twister swept
through Little Rock and many of its suburbs Thursday night. The
National Weather Service said an unknown number of people were
injured.
''I saw debris flying around in a circle when I was about to go in and
pick up my girlfriend from work,'' Greene said outside an Andy's
Restaurant. ''Stuff was going around in circles.
''About that time, it pushed her up against the building and knocked
me down and pushed me under that truck,'' Greene said. While he was
under the truck, the storm flipped a car in the next parking space.
His right elbow was rubbed raw.
At the North Little Rock Air****t, the storm passed directly over the
local office of the weather service. The tornado destroyed an air****t
hangar, left several single-engine planes flipped over onto their
wings and destroyed other aircraft. A fuel truck was also toppled.
Damage also was re****ted in Benton at a mobile home park and a car
dealer****p whose surveillance camera caught the storm on tape. After
hitting Little Rock, the storm moved into the city's northeastern
suburbs. Trees were re****ted down in Jacksonville and Cabot.
The tornado storm contributed to traffic accidents when it passed
through the metropolitan area of about 500,000 people. A number of
shelters were set up at churches in the region. A separate storm
downed trees at the University of Central Arkansas campus in Conway.
In Cammack Village, a community of 1,000 surrounded by northwest
Little Rock, police and firefighters went door-to-door to check on
residents. Paramedics tended to an elderly woman, who didn't appear
seriously hurt. An oak tree blocked in neighbors on a cul-de-sac and
water from torrential rains flowed down streets about a half-foot
deep.
Susann Walters, 55, said she hid in a closet with her two dogs and a
cat as the storm approached. ''It was probably 30-45 seconds,'' Walter
said. ''It was quick.''
A tree from her front yard smashed the hood and front wind****eld of a
neighbor's SUV but her bungalow home only lost a few ****ngles. She was
still blocked in though, with trees down across either end of the
street.
''I'm not going anywhere,'' she said as lightning filled the sky and
the roar of chainsaws pierced the night.
A second storm hit much of the same area south of Little Rock later
Thursday night but was not as potent.
Anticipating damage, the state's largest electric utility, Entergy
Arkansas, requested line workers in neighboring states to stand by to
help. Outages were widespread but a number of homes and businesses
affected wasn't immediately known, spokesman James Thompson said.
Over the past two months, parts of Arkansas have seen a tornado during
a storm outbreak that killed 13, a foot of snow, more than a foot of
rain and near-record flooding.
|
