Tornado slams Little Rock, Arkansas

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To Patrick Riley

March 31, 2023 | 5:00 PM

A powerful tornado hit Little Rock and other areas of central Arkansas on Friday, collapsing buildings, tearing trees, overturning vehicles and powering out nearly 100,000 people.

Sources with the city’s Metropolitan Emergency Management Service initially told CBS 19 that an estimated 600 people were injured, but Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr. said on Twitter As of 6:18pm, only 24 people are hospitalized.

The mayor said there were no reports of fatalities at this time, but said “property damage was extensive.”

Little Rock’s main trauma center has previously said it expected at least 15 to 20 patients.

The National Weather Service first declared a tornado emergency with likely “catastrophic” damage around 2:30 p.m. local time after the Twister landed in the western part of the capital. shredded a small shopping center A Kroger grocery store was included.

It then crossed the Arkansas River into North Little Rock and surrounding cities, reporting extensive damage to homes, businesses and vehicles.

The Arkansas School of Medicine Medical Center in Little Rock was operating at levels that caused mass casualties, a spokesperson told The Associated Press.

Several people have already been taken to hospital, with at least one reportedly in critical condition.

The Little Rock Fire Department reported heavy damage and debris on the western edge of the city, writing on its Facebook page that firefighters are conducting rescue operations in the area.

A photo shared by the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office shows a large, wrecked tractor trailer that has completely blocked several lanes of Highway 67 in Jacksonville, just northeast of Little Rock. was in the picture.

Passengers and airport workers at Clinton National Airport were forced to seek refuge in the restrooms and were ordered to remain there until 3:45 p.m.

Aerial footage showed several roofs torn off from homes in Little Rock and nearby Benton.

Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared a state of emergency Friday night, saying there was “significant damage” to the heart of the state.

“We will spare no resources to support response and recovery efforts for those in Arkansas affected,” she tweeted. She later said she had activated the National Guard.

Little Rock Mayor Scott tweeted that a temporary emergency shelter has been set up at Hall High School.

“Please stay off the road and away from the affected areas so that emergency responders can operate,” he wrote.

About 94,000 people in the state are without power, according to the outage tracker PowerOutage.us.

Two more tornadoes were confirmed in Iowa, hail in Illinois and wind-blown grass fires in Oklahoma. It’s part of a massive storm system that threatens the entire nation of about 85 million people in the South and Midwest.

It’s too early to estimate the size of the Iowa Twister or the extent of the damage, but a Pouseek County sheriff’s deputy said one had landed on an empty field and there were no reports of injuries.

Dylan Dodson, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Des Moines, told The Associated Press.

In Illinois, in the Roanoke area northeast of Peoria, large hailstones shattered windows of cars and homes.

An additional 32,000 people in Oklahoma suffered power outages as gusts of wind up to 60 mph ignited fast-moving grass fires. People were urged to evacuate their homes in northeast Oklahoma City, and police closed part of Interstate 35 near the Edmond suburbs.

More outages were reported in Kansas, Missouri, and Texas.

Just last week in Mississippi and Alabama, at least 26 people were killed and dozens injured when a massive storm, presumed to be an EF-4 tornado, hit the region.

Rolling Fork — a predominantly black community of 2,000 residents located in one of Mississippi’s poorest counties — experienced winds of 166 to 200 miles per hour uprooting trees, collapsing homes and tearing roofs. It was the hardest hit as it sheared through and scattered mobile homes.

Victor Genzini, a professor of meteorology and tornado expert in northern Illinois, said Friday’s atmospheric makeup resembled conditions that existed during the deadly storm in Mississippi.

Outside of Little Rock, a city of just over 200,000 people, Chicago is among the major population centers at high risk of storms beginning Friday afternoon. St. Louis; Jonesboro, Arkansas; Des Moines Iowa and Cedar his Rapids.

with post wire