Flaring a Little Rock Shopping Center in North Little Rock with a Violent Tornado on Friday Night: Emergency Management and Warnings for the Mid-South
A group of storms is headed toward the Midwest and southernU.S., with the weather experts warning people to prepare for tornadoes like the ones that hit Mississippi a week ago.
The residents are advised to stay weather aware, and have a variety of ways to receive weather notifications. Along with the severe weather threats, there may be intense rainfall rates that last long enough to cause isolated-to-scattered areas of flash flooding.
Last Friday night, a vicious tornado in Mississippi killed at least 21 people, injured dozens and flattened entire blocks as it carved a path of destruction for more than an hour. According to the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, over 2,000 homes were damaged or destroyed.
There is a chance of tornadoes on Saturday in southern Indiana, western Ohio and northern Kentucky. The area, which includes the cities of Dayton and Cincinnati, was under a tornado watch that warned of wind gusts up to 70 mph along with large hail.
The twister tore first through neighborhoods in west Little Rock, and shredded a small shopping center that included a Kroger grocery store. It traveled across the Arkansas River into the North Little Rock area, causing widespread damage to homes, businesses and vehicles.
The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Medical Center in Little Rock was at a mass casualty level. Several people were brought to the medical center, but an exact count was not available.
Weather Warning from Little Rock, Illinois, and Other Regions During a Tornado-Rotating Event at Clinton National Airport in Little Rock
Niki Scott hid in the restroom after her husband called to say that a tornado was on it’s way. She could hear glass shattering as the tornado roared past, and emerged afterward to find that her house was one of the few on her street that didn’t have a tree fall on it.
The Little Rock Fire Department posted on its Facebook page that it had responded to heavy damage in the western part of the city.
“Praying for all those who were and remain in the path of this storm,” she wrote on Twitter. “Arkansans must stay weather aware as storms continue to move through.”
Passengers and airport employees at Clinton National Airport took shelter in bathrooms and were ordered to stay there until 3:45 p.m. Aerial footage showed several rooftops were torn from homes in Little Rock and nearby Benton.
Wind gusts of up to 60 mph caused fast moving grass fires in Oklahoma, where about 32,000 were without power. People were urged to evacuate homes in far northeast Oklahoma City, and troopers shut down portions of Interstate 35 near the suburb of Edmond.
At least 22 tornadoes were reported in Illinois, eight in Iowa, six in Tennessee, five in Wisconsin and a couple in Mississippi, according to preliminary information.
In Illinois, Ben Wagner, chief radar operator for the Woodford County Emergency Management Agency, said hail broke windows on cars and buildings in the area of Roanoke, northeast of Peoria.
All told, by Friday afternoon, tornado watches issued by the National Weather Service cover most of Missouri, Arkansas and Iowa; western Illinois; and parts of Wisconsin, Texas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Mississippi.
The weather forecasters warned of a “very important severe weather threat” for Chicago that could include powerful winds, tornadoes and large hail.
South Dakota canceled by winds and storms and the death of two people in Arkansas, including two killed in North Little Rock and Little Wynne
The University of Iowa canceled a watch party for fans who planned to attend the Final Four game against South Carolina.
Strong southerly winds transporting water from the Gulf of Mexico north and interacting with a stronger storm system caused the hazardous forecast.
In South Dakota, Gov. Kristi Noem ordered state executive branch offices to be closed Friday in parts of the state, as freezing rain, snow and high winds were expected. There were a lot of counties under warnings.
The weather service is forecasting storms again next Tuesday in the same general area. Accuweather has said that the first 10 days of April will be rough.
More than 50 preliminary tornado reports were made Friday in at least six states, including in Arkansas, where storms killed three people – two in the small city of Wynne and another person in North Little Rock, local officials said.
Two people were killed in Indiana by a storm Friday night that damaged homes and a volunteer fire department near Sullivan, a city about a 95-mile drive southwest of Indianapolis, State Police Sgt. Matt Ames said.
The Little Rock tornado hit Williams and the city of Wynne, Texas: CNN’s First Look at a Broken Super-Solar System
William Williams, an employee at a Kroger store in Little Rock, was working Friday afternoon when a tornado hit the area. He’d taken shelter inside the store, and went outside afterward to see people injured, including a woman he said had a severe leg injury.
Everything happened in a matter of seconds. It came – boom,” Williams told KATV. “You could hear a lot of commotion and stuff. I go outside, and it’s crazy. People had their faces covered with blood. … I’m just thankful that I’m alive.”
About 100 miles east of Little Rock, the city of Wynne was “basically cut in half by damage from east to west,” Mayor Jennifer Hobbs told CNN Friday evening.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/01/us/us-severe-storm-south-midwest-saturday/index.html
Flaring the Apollo Theatre in Belvidere, Indiana, in the aftermath of a Friday Night Night Storm. The Apollo Theatre was shut down by a National Guard
One person was killed and many more were injured when the roof of the Apollo Theatre in Belvidere collapsed onFriday night. The collapse came as a line of storms packing 50 mph winds and dumping hail moved through the area, according to officials and the National Weather Service. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the storm caused the theater’s roof to crumble.
Several businesses were destroyed and as many as 40 homes were damaged by the storm that hit near Sherman, less than 10 miles north of Springfield.
There were almost 300,000 homes and businesses in Indiana that were without power in the early hours of Saturday, with more than a third of them in Indiana.
In Arkansas, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared a state of emergency, noting the state will “spare no resource” in responding and recovering from the storm and activated the state’s National Guard.