A second tornado has been confirmed in Arkansas as part of a storm system that ripped through the state Tuesday evening, according to the National Weather Service.
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Wednesday that he is monitoring damage caused by that EF-2 tornado in Kensett as well as an EF-1 tornado that struck the nearby town of Higginson.
“We were very fortunate to not have any loss of life, but there are many that have homes destroyed or damaged,” Hutchinson told reporters in opening an unrelated news conference Wednesday.
The governor, who was about 10 minutes late, said he’d been caught in traffic spurred from a storm-related accident involving an overturned tractor-trailer on Interstate 555, he said.
Earlier in the day, Hutchinson had traveled to a grand opening event for Big River Steel in Osceola and was making his way back to Little Rock for the conference.
Hutchinson thanked emergency first responders and utility companies for their efforts to respond to the storms.
Shortly before 4 p.m., more than 16,000 Entergy Arkansas customers remained in the dark, according to the company’s outage map.
Of that total, about 415 customers were still without power in the hardest-hit areas of White County: 302 in Higginson and 113 in Kensett.
Residents of those towns near Searcy will likely see power restored by noon Thursday, according to the latest estimates.
Power failures were also reported in central Arkansas, including in North Little Rock, where up to 600 homes were affected after the storms.
On social media around 2:30 p.m., the city of North Little Rock said crews had restored 10 downed power lines and were in the final stages of restringing.
Customers in the Faulkner Crossing and Stone Links subdivisions in North Little Rock were expected to have their power restored by 7 p.m. Wednesday.
Check back with Arkansas Online for updates on weather across the state and read Thursday’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.
EARLIER:
An EF-1 tornado caused injuries to four people and damage to dozens of homes in Higginson on Tuesday evening, a National Weather Service survey crew confirmed.
Michael Brown, a meteorologist with the agency’s North Little Rock office, said two people who surveyed the area gave the rating after evaluating damage at residences Wednesday morning.
The survey crew estimated that winds, responsible for snapping trees, downing power lines and ripping roofs off homes, reached between 86 and 110 mph in the White County town.
That tornado struck a path about a mile and a half long as it traveled northeast around 7 p.m. Tuesday, Brown said.
In the town of about 650 residents just south of Searcy, 40 homes were damaged and four homes were destroyed, according to authorities.
Officer Terri Lee with the Searcy Police Department said the four people hurt in the twister were taken to a nearby hospital for injuries that were not considered life-threatening.
Two injuries were also reported in Kensett, which is north and east of Higginson. A storm survey was ongoing there Wednesday afternoon, but a weather service official said a second tornado track had been identified in that area and it would likely be rated as EF-2. Tornadoes at that level have winds between 111 and 135 mph.
Three homes in Kensett were reported destroyed. Ten residences were damaged and the Kensett Cemetery sustained “extensive damage,” Lee said.
“Looks to be one path through the towns,” the officer said in an emailed statement.
A crew was traveling to Kensett on Wednesday to survey the area to confirm possible tornadic activity.
As of shortly before noon Wednesday, more than 300 Entergy Arkansas customers, nearly half of the population, were without power in Higginson.
Crews provided an estimated restoration time of 6 p.m. for “the majority of customers” in that town.
More than 110 homes and businesses in Kensett, a town of about 1,700 residents, were without electricity at that time.
Statewide, the utility company said about 21,000 Entergy customers remained in the dark as of Wednesday afternoon.
In North Little Rock, about 500 to 600 houses served by the city electric department were without power in the Faulkner Crossing and Stone Links subdivisions after the storm knocked out 10 electric utility poles along Arkansas 391.
The North Little Rock Electric customer outages are primarily east of Highway 391 and north of U.S. 165 and north and south of Faulkner Lake Road.
The utility is working with Entergy to replace the poles, North Little Rock city spokesman Nathan Hamilton said Wednesday afternoon, but power may still be out overnight for some customers.
About 10 to 15 Arkansas residents in total were hurt as a result of Tuesday night’s storms, according to the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management.
By Brandon Riddle
March 1, 2017 at 12:08 p.m., Updated today at 4:09 p.m.
