Tornado shreds homes like 'high explosives'
Pastor Dale Morgan
Tornado shreds homes like 'high explosives'*
POSTED: 0056 GMT (0856 HKT), February 25, 2007
Story Highlights
• NEW: Door-to-door search for tornado victims
• NEW: 43 houses, 50 mobile homes destroyed, damaged
• Two children critically injured when trapped inside home
• 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew in place Sunday night
DUMAS, Arkansas (AP) -- Dozens of homes and businesses looked like they
were shredded by "high explosives," Lt. Gov. Bill Halter said Sunday as
he surveyed the damage a day after a powerful storm injured 40 people.
State police said all residents were accounted following a door-to-door
search of Dumas, where a tornado cut a swath through town and injured 27
people on Saturday.
Two children, ages 5 and 7, were critically injured when the storm
flipped their mobile home and trapped them inside, Desha County Sheriff
Jim Snyder said.
It took two hours for rescuers to get them out, he said.
Kevin Hill, who pulled furniture from the rubble with his family, said
they were out running an errand -- picking up a saw blade in Pine Bluff
-- when the storm ripped apart their brick-and-mortar home.
"Thank God for a five-dollar saw blade or we would have all been inside
the house," said Hill, 42.
The storms in Arkansas were part of a massive system that also caused
blizzard conditions in the Midwest. Snyder said weather forecasters told
him the storm packed winds estimated between 158 and 207 mph.
Damage was reported along a five-mile-long, half-mile-wide swath south
and east of Dumas, which is about 90 miles southeast of Little Rock.
In all, 43 houses and 50 mobile homes were destroyed or damaged around
Dumas; and nine had major damage, the Department of Emergency Management
said.
"Some of these homes looked like they had high explosives in them,"
Halter said. "All that's left is the foundation."
A general merchandise store and a pet-food factory were among the 25
businesses leveled in the town of 5,300 people. Nine other businesses
had major damage, the state Department of Emergency Management said.
"We feel like we've probably got 800 unemployed today as a result,"
Snyder said.
Halter, acting governor while Gov. Mike Beebe is out of state, said the
county would be declared a disaster area. He estimated damage in the
millions of dollars. Beebe planned to return early from a National
Governors Association conference in Washington to survey the damage
Monday, a spokesperson said.
State Police Director Steve Dozier said a 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew would
be in place again Sunday night to prevent looting. About 140 members of
the Arkansas National Guard policed the area and helped with recovery work.
At least 78 people sought refuge in shelters where workers served meals
and tended to health concerns Sunday.
The sheriff said it may be three to five days before power could be
restored. The storms also polluted the town's drinking water, which
residents were told to boil.