7 Die as 49 Tornadoes Cut Swath Through Five States

At least 49 tornadoes churned a trail of destruction through five states in the South and Midwest, killing seven people and injuring dozens. National Guardsmen in Arkansas today helped search for people and clean up damage.

The same storm system left three people dead in road accidents in the season’s first major snowfall.

The twisters took their worst toll in Arkansas, where six people were killed and many others injured Tuesday. Tornadoes damaged buildings and overturned cars.

“I can’t even tell what street I’m on because the trees are uprooted,” said Police Chief Darnell Scott of the central Arkansas town of Lonoke. “Damage is so bad. I think we were very lucky it wasn’t more tragic than it was.”

Guardsmen in Pulaski and Van Buren counties in Arkansas searched house to house to account for people and clean up damaged areas.

Tornadoes also struck Missouri, Kansas, Illinois and Iowa, while in Oklahoma high winds caused damage and fanned the flames of a cotton fire that destroyed 20 homes and businesses and injured 18 people in Altus.

One person died in Missouri when a tornado threw a trailer home into the air, authorities said. A woman in Illinois was electrocuted by a power line downed by high wind.

“It may be a little unusual for this time of year to have a tornado outbreak like this, because they normally occur in spring,” said meteorologist Brian Smith from the National Weather Service’s Severe Storms Center in Kansas City.

In Arkansas, as many as 10 tornadoes touched down Tuesday night, toppling trees, downing power lines and crumpling mobile homes, houses and businesses.

Two people were killed on Interstate 40 near Lonoke when high winds overturned their vehicle.

A Wal-Mart store and an attached grocery in Lonoke were demolished by a tornado.

Three other people were killed when a tornado ripped through the town of Scott in west-central Arkansas, and a man injured when a twister struck north-central Arkansas later died at a hospital, authorities said.