Tornado Kills 4, Injures 50 in Arkansas

A devastating tornado killed at least four people and destroyed dozens of homes and businesses when it ripped through western Arkansas overnight, police said Monday.

A 2-year-old girl and a 5-year-old boy died when their homes collapsed in downtown Fort Smith. The bodies of a father and son were found in the wreckage of their home in the St. Paul community in northwest Arkansas.

The twister ripped through Fort Smith’s historic district and the suburb of Van Buren, sweeping some houses off their foundations before roaring on to St. Paul, a rural community 50 miles away. At least 50 people were injured and more than 330 left homeless.

“I just started praying,” said Leisa Didway, who rode out the storm Sunday night in her closet with a friend and the friend’s year-old son. “I held her and the baby. I was just praying to God because I didn’t know what else to do.”

The streets of Fort Smith, a town of 73,000, were littered with trees and debris. Power lines were downed, and more than 150 people took shelter in Red Cross centers in Fort Smith and Van Buren.

“It looks like war. Like a bomb zone. There were no fires, but that’s the only difference,” said Jack Moseley, editor of Fort Smith’s newspaper, the Southwest Times Record.

State troopers patrolled Fort Smith to guard against looters after five people who police said were about to start looting were arrested and charged with prowling. The National Guard ordered 45 members to report for duty.

The Red Cross said 636 houses, 30 apartment units and 217 businesses were damaged. Of those, 35 houses, five apartments and 78 businesses were beyond repair. Damage was put in the millions of dollars.

Gov. Jim Guy Tucker declared six state counties disaster areas. Seven people were killed last week by tornadoes that roared through north-central Arkansas, about 200 miles away.

Electric, water and sewage services were interrupted, and there were concerns that gas from a broken main could cause further problems. Police earlier evacuated part of Fort Smith’s downtown after the tornado caused an ammonia tank at a poultry plant to burst. A sewage treatment plant was damaged and disabled, and witnesses said it appeared raw sewage was entering the Arkansas River.

In Oklahoma, severe storms and flash floods Sunday and Monday were blamed for five traffic deaths. Two tornadoes touched down in McAlester on Sunday, injuring nine people and damaging about 350 buildings.