Tornadoes Terrorize Arkansas, Tennessee, Killing 8

Tornadoes ripped through the South for the second time this week, killing eight people, wrecking historic neighborhoods and leaving more than 100,000 homes without power in Arkansas and Tennessee.

One of Little Rock’s oldest areas, the 100-year-old Quapaw Quarter, was sliced in half by a twister that killed three people Thursday night. A tornado also hit the historic district of Clarksville, Tenn., early Friday, leaving gaping holes in buildings, including the 121-year-old courthouse.

The Little Rock storm knocked over trees at the governor’s mansion, where Bill Clinton once lived. One of those trees contained Chelsea Clinton’s childhood treehouse from the years when her father was governor. He plans to visit Arkansas on Sunday.

“The fact that the governor’s mansion where Hillary and I raised Chelsea for 12 years was actually in the path of the storm made it all the more real to me,” Clinton said. “We are deeply committed to doing everything we can to help the people there recover.”

A supermarket near the mansion crumbled beneath the storm’s winds, killing the pharmacist and leaving residents of the Quapaw Quarter without one of the few major businesses remaining in the area.

“It’s going to affect a lot of people. A lot of people don’t have transportation or cars to get them where they need,” Diana Howley said.

Four other people were killed in White County, outside the capital. In hard-hit Beebe, residents were tense as police held them back from seeing the damage.

Charles Underwood, a volunteer at the Church of Christ, was embarrassed after asking people how their homes fared during the storm.

“They say, ‘We have no home,’ ” Underwood said.

After pounding Arkansas, the storm moved into Tennessee, killing a woman west of Nashville when she went outside to get her dogs. The state was still trying to recover from storms that killed nine people on Sunday.

In Clarksville, northwest of Nashville, a tornado cut off power to 25,000. It ripped apart a five-block area, tore through the center of Austin Peay State University and skipped into a residential neighborhood.

The university’s clock tower was blown over, 100-year-old magnolia trees were toppled, and the 123-year-old Archwood House, which used to be the college president’s home but now holds offices, was destroyed.

“I lived in Southern California. I lived through earthquakes. I’ve never seen anything like this,” President Sal Rivella said.

In Alexandria, La., an apparent tornado ripped apart businesses and downed electrical lines.