MAYFLOWER, Ark. — A broad tornado sliced
through Little Rock's suburbs Sunday, killing at least 11 people and
leaving behind a miles-long path of destruction as a powerful system
rumbling off the Plains provided a violent kick-start to the nation's
tornado season.
The scene was the same in town after town, with emergency workers and volunteers going door-to-door to check for victims. State troopers performed the same task among the damaged and toppled 18-wheelers, cars and trucks on a two-mile stretch of Interstate 40, a major thoroughfare in and out of Arkansas' capital city.
"It turned pitch black," said Mark Ausbrooks, who was at his parents' home in Mayflower when the storm arrived. "I ran and got pillows to put over our heads and ... all hell broke loose."
"My parents' home, it's gone completely," he said.
Forecasters had warned for days that violent weather would strike this weekend, ending an unusually calm weather pattern. A morning storm forced a delay at the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon and by afternoon the weather system had grown deadly, spawning a tornado that killed a person in Quapaw, Okla., before moving north into Kansas.
When it reached Baxter Springs, a Kansas community of roughly 4,200 residents just across the border from Quapaw, the twister was estimated to be three blocks wide said Cherokee County emergency manager Jason Allison. It destroyed 60 to 70 homes and another 20 to 25 businesses in the city, he said.
The twister injured 25 people in Baxter Springs and one person also died there, but it wasn't clear if the death was related to the storm, said Kari West, a spokeswoman for the Southeast Kansas Incident Management Team.
The scene was the same in town after town, with emergency workers and volunteers going door-to-door to check for victims. State troopers performed the same task among the damaged and toppled 18-wheelers, cars and trucks on a two-mile stretch of Interstate 40, a major thoroughfare in and out of Arkansas' capital city.
"It turned pitch black," said Mark Ausbrooks, who was at his parents' home in Mayflower when the storm arrived. "I ran and got pillows to put over our heads and ... all hell broke loose."
"My parents' home, it's gone completely," he said.
Forecasters had warned for days that violent weather would strike this weekend, ending an unusually calm weather pattern. A morning storm forced a delay at the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon and by afternoon the weather system had grown deadly, spawning a tornado that killed a person in Quapaw, Okla., before moving north into Kansas.
When it reached Baxter Springs, a Kansas community of roughly 4,200 residents just across the border from Quapaw, the twister was estimated to be three blocks wide said Cherokee County emergency manager Jason Allison. It destroyed 60 to 70 homes and another 20 to 25 businesses in the city, he said.
The twister injured 25 people in Baxter Springs and one person also died there, but it wasn't clear if the death was related to the storm, said Kari West, a spokeswoman for the Southeast Kansas Incident Management Team.
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