A dangerous storm slamming Vilonia, Arkansas, left four dead and the town in shamble.Emergency crews worked to account for dozens of people still missing Tuesday after a powerful storm battered Arkansas with floods, high winds and tornados, snapping utility poles, twisting one tractor-trailer like a wrung dish rag and leaving at least seven people dead.
A twister that hit the small, rural town of Vilonia late Monday tore roofs from homes and stores, and tossed vehicles into the air. Four residents of the close-knit community were killed by the tornado.
Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe says rescuers have accounted for everyone who lives in the tornado-struck town and that the death toll in the rural community will likely remain at four.
Rescue crews continue, however, to search for survivors -- or bodies -- in nearby Garland County where the storm also hit hard late Monday.
Beebe toured Vilonia on Tuesday morning. He says he is impressed with the scale of the twister, which left a broad trail of destruction through the town of 3,800, some 25 miles north of Little Rock.
The main road through town of 3,800 was passable, but debris still littered the street. Officials set up a command post at a grocery store, whose roof was torn off and deposited in the parking lot by the storm.
Faulkner County sheriff's Capt. Matt Price said he wasn't sure how many people were missing. Late Monday, fire chief Keith Hillman said some 50 to 60 people were still not accounted for. Hundreds of emergency workers from several counties were checking homes.
"We're just getting cranked up. We're doing a pretty intense search," Price said.
The deaths from Monday's storms bring this month's storm-related death toll in Arkansas to 14. And forecasters said another bout of bad weather was expected to hammer the state Tuesday afternoon, further complicating rescue efforts.
Faulkner County spokesman Stephan Hawks said the infrastructure in and around Vilonia was badly damaged. Source
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