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US tornadoes kill 7
06/02/2008 09:55 - (SA)
Atkins - Tornadoes tore across the southern states of Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi, killing at least seven people and injuring dozens in a rare midwinter outbreak of violent weather.
A couple and a child were killed after a tornado touched down on Tuesday near the centre of Atkins, a community of 3 000 along the Arkansas River in the central part of the state, the Pope County Sheriff's Office said.
Governor Mike Beebe's office later said seven people were killed across Arkansas, including in the communities of Clinton and Gassville.
On primary election day, at least one voting site in Atkins continued functioning as a Red Cross shelter after polls closed, Natasha Naragon, a spokesperson with the secretary of state's office.
"It's been a wild night," said state emergency management spokesperson Tommy Jackson. "A heck of a way to have elections in Arkansas."
30+ people injured
The power was knocked out briefly at a Little Rock convention hall that hosted a watch party for Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor.
"While we hope tonight is a time for us to celebrate election results, we are reminded that nothing is as important as the lives of these fellow Arkansans, and our hearts go out to their families," Huckabee said.
Cell phone pictures sent to television stations showed a dark, broad funnel approaching Atkins. Traffic was snarled on nearby Interstate 40, with reports of tractor-trailers on their sides.
At least six tornadoes touched down between Oxford, Mississippi, and Jackson, Tennessee, said Richard Okulski of the National Weather Service in Memphis. More than 30 people were injured in the two states, hospital officials said.
In Oxford, 11 people ranging in age from infants to senior citizens were taken to Baptist Memorial Hospital with injuries caused by a tornado, Peyton Warrington, the hospital's assistant administrator. They were stable, she said.
One storm tore a large part of the north wall off Hickory Ridge Mall in Memphis. Steve Cole of the Memphis Police Department said a few people north of the mall took shelter under a bridge and were washed away, but were pulled out of the Wolf River with only scrapes.
Later, the same system damaged a dormitory at Union University in Jackson, where a 2003 tornado killed 11 people and one in 1999 killed nine. Eight students were trapped Tuesday but weren't seriously injured, school spokesperson Tim Ellsworth said.
In Arkansas, the Baxter County Sheriff's Office said debris, including parts of houses, blocked US Highway 62. The town of Gassville was sealed off because of the possibility of gas leaks that could cause an explosion, and injury reports could not be confirmed because phone lines were down.
Twisters in northern Mississippi tore through buildings and ripped down power lines.
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