Little Rock tornado sparks widespread damage in Arkansas with ‘600’ injured and cars turned over in weather chaos
A TORNADO has slammed into Arkansas leaving homes and businesses torn apart and cars overturned with fears of up to 600 injured in the destruction.
Victims were “pouring in” to a nearby hospital after the large twister rocked Central Arkansas, including west and north Little Rock.
It’s unclear if there are any fatalities at this time, but the Little Rock Fire Department reported seeing heavy damage and is performing rescue operations, local CBS affiliate TVH11 reports.
Special projects manager for Pulaski County Mark Hulsey said that at least one is in critical condition, the AP said.
“Prayers for us in Central Arkansas. We just got smoked by a huge tornado,” one person wrote on Twitter.
“Destroyed lots of west Little Rock and North Little Rock. Ex wife works at Baptist Hospital and injured people are pouring in.”
Two tornadoes have been confirmed so far in the Little Rock area with one moving all the way down to Jacksonville.
More than 350,000 people were at risk from a “confirmed large and destructive tornado” that ripped through the western part of the city, the National Weather Service said.
The Metropolitan Emergency Medical Services predicts that 600 have been injured by the twisters, but this has also yet to be confirmed by other officials.
The University of Arkansas for Media Sciences has declared the devastating situation a level 3 mass casualty event and said they are currently expecting at least 15 to 20 patients.
And Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed an executive order declaring a State of Emergency due to the extreme weather.
Areas surrounding the city were also affected, but thankfully no completely destroyed buildings have been discovered.
Around 70,000 Little Rock residents were without power on Friday afternoon.
Another 32,000 reported outages in nearby Oklahoma, according to poweroutage.us.
A temporary emergency shelter has been set up at Hall High School for displaced individuals, Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr said.
Storms continue to develop in at least 15 states on Friday, leading meteorologists to urge residents in the Midwest and South to take preventative measures.
It comes just a week after at least 26 people were killed when a deadly tornado ripped through Mississippi.
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