DUMAS, Ark. (AP) - High winds, and possibly a series of
tornadoes, sliced through southeastern Arkansas, destroying homes and buildings and injuring a number of people today. Emergency crews summoned ambulances from a neighboring county.
A Fred's Dollar Store just south of Dumas was left in a tangle of twisted metal and crumbled concrete blocks, and an overturned tractor-trailer rested in its parking lot. Damage was reported in a five-mile-long, half-mile-wide swath to the south of the city.
Forecasters said the damage could have been done by a tornado or by straight-line winds that could have exceeded 70 miles per hour.
State police spokesman Bill Sadler says several people were
injured, but he didn't know how many nor how seriously. Sadler says some residents were unaccounted for and police were making a door-to-door search.
A power substation was destroyed and electricity was out in the area.
Damage was also reported near Tichnor in southern Arkansas
County, where the public reported a tornado passed near the
community's post office.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
