Father’s Day saw tumultuous and severe weather in Arkansas this year.
On June 20th, when severe weather hit the area over the weekend, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders proclaimed a state of emergency.
An EF2 tornado struck Logan County around 1:12 a.m. on June 18, according to radar data from the National Weather Service.
According to accounts, winds up to 120 mph swept across a 5.4-mile stretch of eastern Logan County. The official width of the tornado’s passage through the area was estimated at 700 yards.
The National Weather Service in Little Rock, Arkansas, tweeted that the twister was spotted on radar between 1:00 and 1:30 a.m. local time in Logan County in nearby Scranton. The weather service reported that trees toppled and damaged residences and automobiles and that chicken coops were destroyed.
It is unclear whether or not any injuries were caused by the storm. Jason Massey, the Sheriff in Logan County, was unavailable for a phone call and update.
As of early Sunday afternoon, details on the tornado, including its force and path, were unknown. A survey crew is still in the field performing an evaluation of the damage, according to a spokesperson from the Little Rock office of the weather service.
Hundreds of thousands of people lost electricity because of the storm, as reported on the website PowerOutage.us. As of Sunday lunchtime, the website reported that over 10,000 River Valley residents were still without electricity. They had 4,170 clients in Sebastian County and 2,689 in Logan County.
A secondary storm moved into Oklahoma and Northwest Arkansas early on Sunday morning. The National Weather Service reported 70-80 mph gusts throughout the storm’s route. Beginning at about 1:30 AM, Benton County was hit the worst.
