Twisters Take Lives In Ark., Tenn.

Two Towns Decimated By Violent Weather; Hundreds Of Buildings Destroyed

(CBS/ AP)  A reported tornado killed two people and injured 30 Friday in central Tennessee as a line of storms that killed three people a day earlier in western Arkansas crept into the South, emergency officials said.

Tennessee Emergency Management Agency spokesman Donnie Smith confirmed the deaths Friday in Murfreesboro, about 30 miles southeast of Nashville.

Emergency Management Agency dispatchers said the area has been "heavily impacted" after several eyewitness reports of a tornado on the ground at about midday.

Elsewhere, a tornado touched down in southwestern Kentucky, injuring two people and destroying a mobile home. Large hail began falling in several North Carolina counties.

Joe Spencer, 23-year-old student, said he survived a direct hit on his house.

"I was going to open the door to see what was going on and I looked straight at a tornado," Spencer said.

He yelled at his brother to take shelter and ran to the bathroom.

"The bathtub started shaking, and I just tried to grab hold to anything I could. I grabbed the nozzle and turned on the water," said Spencer who was shaken but uninjured.

Friday afternoon, search teams fanned out across Murfreesboro, a city of about 100,500, looking for anyone trapped in homes. Police spokesman Clyde Atkinson said he believes there were three to five touchdowns mostly in the northern and western parts of the city.

Roofs were ripped away from at least a dozen homes, and some trees were blown down. A bulldozer was clearing tree limbs and other debris from streets

Thousands of utility customers lost power.

On Thursday night, a black funnel cloud descended on the western Arkansas hamlet of Mena, killing at least three, injuring 30 and destroying or damaging 600 homes.

"My dog freaked out, my cat freaked out, and then I freaked out," one resident told CBS News correspondent Kelly Cobiella.

The roof flew off Wesley Riggles' home while he was looking for a place to hide.

"By the time I dove into the bedroom, boom, the cat went flying by me," Riggles said.

Sandy Baker was in her house with her son when the twister lifted it clear off the ground.

"Our house moved about 15 feet off the foundation. If it weren't for the fact that it's a 100-year-old house, we'd be dead," Baker's son, Luis Muniz said.

Most of the injured were at the Masonic Temple for a meeting, Cobiella reports. One woman was killed; 18 others made it out alive.

"This one popped out of nowhere," said Polk County, Ark., Sheriff Mike Oglesby.

As daylight broke Friday in Mena, pink insulation hung like cherry blossoms from the sheared branches of century-old maples. The roof of a two-story home sat atop the rubble that once was the floors beneath it, a set of women's clothes still hanging from a suspended closet rack.

Oglesby said search-and-rescue teams had combed through the city's downtown and a neighborhood just west that sustained the brunt of the storm without finding any other victims. The sheriff said he had no reports of anyone else missing in the city of 5,700 in the Ouachita Mountains.

An initial survey of the damage suggests the tornado packed winds of at least 136 mph, weather service forecaster John Robinson said Friday.

Authorities conducted a house-to-house search Friday in Mena.

"It just looks like a war zone," Mayor George McKee said.

Thurman Allen, 79, said his charitable group, the Order of the Eastern Star, had just sat down for its twice-monthly meeting at the Masonic lodge when the last siren sounded. Before the 19 attendees could take cover, the tornado peeled away the roof with winds so strong that some women had their shoes ripped off their feet.

"I was down on the floor - I just flattened," Allen said.

One woman was killed by falling debris - her body recovered after emergency workers cut part of the roof away.

Elsewhere in the Ouachita Mountains town, Marion Boyt, 76, said he survived after rushing into a small closet with his son and daughter-in-law.

"I guess we got skinny because we were so scared," he said.

Boyt said one of those killed died when the roof of a two-story home collapsed.

The body of the third person killed was found in her front yard, county's emergency coordinator James Reeves said. Authorities have not released the names of those killed pending notification of their families.

National Guard troops patrolled the downtown of this city of 5,700 residents. An overnight curfew was put in effect as emergency crews dealt with ruptured gas lines, downed power lines, fallen trees and heavily damaged buildings.

The violent weather was part of a system that caused damage throughout the South and parts of the Midwest. The National Weather Service said a woman was injured at Shreveport, La., when a tree fell onto her car during a tornado. Twisters also damaged homes east of Vinita and near Muse in Oklahoma and at Crossett in far southern Arkansas, near the Louisiana line.

As the storms moved east, hail and high winds were reported in Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee. Power was out in many parts of the region.

The injured were taken to Mena Medical Center for treatment.

Reeves, the emergency coordinator, said he had never seen such a powerful storm hit the tornado-prone region.

"Not in my lifetime," he said. "The last tornado we had to hit the city of Mena was in November 1993. This time we had significant structures (hit)."

In Oklahoma Friday, a wind-whipped blaze destroyed more than 100 homes. Officials said the fire was intentionally set.

An area near a wrecker service where the fire started Thursday is frequented by teenagers from a nearby high school and investigators were looking into the possibility that they might have set the blaze, Fire Marshal Jerry Lojka said.

Authorities have not identified any suspects or determined a motive.

The fire, one of several statewide driven by strong winds and fueled by dry grass and brush, engulfed homes throughout east Oklahoma County, including in Midwest City and Choctaw. So far, more than 100 houses had burned down in the state and 49 people were injured, the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management said.

Fire investigators were still trying to determine what caused the other fires.

At least three people were killed in Texas across the state lines where 60 mph winds diminished, allowing evacuated residents to return to neighborhoods with charred homes, blackened vegetation and ruined cars.

[slownewsday05]

House is still standing though, so that's a plus...
Posted by slownewsday05 at 3:10 PM .............

I was thinking about you. Glad you are well :-)
Posted by IrishWench01

Thanks, Irish - makes me feel all warm inside ')

I have a good friend whose house survived - it was one of two on her street that did. It'll take some recovery and rebuilding time, for sure.

Nice to have friends to send good thoughts... really appreciate it!

[gce651]

God hates the Bible belt. He's punishing you for being such hypocrites.

[barbaraf4]

I live about 35 miles down I-24 from Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Posted by hbevis
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You were lucky. Storms were passing south of Tullahoma up through Manchester and further south in the Winchester area.

[slownewsday05]

Glad you are OK...
WE are 30 miles n of Atlanta, had some heavy rain and hail.
Wife is fine. Me and the dog are still under the bed.
Posted by hollysbaby

Glad all is well there... Sure was an under-the-bed-er!

[Dgunner]

p8

[Dgunner]

I live in the middle of tornado alley in the kiamichi mountain range. This storm came over my house at around 80 mph at 900 feet above sea level. I can always tell by the wildlife when there is a bad one coming. I had considered getting under ground. The downward pressure was terrible poping ears and scaring livestock. I tried to call ahead to mena because the radar doesn't always measure the exact size and path of storms. But It was too late the main lead powerline had been severed. I didn't receive any mews until I fired the generator . The roads were blocked I couldn't get off the mountain to check on nieghbors.Iam hiking out this am to go below. It is about 17 miles to city. My deer haven't come to eat so they may have been driven way back into national forest. This is a sign that the storms were a bigger threat than imagined. Good luck nieghbors and tribal members If you read this post and need help on james eagle mountain ? You know who I am and where I live.

[albert571]

Here is a chance for Obama to shine again,lets say oh 3 billion to start ,oh wait I forgot this is in the southern US ....GO FISH !!!!

[albert571]

I'm sure if The Good Revrend Al Sharpton were asked for his opinion he could find a way of blameing this on the whites!!

[star53]

you told the names of every town in every state, but kentucky..why?

[slownewsday05]

Let me tell you - that was 10 minutes of the most-intense storm I've seen in the past decade.

Sunshine, then horizontal blasting rain and hail, then sunshine.

House is still standing though, so that's a plus...