Three years after a tornado devastated the Little Rock suburb of Vilonia, its residents found themselves huddling in the dark early Monday wondering how they would rebuild again after the most powerful tornado yet this year carved a path through
Sunday marked the third anniversary of a 122-tornado day, which struck parts of Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia and killed 316 people.
Before Sunday, the country had not had a tornado rated EF3 or higher since Nov. 17, streak of 160 days, the fourth-longest on record.
At a news conference in the Philippines, President Barack Obama sent his condolences to those affected by the tornado and promised that the federal government would help in the recovery.
The country had enjoyed a relative lull in violent weather and didn't record the first tornado death until Sunday, when a North Carolina infant who was injured by a twister Friday died at a hospital. But the system that moved through the Plains,
Karla Ault, a Vilonia High School volleyball coach, said she sheltered in the school gymnasium as the storm approached. After it passed, her husband told her their home was gone — reduced to the slab on which it had sat.
State troopers went vehicle-to-vehicle to check on motorists and said with genuine surprise that no one was killed.
The Arkansas twister shredded cars, trucks and 18-wheelers stuck along Interstate 40 north of Little Rock. After the storm passed, tractor-trailer rigs tried to navigate through the damage to continue their journeys, while gawkers held smartphones
The National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center said more storms were expected Monday in the South and Mississippi Valley.
The overall death toll stood at 17 early Monday. The tornado that hit Arkansas didn't form until night was setting in, so the full extent of the damage wouldn't be known until after sunrise on Monday.
The tornado was the largest of several produced by a powerful storm system that rumbled through the central and southern US.
The tornado touched down Sunday about 10 miles west of Little Rock at around 7 p.m., then carved an 80-mile path of destruction as it passed through or near several suburbs north of the state capital, including Vilonia. It grew to be a half-mile