VILONIA, Ark. — Residents in several states endured a second straight night of violent weather Tuesday, a day after a series of powerful storms in Arkansas killed 10 people in flooding and a tornado that twisted a tractor-trailer like a wrung dish rag.
The National Weather Service issued severe-weather warnings in a stretch extending from northeast of Memphis to just northeast of Dallas and covering a large swath of Arkansas.
At least 100 homes in the East Texas town of Edom were damaged Tuesday night, and a woman was injured when her mobile home was destroyed, officials said. There also were minor injuries reported in Louisiana when an oil-drilling site overturned in high winds.
In southwestern Michigan, nine people were sent to the hospital, one with serious injuries, when lightning struck a park where children and adults were playing soccer, police said.
Forty-five tornado warnings had been issued in Arkansas by 8 p.m. Tuesday. A number of trees fell on homes and at least one vehicle, but no new injuries were reported.
The latest round of storms began as communities in much of the region struggled with flooding and damage from earlier twisters.
In Arkansas, a tornado smashed Vilonia, a quiet farming community just north of Little Rock, on Monday night, ripping the roof off the grocery store, flattening homes and tossing vehicles into the air.
An early warning may have saved Lisa Watson’s life in that case. She packed up her three children and was speeding away from the Black Oak Ranch subdivision in Vilonia when she looked to her left and saw the twister approaching. Two of her neighbors died in their mobile homes.
Jay Arendal, who had moved to the area only weeks before, lost his home but said he planned to rebuild. He told his wife and two daughters to go into a pantry, and he went into a closet with his two sons just before the house fell apart around them. “I’ve got the shirt on my back,” Arendal said.
