In a little town called Carlisle, west of Little Rock, in a very flat area of the state, one of the many tornadoes that touched down today bored a three-block wide path straight through the middle of the community. It's an old town, quaint with old buildings and the feel of history, and those old buildings were built strong.I got a call to go down for photos and to find out the particulars for a news story and arrived a few hours after the tornado hit. The chief of police said that they had so much warning, radar and tornado watchers, that they were as ready as they could be. His concern was getting the kids out of the school afterward, which took a lot of clearing of downed trees and wires.
No injuries; no deaths.
The electric company flipped a switch in Little Rock to shut the power off to the town, but won't come out until tomorrow to assess and give an estimate of when power will be restored. That leaves 2,500 people without power indefinitely.
Amazingly, many volunteer crews were there already with their chain saws, and cleared the downed trees off of several homes before they were told to stop. The electric company will not deem the area safe until they've been out there to ground all the power lines. The town couldn't risk anyone getting hurt should a line still hold any juice. If they had been able to continue, many more people would be able to at least spend the night in their home. Instead, they'll have to go to one of two churches set up as a shelter.
I'm heading back to Carlisle tomorrow to see what it will take to get the town back to working order.
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