Little Rock Area Tornado
The Little Rock area was slammed by a strong tornado on the evening of January 21. It tracked directly into the downtown area, making it one of the few tornadoes in recent years to directly hit the downtown area of a major city.
The tornado began in Saline County south of Vimy Ridge at 6:24 pm CST (0024 UTC). Before crossing the Pulaski County line, it did moderate damage to several houses and significant damage to a mobile home. It crossed into Pulaski County at 6:33 pm, where moderate roof damage was reported to several buildings along the Interstate 30 corridor. It continued eastward and did most of its devastation in the downtown area.
The downtown area was devastated. There was severe damage reported to over 235 buildings, many of which were destroyed. One of the destroyed buildings included a large grocery store, a Harvest Foods, where one person was killed. Over 500 other buildings sustained lesser damage. Some of the houses damaged that were in the historic district were also condemned due to there being lead smelt beneath them. Trees and power lines were also knocked down throughout the area. Damage was also reported on the property of the Arkansas Governor's Mansion, where many trees were knocked down. As the tornado left downtown, it weakened as it crossed Interstate 40. It weakened in the northeastern suburbs, near Sherwood at 6:53 pm CST, after being on the ground for 29 minutes and travelling 22 miles (35 km). The first tornado was rated as an F3 tornado on the Fujita scale
As the first tornado dissipated, a second tornado developed in eastern Pulaski County. While it remained in more rural settings, it also destroyed several buildings, including a storage facility. It also knocked over several tractor-trailers before crossing into Lonoke County. Extensive damage was also reported in Lonoke County, where the South Bend community was hit hard. 12 houses, 11 mobile homes and several farm buildings were damaged or destroyed in Lonoke County. The tornado dissipated at 7:02 pm CST (0102 UTC) southwest of Cabot. It was an F2 tornado.
Three people died in the tornadoes. One of them was in the destroyed grocery store, another was in a vehicle hit by a tree, and the third was in a mobile home that was destroyed. 78 other people were injured by the tornado.
Read more about this topic: January 1999 Tornado Outbreak Sequence
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—Griffin Jay, and Harold Young. Mehemet Bey (Turhan Bey)
“Prosperous farmers mean more employment, more prosperity for the workers and the business men of ... every industrial area in the whole country.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“The sumptuous age of stars and images is reduced to a few artificial tornado effects, pathetic fake buildings, and childish tricks which the crowd pretends to be taken in by to avoid feeling too disappointed. Ghost towns, ghost people. The whole place has the same air of obsolescence about it as Sunset or Hollywood Boulevard.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)