The batch of tornados that cut across the Southwest over the weekend destroyed homes in an Arkansas community that also faced damages after a twister last year.
Several homes in Paragould, Ark., were nearly destroyed in late May 2024 after an EF-1 tornado touched down nearby. On the Enhanced Fujita scale used to measure tornado intensity, an EF-1 is considered the weakest.
On Saturday, one of the 52 tornados the National Weather Service confirmed to have hit over the weekend struck Paragould, hitting the same street and leaving devastation in its wake — including a home whose roof was damaged less than a year prior, reducing it and its neighboring abodes to rubble.
The tornado in Paragould over the weekend was an EF-2, carrying winds reaching upward of 135 mph, according to the NWS. It damaged roughly 160 homes throughout the town — but the city fared relatively well compared to other parts of Arkansas
An EF-3 tornado near Plantersville, Ala., dragged winds up to 165 mph. Two EF-4 tornados also touched down in northern Arkansas accompanied by staggering 200 mph winds.
The last EF-4 tornado reported in the United States was in Greenfield, Iowa, last May.
At least 33 people were killed in the cross-country slew of storms. As communities emerge from the rubble to rebuild, survivors are sharing their harrowing experiences weathering the storms.
In Missouri, 13 people were rescued from the remnants of a Burger King restroom after they all took shelter there during an EF-2 tornado.
Miraculously, none of them were injured even as the tornado totaled an employee’s car and flipped five semi-trucks just outside the fast-food joint.
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