Breaking News: Storm Damage Reports/Arkansas

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Breaking News: Storm Damage Reports
Posted By: Shayla Krile Posted By: Monika  Rued     23 secs ago

Arkansas State Police are reporting a tornado touchdown along the Arkansas/Oklahoma border where Arkansas Highway 8 goes into Oklahoma. Reports are that a house just across the line has been hit and there are injuries.

A spokeswoman for the state Emergency Management Department says a tornado has touched down in downtown Mena.

Renee Preslar says the Polk County Courthouse took "a direct hit" from the storm that struck just after 8 p.m. Thursday night. Preslar says she has reports of 12 people injured with minor injuries.

Preslar says the county requested National Guard troops to secure downtown Mena. Officials also have asked utility companies to shut off all gas lines to Mena and surrounding areas.

Preslar says emergency management officials have heard of no injuries from the storm, but they were still gathering information about what happened.

We also have storm reports from Polk County Road 74 and in DeQueen.

The National Weather Service in Shreveport has issued a tornado warning for northwestern Bossier Parish in northwest Louisiana, extreme north central Caddo parish in northwest Louisiana, southwestern Lafayette County in southwest Arkansas and extreme south central Miller County in southwest Arkansas until 10:45 p.m.

At 9:50 p.m., National Weather Service Doppler Radar indicated a severe thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado 13 miles southwest of Bradley or 12 miles northeast of Vivian, moving east at 35 mph. The tornado will be near Bradley by 10:10 p.m.

The National Weather Service in Little Rock has issued a Tornado Warning for southeastern Garland County in central Arkansas, northwestern Grant County in central Arkansas, south central Saline County in central Arkansas and northeastern Hot Spring County in southwest Arkansas until 10:45 p.m.

At 10:01 p.m., National Weather Service Doppler Radar indicated a severe thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado near Lake Catherine, moving east at 40 mph.

Locations impacted include Rockport, Traskwood, Haskell, Tull and Benton.

This includes interstate 30 between mile markers 119 and 142.

This includes interstate 40 between mile markers 148 and 173.

Entergy Arkansas says they have 10,500 without power mainly in Faulkner, Garland and Pope counties. They do not serve Mena, however. We're still waiting on those numbers.

Today's THV has received reports of damage in Greenbrier and power outages with quarter-sized hail. http://www.todaysthv.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=83188&catid=260