February 5, 2008
Election day tornadoes kill 13 in Arkansas
In Arkansas, tornadoes that touched down on Primary Election Day took the lives of at least 13 people and disrupted voting.
The twisters, which also slammed Tennessee, Mississippi, Kentucky, and Alabama were part of a line of storms that raged across the nation’s midsection at the end of the Super Tuesday primaries.
As the extent of the damage quickly became clear, candidates including Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee paused in their victory speeches to remember the victims. "While we hope tonight is a time for us to celebrate election results, we are reminded that nothing is as important as the lives of these fellow Arkansans, and our hearts go out to their families," Huckabee said.
Authorities went door-to-door early Wednesday searching for more victims of deadly tornadoes that ripped the roof off a shopping mall and blew apart warehouses as they tore across four states. The Associated Press reported at least 50 fatalities throughout the South.
It was quite a night for us! Our first big storm in our house in Jonesboro. After hearing sirens and news that there was rotation in a storm headed for Valley View, we barricaded ourselves in a hallway with a mattress and couch cushions. Luckily we received no damage. It was scary for me, since I am terrified of tornadoes! Jarrod was as cool as a cucumber throughout the whole thing.
After the storms were all over Taki perched herself on the mattress we had been using earlier in the hallway.
Jarrod is getting filled in on the recent damage, he is talking on his cell phone via bluetooth, listening his work radio and watching TV all at the same time!