Northern Arkansas counties devastated by overnight severe weather, 8 confirmed dead

Chris Counts
·2 min read
3

NORTHERN ARKANSAS – Overnight severe storms tore through northern Arkansas Sunday morning with eight confirmed deaths.

Benton County Judge Barry Moehring confirmed one death in Benton County during a press conference while also declaring a disaster for the county, with a second death reported in Baxter County.

Daniel Bolen, with the Boone County Office of Emergency Management, said a third death was confirmed of a 26-year-old woman who was found dead just outside of a destroyed home in the town of Olvey.

Sunday afternoon the Marion County Sheriff’s Office confirmed two additional deaths that were deemed to be storm-related.

Benton County Judge confirms 1 death, declares disaster following Sunday morning severe weather

Moehring said that fire and EMS crews are conducting search and rescue operations throughout the morning.

Debbie Griffin with Downtown Bentonville released a statement during the early morning hours asking residents to stay off the roadways with reports of multiple powerlines down.

The Metroplex event center in Rogers has also been converted into shelter space with surrounding communities said to be devested by the storms.

Our content partner KNWA is reporting that Rogers police are dealing with gas leaks, road closures and some people trapped in some homes and businesses. They also say that there is a lot of major damage focused on Rogers, Bentonville and Decatur.

The Arkansas Department of Transportation also reported that Highway 340 at West Chelsea has been closed due to a landslide washing out an area under the roadway.

As of 1:40 p.m. according to PowerOutage.US there are over 88,000 people without power in Arkansas with the majority of outages affecting the northern-most counties, including Benton, Carroll, Madison, Boone, Marion, Baxter, Fulton, Sharp and Randolph counties.

Carroll Electric also enacted its Emergency Restoration Plan with over 40,000 without power with neighboring electric utilities assisting in getting power restored.

According to a press release, recovery efforts are gaining help from Sheep Dog Impact Assistance which is mobilizing a team that is setting up a base of operations at the Center for Nonprofits in Rogers.

Many northwest Arkansas churches also canceled services following the storms.

This is a developing story, please check back for updates.

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