Calhoun County is currently under tornado and flash flood watches with severe storms expected to roll into the area this afternoon.
The National Weather Service is predicting strong storms to move into the county around 2 p.m. and continuing into the night with the possibility of damaging winds, large hail, and possibly a tornado with some storms. Up to two inches of rain is expected.
At least 17 people were killed and more than two dozen were injured after severe storms swept across a large swath of the Plains and Midwest late Sunday and early Monday, bringing multiple tornadoes, damaging winds and hail storms.
Arkansas suffered some of the heaviest damage and the largest number of deaths so far from the storm, after tornadoes from a long-lived supercell thunderstorm ripped through the center of the state, killing at least 16 people.
“It turned pitch black,” said Mark Ausbrooks, who was at his parents’ home in Mayflower, Arkansas, when the storm arrived. “I ran and got pillows to put over our heads and … all hell broke loose.”
“My parents’ home, it’s gone completely,” he added.
In Oklahoma, at least one person was killed when a tornado destroyed parts of the downtown area of Quapaw, according to officials.
The storms marked the beginning of a multi-day severe weather outbreak expected to affect much of the South and southern parts of the Midwest.