POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. — Another victim drowned in Arkansas flooding as heavy storms moved across the Midwestern US, taking the statewide death toll to eight, an official confirmed Tuesday.
The latest death was reported in Benton County, where a man died in an incident that “appears to be high-water related,” coroner Daniel Oxford told NewsCore.
State emergency officials had earlier confirmed two additional deaths related to the rains, with up to a dozen residents missing in just one small town.
Meanwhile across the border in Poplar Bluff, Mo., massive evacuations were underway as the levee protecting the town breached. Some 7,000 homes were at risk from floodwaters cascading over the break, and rescuers were rushing out boats to ferry away citizens, KTVI-TV reported.
The southeastern corner of the town was flooded by 11:00am local time, police said.
About 200 miles (322 km) southwest in Faulkner County, Ark., the state Department of Emergency Management (ADEM) confirmed that four people were dead in the area just north of Little Rock.
ADEM spokesman Tommy Jackson said two of those people died in Vilonia, where a tornado wiped out part of the town.
Officials said 12 people were currently unaccounted for in the 3,800-population town, located about 25 miles (40 kilometers) from Little Rock.
Earlier, flash flooding in the state was blamed for another three deaths. In northwest Arkansas, emergency officials said a couple died after flood waters swept their car off the road in Madison County. Another woman died after her car was swept off the road in Washington County.
Power was knocked out to nearly 100,000 customers, while most of the state was under a flash flood warning as the storm moved towards Tennessee.
Gov. Mike Beebe issued a state of emergency retroactive to April 19 for the entire state.
In nearby Garland County, ADEM officials said there were an unknown number of reported injuries, but no fatalities.
The system hammering Arkansas and Louisiana with torrential rain and damaging wind storms is expected to track through North Carolina later this week.
So far this year, tornadoes have killed 41 people and torn apart countless neighborhoods, according to media reports, with preliminary estimates showing there have been about 250 tornadoes this month with more to come.
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