NO TWISTERS CONFIRMED SATURDAY

By Ray King/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF

Severe weather warnings and the threat of tornadoes affected most of Arkansas on Saturday afternoon, particularly in the south, and at one time or the other, tornado warnings were issued for every county in Southeast Arkansas except Arkansas County.

Although there were a number of warnings, the National Weather Service in North Little Rock said no twisters had been confirmed Saturday afternoon.

Tornado sirens were activated at all the sites in Jefferson County at about 3:30 p.m., but Office of Emergency Management Coordinator Wally Hunt said that was done primarily as a precaution.

“There was a pretty strong storm cell down near Rison that was moving east and could possibly hit the southern part of the county,” Hunt said. “Fortunately, that moved out pretty quickly, and all it did was dump a whole lot of rain on us.”

Hunt checked with dispatchers at Metropolitan Emergency Communications Association, who said they had received calls about some localized flooding, particularly in low lying areas, and a few trees down, there had been no reports of structural damage.

“I’ve heard that there were some power outages around the county, but those were pretty spotty,” Hunt said.

A number of streets throughout Pine Bluff also flooded at the height of the storm Saturday afternoon, but conditions improved rapidly after the initial downpour.

The heavy rains delayed part of the Class 2A State Baseball Tournament, which was being played Saturday at White Hall High School and Pine Bluff’s Taylor Field.

Tournament officials were able to get in the early game at both fields, but the late games — including one that would have seen the Woodlawn Bears take on Walnut Ridge — were postponed until Monday.

The same situation occurred with the Class 1A State Softball Tournament at the Pine Bluff/Jefferson County Regional Park as officials were able to complete two of the four quarterfinal games, which had been scheduled before the heavy rains started. The other two contests were washed out and were rescheduled for Monday.

Major Greg Bolin, operations commander for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department, said Saturday that although he had heard of possible storm damage in both Cleveland and Desha Counties, neither county had requested assistance from Jefferson County by late Saturday afternoon.

The Weather Service issued flash flood warnings for much of the central part of the state Saturday, and predicted more rain today, including the possibility of severe weather in southern Arkansas.