- Brian Chilson
- TREES DOWN: At Forest Place apartments on University Ave.
I’m checking in briefly before heading off to UALR for the KUAR fund-raiser.
But, if you don’t already know, last night’s storms were deadly and damaging.
* A mother and child — Melissa Wedgeworth, 34, and her son Christopher Higgins, 8, were killed on Cynthia Street in Little Rock when a tree fell on their house. An infant in another room survived.
* Two dead, a young man, Jeffrey Allen Gibbs Jr., 24, and an 18-month-old girl, Rylin Gibbs, from a tree falling in a house in western Garland County, the Garland sheriff’s office says.
* One dead near Scott in Pulaski County. Channel 4 reports the man lived in an RV on River Road and was killed when a tree fell on the vehicle. The Pulaski sheriff reports other storm injuries.
* A six-year-old in Bald Knob was killed by a felled tree.
* An elderly woman in St. Francis County died when winds blew over her mobile home, Fox 16 reports.
- David Goins/Fox 16
- SOUTH LOOKOUT BLOCKED: Note cameraman.
* Trees down all over — with multiple reports from the Heights in Little Rock — and the trees took out electricity service to thousands. Cantrell Hill was blocked with trees at one point in the early morning. I think dawn will be a surprising sight. I have e-mails from two friends about trees falling on their cars. The number of trees down was fearsome. Here’s the LRPD list at 7:30 a.m. this morning of streets blocked and power lines down.
* The electricity problems caused closure of some schools, including Forest Park, Jefferson, Henderson and Hall High in Little Rock and, in North Little Rock, the East high school campus, Lakewood middle and elementary and Park Hill elementary. Students at Felder Academy and Brady in the LRSD were to be sent home early because of power problems.
The city of Little Rock is to discuss the damage from the 60-mile-an-hour winds at a news conference. The Red Cross and a Baptist group are working together to provide volunteer help for the extensive tree removal.
UPDATE: The state Department of Emergency Management has provided a roundup of damage reported around the state.
UNRELATED TO WEATHER: But from the LRPD, report of a hit-and-run fatality last night.