EF3 tornado causes widespread damage in Craighead County, AR
Apr 03, 2025
CRAIGHEAD COUNTY Ark. -- An EF-3 tornado left scattered debris, remnants of homes, flipped vehicles, downed trees and power lines in Craighead County Wednesday.
The National Weather Service says an EF-3 tornado hit the Bay and Lake City communities in Arkansas Wednesday night.
Lake City,
Arkansas is one of the communities hit the hardest.
“No power to Lake City yet. I don’t really have an estimate, but in my opinion, I would say we’re probably two to three days out before we’ll get power restored, as many lines are damaged,” said Shelby County Sheriff, Marty Boyd.
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Sheriff Boyd and Lake City Mayor Cameron Tate told WREG that utilities are the biggest concern right now.
“We’ve worked to get the utilities back and going," said Mayor Tate. "We’re currently under a boil order cuz we lost pressure. We had a broken water main somewhere trees uprooted it and we’re tryna get that fixed.”
As recovery continues in Lake City, the command post at Riverside High School is serving as a resource for residents.
The Craighead County Sheriff told WREG that at least 15 homes were destroyed, and about 12 to 15 others have major damage.
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Hunter Douglas is one of many homeowners cleaning up the aftermath of Wednesday’s severe weather.
“So far right now, it’s just, it looks like it’s my carport area, so everything else, it seems fine. And we had three trees land on top of it,” said Douglas.
He said he was not home when the storm hit, but several of his neighbors were inside their homes when trees fell.
Tree falls on house, injuring man who ran inside
“I talked to all the neighbors around me and they were in their house while it happened, so I’m just thankful everybody is okay,” said Douglas.
As crews work to restore utilities for the area, the community is lending a helping hand to each other during the recovery process.
Mayor Tate tells WREG the boil water order could end tomorrow evening, but that could change due to more severe storms this week.
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