Power Outage in Montrose, AR

Families trapped in homes due to downed trees and powerlines on West 3rd street and West 2nd street in Montrose Arkansas.

This tornado started just northeast of Hamburg along Ashley 70 Road and tracked roughly 20 miles to just east of Montrose in Chicot County. Thousands of trees were uprooted and snapped along the path along with numerous power lines and poles downed. Some of the heaviest damage was to a mobile home just off Ashley 129 Road. The home was thrown 15 to 20 feet and destroyed. Another mobile home was destroyed along Ashley 128 Road. The tornado then crossed Highway 82 near Ashley 301 Road. Power poles were broken here and a tractor shed was heavily damaged. From this point, the tornado mostly paralleled Highway 82 or tracked along it. Many power lines were down along with poles. Just east of Ashley 912 Road, one wooden high tension segment had the top broken out. In the Snyder community, some homes sustained roof damage and had trees down on them. North of Highway 82, near Horseshoe Lake, a lot of hardwood trees were heavily damaged and there were three segments of the wooden high tension poles and lines taken out. The tornado continued roughly along Highway 82 toward Montrose. The strongest core of the tornado remained north of the highway and downed two more wooden high tension segments before Montrose and two more just north of town to the west of Highway 165. In the town of Montrose, numerous trees were damaged along with many homes having some degree of roof damage or a handful more with a tree on the home. Just east of Montrose, near the Chicot County line and north of Highway 82, a metal high tension pole segment was taken down which supported the highest wind estimate of 130 mph. The tornado dissipated near County Road 293 on the north side of Highway 82. Maximum width was 1000 yards. Total path length was 20.51 miles. Max winds were 130 mph.

The tornado began along US 165 between Portland and Montrose, where a few older utility poles were damaged and moved northwest across open fields, damaging additional utility poles along Ashley County Road 54. The tornado crossed US 82 near the Ashley/Chicot County line. At this location, the top of a silo was removed and the structure was bent, two homes sustained exterior damage with one losing a large amount of roofing material, a travel trailer was destroyed, and a couple of businesses sustained relatively minor structural damage. The tornado reached its peak intensity near this location, where two sets of wooden transmission poles were snapped as well as around 15 power poles. There was also considerable tree damage in the area. The tornado continued across Shelton Turner Road, where a home and mobile home sustained damage. The tornado crossed AR Highway 293, Slaughter Road, Beavers Road, and Lingo Road before lifting in west central Chicot County. Maximum estimated wind speed was 115 mph. Total path length was just under nine miles.

Several trees were blown down across town, with one being blown across a railroad track and some powerlines were blown down.