Texarkana and the surrounding area saw winds of about 60 mph Tuesday night, but no tornadoes were reported.
Ferocious straight-line winds blew over at least one 18-wheeler, but no major injuries were reported. The tractor-trailer was knocked over about 7:55 p.m. on the bridge over East Ninth Street, and one lane of traffic was blocked to clean up the accident site.
Texarkana Office of Emergency Management Deputy Director Kathy Reynolds said damage reports she had received were generally minor. "Right now there's a lot of areas where there's been trees down but not any big damage," Reynolds said. She said she had not received any injury reports.
The system affected a wide land area, as Reynolds said the system was "trailing all the way down to Austin."
In Cass County, the National Weather Service's Shreveport Website listed a 7:20 p.m. report of two trailers flipping over from the wind in Hughes Springs, with one person inside a trailer injured. Attempts to reach Hughes Springs police for additional information were unsuccessful late Tuesday. A Cass County Sheriff's Office official said there had been no calls reporting storm damage.
At a few minutes before 9 p.m. Tuesday, Don Hale Jr., director of Little River County Emergency Management, said the system had passed with little damage. He had received only two reports of downed trees in Little River County.
"There's a few other lines coming through, but I think the worst of it's gone through," Hale said. "(NWS) left us under a tornado watch till 1 a.m."
A severe thunderstorm warning for Bowie, Cass, Hempstead, Howard, Little River, Miller, Sevier and McCurtain counties expired at 8:30 p.m. The warning said the storm system included severe thunderstorms "capable of producing damaging winds in exceess of 60 mph." NWS-Shreveport listed Texarkana and much of the Ark-La-Tex as under "moderate risk" for severe weather. The primary threats listed were strong, damaging winds and isolated tornadoes. The area got a dose of the former, but at presstime, none of the latter.
Hale said the closest possible tornado he had heard of was farther north in Arkansas.
"They had a possible tornado just north of Mena," Hale said. "They had rotation; I never heard if it actually touched down."
Both Reynolds and Hale expected more rain through about midnight. Power issues were not a major issue in the system.
"Ours flickered a few times, but that's it," Reynolds said. "I haven't had any reports of widespread power outages."
At 9:35 p.m., SWEPCO's Website listed 449 customers without power in Cass County and 143 without power in Miller County.