About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (April 2, 2023)
NATION The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com Sunday, April 2, 2023 5A Tornadoes slam Arkansas, wrecking rooftops, cars ANDREW DEMILLO I Associated Press A car is upturned in a Kroger parking lot after a severe storm swept through Little Rock, Ark., Friday, March 31. BY ANDREW DEMILLO Associated Press LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A tornado raced through Little Rock and surround ing areas Friday, splinter ing homes, overturning vehicles and tossing trees and debris on roadways as people raced for shelter. There were early reports at least two dozen people hurt, some critically. Another tornado hit the town of Wynne in the eastern part of the state near the Tennessee bor der, and officials reported widespread damage there including destroyed homes and downed trees. There were more con firmed twisters in Iowa, damaging hail fell in Illi nois and wind-whipped grass fires blazed in Okla homa, part of a massive storm system threatening a broad swath of the country that is home to some 85 mil lion people in the South and Midwest. The destructive weather came as President Joe Biden toured the after- math of a deadly tornado that struck in Mississippi a week ago and promised the government would help the area recover. The Little Rock tornado tore first through neighbor hoods in the western part of the city and shredded a small shopping center that included a Kroger grocery store. It then crossed the Arkansas River into North Little Rock and surrounding cities, where widespread damage was reported to homes, businesses and vehicles. The University of Arkan sas for Medical Sciences Medical Center in Little Rock was operating at a mass casualty level and pre paring for up to 20 patients, spokesperson Leslie Taylor said. Baptist Health Medical Center-Little Rock officials told KATV in the afternoon that 21 people had checked in there with tornado- caused injuries, including five in critical condition. Mayor Frank Scott Jr., who announced that he was requesting assistance from the National Guard, tweeted in the evening that officials were aware of 24 people who had been hos pitalized in the city but no fatalities at the moment. “Property damage is extensive and we are still responding,” he said. Resident Niki Scott took cover in the bathroom after her husband called to say a tornado was headed her way. She could hear glass shattering as the tornado roared past, and emerged afterward to find that her house was one of the few on her street that didn’t have a tree fall on it. “It’s just like everyone says. It got really quiet, then it got really loud,” Scott said afterward, as chainsaws roared and sirens blared in the area. Outside a Little Rock Gui tar Center, five people were captured on video aiming their phones at the swirling sky. “Uh, no, that’s an actual tornado, y’all. It’s coming this way,” Red Padilla, a singer and songwriter in the band Red and the Revelers, said in the video. Padilla told The Associ ated Press that he and five bandmates sheltered inside the store for around 15 minutes with over a dozen others while the tornado passed. The power went out, and they used the flash lights on their phones to see. “It was real tense,” Padilla said. At Clinton National Air port, passengers and work ers sheltered temporarily in bathrooms. Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared a state of emergency and said there was “significant damage” in the central part of the state. “Praying for all those who were and remain in the path of this storm,” she tweeted. “Arkansans must continue to stay weather aware as storms are con tinuing to move through.” Also hit was the town of Wynne, about 50 miles west of Memphis, Tennes see, which Sanders said saw “widespread damage” from a tornado. City Councilmember Lisa Powell Carter told AP by phone that Wynne was with out power and roads were full of debris. “I’m in a panic trying to get home, but we can’t get home,” she said. “Wynne is so demolished.... There’s houses destroyed, trees down on streets.” Police Chief Richard Dennis told WHBQ-TV that the city suffered “total destruction” and multiple people were trapped. Nearly 70,000 custom ers in Arkansas lost power, according to power outage, us, which tracks outages. About 32,000 were with out electricity in neigh boring Oklahoma, where where wind gusts of up to 60 mph fueled fast-moving grass fires. People were urged to evacuate homes in far northeast Oklahoma City, and troopers shut down portions of Inter state 35 near the suburb of Edmond. More outages were reported in Kansas, Mis souri and Texas. Multiple tornadoes were reported moving through parts of eastern Iowa, with sporadic damage to homes, barns and other buildings. One tornado veered just west of Iowa City, home to the University of Iowa, which cancelled a watch party at an on-campus arena for the women’s basketball Final Four game. Video from KCRG- TV showed toppled power poles and roofs ripped off an apartment building in the suburb of Coralville and significantly damaged homes in the city of Hills. EPA approves California rules phasing out diesel trucks BY SOPHIE AUSTIN Associated Press/ Report for America SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Biden administration cleared the way Friday for California’s plan to phase out a wide range of diesel- powered trucks, part of the state’s efforts to drastically cut planet-warming emis sions and improve air qual ity in heavy-traffic areas like ports along the coast. The decision by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency allows California — which has some of the nation’s worst air pollution — to require truck manu facturers to sell an increas ing number of zero-emission trucks over the next couple of decades. The rule applies to a wide range of trucks including box trucks, semi trailers and even large pas senger pick-ups. “Under the Clean Air Act, California has longstand ing authority to address pollution from cars and trucks. Today’s announce ment allows the state to take additional steps in reducing their transportation emis sions through these new regulatory actions,” said EPA Administrator Michael Regan, in a statement. Gov. Gavin Newsom applauded the state’s role as a leader for setting ambitious vehicle emission standards. “We’re leading the charge to get dirty trucks and buses - the most polluting vehicles - off our streets, and other states and countries are lin ing up to follow our lead,” the Democrat said in a statement. The EPA typically sets standards for tailpipe emis sions from passenger cars, trucks and other vehicles, but California has histori cally been granted waivers to impose its own, stricter standards. Other states can then follow suit, and eight other states plan to adopt California’s truck standards, Newsom’s office said. In a letter last year, attorneys general from 15 states, Washington, D.C., and New York City urged the EPA to approve the California truck standards. The transportation sec tor accounts for nearly 40% of California’s greenhouse gas emissions. Newsom has already moved to ban the sale of new cars that run entirely on gasoline by 2035. The EPA has not acted on those rules. The new truck standards are aimed at companies that make trucks and those that own large quantities of them. Companies owning 50 or more trucks will have to report information to the state about how they use these trucks to ship goods and provide shuttle services. Manufacturers will have to sell a higher percentage of zero-emission vehicles start ing in 2024. Depending on the class of truck, zero-emis sion ones will have to make up 40% to 75% of sales by 2035. California has a long legacy of adopting stricter tailpipe emission standards, even before the federal Clean Air Act was signed into law, said Paul Cort, a lawyer with environmental nonprofit Earthjustice. “We have a vehicle prob lem,” Cort said. “We’re addicted to our cars and trucks, and that’s a big cause of the air pollution that we’re fighting.” But Wayne Winegarden, a senior fellow at the Pacific Research Institute, said it’s too soon to adopt the Califor nia standards. “The charging infrastruc ture is certainly not there,” he said about powering sta tions for electric vehicles. “And on top of the charging infrastructure, we have the grid issues.” While California was hit this winter by atmospheric rivers that soaked much of the state, it has for years suffered from drought con ditions, and in September, a brutal heat wave that put its electricity grid to the test. 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