Storms cause damage in Sulphur Springs

GRAVETTE — Wind, clocked at nearly 60 miles per hour in some areas of northern Benton County, hit Sulphur Springs shortly after dark Saturday evening, damaging some homes, uprooting trees and knocking out power to several hundred customers.

Although wind velocity in Sulphur Springs could not be verified, the damage was severe. It appeared to be a straight-line wind or possibly an isolated microburst which hit most of the town.

Huge trees damaged at least three homes, and a pickup truck parked in front of a residence was damaged when a large tree landed on top of it. No injuries were reported in the storm area.

The big shady park, for which Sulphur Springs is noted, suffered extensive tree damage. One huge tree,which was shown in a picture taken in the early 1900s, was snapped off. The hollow tree narrowly missed the nearby tennis courts. The springs and nearby band stand both escaped damage, and a large limb narrowly missed hitting the “little green” community building.

The Sulphur Springs fire department responded to one call when an electric box caught fire. The small blaze was quickly extinguished.

Empire Electric Company crews were still in the city Monday restoring power to at least 200 customers. Several customers who had damaged individual service lines could not have service restored until their lines were repaired.

Downed trees blocked county roads near Sulphur Springs and some damage occurred in the Hiwasse area. Gravette, Maysville and Sulphur Springs fire departments were busy with chainsaws Saturday night clearing roadways for emergency vehicles.

A stormy wind several evenings earlier in the Maysville area also caused some isolated outage.

Rainfall in the area was spotty, measuring as much as a half-inch in some locations, while Gravette received less than a tenth of an inch. That community escaped the wind damage but experienced intense lightning when a cold front moved through the area. Temperatures dropped about 15 degrees.

Sunday was the first day since July 16 - 19 days - the mercury did not reach or exceed the century mark at the NOAA weather station. The hottest temperature this year occurred July 30 when the mercury reached 111 degrees. It reached 110 degrees on Aug. 3, compared with the station record of 114 degrees which occurred on the same date last year.