ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, March 3, 1997 TAG: 9703030136
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LITTLE ROCK, ARK.
SOURCE: Associated Press
Nicholas Word was standing on his front porch when the tornado struck, smashing his tiny wood-frame house off its foundation and hurling him and the wreckage into his neighbor's yard.
``When I woke up, there was just rubble - rubble and fog,'' Word said Sunday amid the devastation of Saturday's killer storms. ``All I can tell you is, it's the worst sound that you'd ever want to hear in your life. But I guess I cheated death.''
The storms killed at least 24 people in Arkansas, ripping through Little Rock, Arkadelphia and nearby smaller towns.
It seemed like ``a year's worth of tornadoes,'' Gov. Mike Huckabee said Sunday.
The death toll could climb, authorities said as crews worked in Sunday's driving rain to pull away the wreckage.
The same huge system of thunderstorms was blamed for up to 14 deaths in Mississippi, Kentucky, Tennessee and Ohio. Flooding forced scores of people from their homes in West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio.
Rescuers used helicopters, boats and dogs Sunday to search for people missing in flash flooding that washed away cars and homes in southern Ohio. At least two bodies were found after Saturday's flood, caused by up to 10 inches of rain.
In southern Ohio, 11 people missing in flash flooding were accounted for. Five had taken shelter in an old school bus on higher ground.
``Until the water goes down and people get back in their homes, we won't be able to do a damage assessment,'' state Emergency Management spokeswoman Nancy Dragani said after touring the area in southern Ohio. ``There's certainly a lot of water. It's difficult to determine if you're looking at rivers or streams. Some streams are 40 feet wide.''
Hundreds were forced from their homes in Ohio and Kentucky, and more were evacuated in West Virginia.
Record flooding inundated wide swaths along the Licking River in north-central Kentucky on Sunday. Floodwaters swamped sewage and water treatment plants in Cynthiana, and residents were told to boil their drinking water.
``It's off our charts,'' said National Weather Service hydrologist Mike Callahan in Louisville. ``You can't tell how high the Licking River is at Blue Licks Spring because the gauge is underwater.''
Dozens of people were forced out of their homes in western West Virginia, where high water and washed-out roads and bridges kept state officials from reaching some areas to assess damage.
West Virginia's Little Kanawha River crested about 5 feet above flood stage in Grantsville. ``It just looks like a big lake with some houses stuck in it,'' said Grantsville resident Gary Knight.
In Arkansas, Huckabee described the damage as of ``apocalyptic proportions '' after flying over it. ``There is no way to describe the level of damage we have,'' the governor said.
President Clinton declared nine counties major disaster areas and approved federal aid to supplement state and local recovery efforts. He said he would travel to his native state to inspect the damage Tuesday.
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. A tornado smashed Arkadelphia, Ark., where a ragby CNBdoll lies Sunday on the debris downtown. color. KEYWORDS: FATALITY