Roughly 2,500 Entergy customers were without power shortly before 2 p.m., according to a map on the utility's website.

The southern states are often the target areas for tornadoes and tropical storms as they have the perfect climate for a tornado’s formation. Part of the roof on the campus' main building off Dixieland Road peeled off, and rain caused water damage in some of the classrooms, he said. The watch, which is in effect until 8 p.m., states there is the potential for tornadoes and damaging winds up to 65 mph.

Forecasters said the slight risk of severe weather extends from Harrison to about Texarkana. The weather service said it had dispatched a team to Arkansas to survey Benton County, and meteorologist David Jankowski said the team found tornado damage. The National Weather Service has issued a tornado warning for parts of two counties in central Arkansas. Rita had brought rains and winds that left over 60,000 homes with power outages. For several years, tornado and hurricane season counts in Arkansas have tracked and revealed Arkansas to have a secondary peak season in the month of November.

Affected areas include Ozark, Yale and Dixon Ridge. The storm caused a power outage at the Northwest Arkansas regional airport, said Chief Operating Officer Kelly Johnson. Oxford said that a large oak fell on the home, and crashed through the roof and ceiling. "We will just have to see how it goes," he said. Hurricane Rita of September in 2005 was a Category 5 hurricane with winds over 175 miles per hour. October tornadoes are not common, and cities are rarely hit, tornado scientist Harold Brooks of the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Okla., told the Associated Press. That could cause a moderate risk of localized flash flooding, according to the weather service. The Associated Press reported that radar confirmed a tornado struck near Dallas' Love Field Airport in Texas around 9 p.m. Sunday. Forecasters said a tornado watch remains in effect for portions of Northwest Arkansas, including Fayetteville and Fort Smith, until 8 p.m. Tuesday. The sheriff said he didn't know the individuals' conditions. There were no reports of fatalities or serious injuries in Texas on Monday, but Fire-Rescue spokesman Jason Evans said that three people were hospitalized for evaluation of injuries that were not life-threatening.

Residents are urged to avoid flying debris by finding shelter in a basement or interior room. Generators were being used at the terminal, and airlines were noting boarding passes manually. Once or twice a decade the state will deal with a really active fall season, but it has been a while since the state dealt with one, he said.

On March 21, 1952, a total of 112 people lost their lives to a series of seventeen tornadoes occurring that day.

Multiple parts of southern Arkansas also suffered damage from high-speed winds, but no tornado was recorded, said C.S.

It … Central Arkansas experienced downed trees and snapped power lines, but avoided most of the serious damage that other parts of the state suffered, Koch said. "Fall storms like this will produce shorter and weaker tornadoes than the big super-cell storms that form those large tornadoes in the spring," Koch said. St. #. Print Headline: Tornadoes suspected in state; storm kills NW Arkansas man, cuts power to thousands.

[Gallery not loading? The watch includes Baxter, Benton, Boone, Carroll, Crawford, Franklin, Johnson, Logan, Madison, Marion, Newton, Scott, Searcy, Sebastian and Washington counties in Arkansas.