My parents' room, which was where the thieves had concentrated their search, looked as if it had been tornado-tossed.
As a result, few of the events were confirmed to have been tornadoes, and it was considered likely that most of the damage in the region was the result of squall-like winds that are part of an intense hurricane's nature, or potentially localized microbursts.
If it had been, the tornadoes that came hollering down from over Lone Mountain and across the aptly named Bitter Creek could well have erased it.
And I thought, 'Lord, what on earth am I going to do?' I thought, 'God, I'm prepared to meet you.' " She had been through tornadoes before, and they usually sounded like freight trains.
Trivia might not seem so useful at first blush, but consider this: by May 1, there had been 154 tornadoes in the United States, less than half the average of 315.
Officials at the Storm Prediction Center said that before Sunday's storm there had been seven killer tornadoes this year that caused 10 fatalities across five states: Georgia, Arkansas, Wyoming, Wisconsin and Mississippi.
Ms. Carruth said that conditions had been ripe for tornadoes and that a tornado watch had been in effect for the Newton area when the twister hit.
It had been the usual tornado of a morning.
Teams of experts tasked with reviewing the validity of tornado reports were scarcely able to uncover sufficient evidence that much of the damage in southern Mississippi had been done by tornadoes.
The office of Gov. Mike Beebe said 11 people had been killed in tornadoes across Arkansas.
Including the 2001 tornadoes, only seven October tornadoes had been recorded in the NWS Detroit county warning area prior to the 2007 outbreak.
