Violent storms kill 13 in Okla., Kan., Ark.

[May 25, 2011]  DENNING, Ark. (AP) -- The chief deputy sheriff in Franklin County has confirmed a third fatality in a violent storm that struck western Arkansas.

Deputy Devin Bramlett's announcement early Wednesday brings the tally of deaths from the storms that struck Oklahoma, Arkansas and Kansas overnight to 13.

Bramlett says one person died in the community of Etna. The other deaths took place in Denning in Franklin County and Bethlehem in Johnson County.

Eight people died when a series of tornadoes struck metropolitan Oklahoma City, and two other deaths have been confirmed in Kansas.

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AP's earlier story is below.

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Violent storms that swept through a chunk of the central U.S. killed at least 12 people in three states, while toppling trees, crushing cars and ripping apart a rural Arkansas fire station.

The high-powered storms arrived Tuesday night and early Wednesday, just days after a massive tornado tore up the southwest Missouri city of Joplin and killed 122 people. After killing eight people in Oklahoma and two people in Kansas, the storms continued their trek east into Arkansas, where two more died, before petering out.

Most of the deaths in Oklahoma occurred in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. Cherokee Ballard, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Medical Examiner's office, said early Wednesday that the storms killed five people in Canadian County, two in Logan County and one in Grady County.

Ballard said a child was among those killed, but she had no other details.

At least two people died as the storms bombarded Arkansas' Franklin and Johnson counties, the state's Department of Emergency Management spokesman Tommy Jackson said. One person died after a tornado raked across the tiny western Arkansas community of Denning early Wednesday. Another person died in an area called Bethlehem, in Johnson County.

A number of people were injured in Franklin and Johnson counties, though officials weren't sure exactly how many. A rural fire station in Franklin County was left without a roof as emergency workers rushed to the wounded. Downed trees and power lines tossed across roadways also slowed search-and-rescue crews' efforts.

In Kansas, police said two people died when high winds threw a tree into their van around 6 p.m. near the small town of St. John, about 100 miles west of Wichita. The highway was shut down because of storm damage.

[Associated Press]

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