Governor Beebe has declared five Arkansas counties disaster areas after storms and tornadoes up to category EF2 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale swept through the state last night. The newest counties to be declared disaster areas after a month of severe weather of various sorts are Arkansas, Garland, Pulaski, St. Francis and Saline.

Beebe once again toured storm damaged areas today, visiting a mobile home park at Benton that sustained major damage. Entering the complex, Beebe passed residents carrying out their belongings in trash bags in front of a crowd of officials and reporters. He stopped to hug one weeping woman and took in the sight of the charred remains of a mobile home destroyed by a fire started when a gas leak ignited.

The governor said that, unfortunately, the state is getting too good at disaster response and that there have been too many disasters in the past month. Beebe said that he and state officials want to be good at responding to disasters, but hate it while they're doing it.

For information, web links and phone numbers for Disaster Relief and how to cope with flooding in particular, please click here to see our Flooding Disaster Help section.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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