Likely tornado tears through an Arizona mountain town as rare fall storms pound Phoenix and Flagstaff with hail

Arizona is not supposed to get tornadoes in late October. On Wednesday it got a day full of them. A powerful storm likely spun up a tornado over the small mountain community of Heber-Overgaard in the evening, tearing down power poles and damaging homes, while hail as big as golf balls punched through windows and windshields across north Phoenix earlier in the afternoon.

Forecasters put out 11 tornado warnings across the state over the course of the day. The weather service office in Flagstaff said it believes the storm that crossed Heber-Overgaard at about 7 p.m. did produce a tornado but crews still have to walk the damage path in person before they can say so for sure. That survey could happen Thursday or Friday.

Heber-Overgaard sits in Navajo County roughly 140 miles northeast of Phoenix and is home to about 3,000 people. A tornado warning covering the town and nearby Aripine went out at 7:03 p.m., right about the time the storm rolled through.

Thirty seconds of chaos

One woman who has lived in Heber for eight years said the worst of it lasted well under a minute. She heard the wind change, then debris started slamming into her house. She dropped to the kitchen floor with her dogs and waited, afraid the windows were about to blow in. Part of a neighbor's tree ended up in her yard and other neighbors lost windows.

The sheriff's office called it a major incident and asked people to stay out of the hardest hit streets. At least one person was hurt and the sheriff's office described the injuries reported so far as minor. More than 1,200 homes and businesses were still without electricity late Wednesday and the local power cooperative could not say when service would come back.

A reception center opened at the county's Heber complex for anyone forced out of their home and the Red Cross was setting up a shelter.

A call for an emergency declaration

State Rep. Walt Blackman, who represents the area, asked Gov. Katie Hobbs to declare a state of emergency so state crews and money can reach the town quickly. He said waiting until every damaged building is counted would be the wrong approach and planned to tour the area Thursday afternoon with local leaders. His top goals are getting the power back on, clearing roads and helping families who cannot stay in their homes.

Hail smashes windows in the Valley

Hours earlier the same storm system hammered the Phoenix area. Around 3:30 p.m. hail the size of golf balls pelted neighborhoods near 19th Avenue and Peoria Avenue in north Phoenix. Residents found bedroom windows shattered, glass sprayed down hallways and the siding on their homes punched full of holes. A nearby discount store was badly damaged and parked cars were left with cracked windshields and dented hoods.

Strong winds snapped tree limbs in west Phoenix and dropped a tree onto an apartment building. Thousands of customers of the two big Valley utilities lost power during the afternoon, though most had it back within a few hours. Another round later in the evening dropped hail up to 1.75 inches wide around Deer Valley.

Flagstaff and the high country

Up north, Flagstaff spent much of the afternoon under tornado warnings. Hail piled up on the ground around downtown and near the airport, with some stones reaching golf ball size. Winds near 60 mph knocked trees across a road outside Prescott.

The weather service says the risk of storms strong enough to produce tornadoes, large hail and flash flooding lingers into Thursday afternoon, so residents across central and northern Arizona should keep an eye on alerts.