This large limb fell on the Templeton residence on East Jackson during Sunday's wind storm. [Click to enlarge]

The residents of Northeast Arkansas, and the Piggott area, are still cleaning up after the remnants of Hurricane Ike slammed through the region early Sunday morning leaving a wake of destruction. The storm, which resulted in the death of a man in the Fisher community, was also blamed for injuries to two local residents.

Weather forecasters had been tracking Ike for days, and had warned regional residents the remnants of the powerful hurricane would likely spawn heavy rain, high winds and possibly tornadoes. When the front pushed through early Sunday morning, winds of more than 60 miles per hour were recorded by weather watchers at several locations in Arkansas.

In the Piggott area hundreds of trees shed limbs, and power lines were downed at several locations. Some of the heaviest damage locally was to the Templeton residence, which is located on West Jackson between the railroad tracks and North Thornton Street. Reports from city officials, and family members, indicated that two large limbs fell at that location, with one of them landing directly on the west end of the home. Judy Templeton was reportedly struck by a falling board during the incident and was treated and released at Piggott Community Hospital for a moderate head injury.

Several businesses also lost their signs, a number of portable buildings were blown from their foundations and many residents were still assessing roof and siding damage as of Monday. The awning over Piggott Florist was shredded by the high winds, both the Movie Gallery and Sonic lost portions of their signs and residents will be retrieving personnel items for some time to come.

The clean-up from Sunday morning's storms was also blamed for an incident in which a city worker received a serious electrical shock late that afternoon. According to city officials, David Moody was seriously injured as he helped other workers clean up around a downed power line on Lewis Street. The city workers had disabled the power line at the location, and were in the process of cleaning up the debris, when a freak accident caused the line to be re-energized for just a few seconds. Moody, who was reportedly holding the line over his shoulder at the time, sustained a severe shock and was seriously injured. He was taken from the scene by Piggott Community Hospital, and after being stabilized was taken by helicopter evac to The Med in Memphis where he was admitted to the trauma unit.

As of Monday morning Moody was still in the trauma unit, but was alert and showing improvement, according to family members.

"This has been a very emotional situation for all the city employees," mayor Gerald Morris noted of the mishap, "but it was so comforting to see all those who came out to the hospital just to show their support."

Police chief Bill Alstadt said firefighters were called to one residence in the city on the report of smoke, but that no fire was found. Fire personnel indicated the home's service line had shorted-out, but had not caused a blaze.

The hurricane-spawned storms are being blamed for the death of a man in the Fisher community, who was killed when a tree fell on his mobile home. The Associated Press reports that the victim Nathan Glass, 29, was killed when the tree fell on his home in southwest Poinsett County. Ike is also being blamed for knocking out the power to over 200,000 Arkansas residents and for spawning at least three tornadoes.

The recent rains from Gustav, and the visit from Ike, marked the first time in recent history that the centers of two hurricanes have made their way across The Natural State. The last time that occurred was in August and September of 1985 when Danny and Elena passed through the state.

As Ike moved on into Canada early Monday morning officials said the storm has been blamed for a total of 27 deaths from the U.S. Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes.