A powerful storm — likely including a tornado — ripped through a small Arkansas town on Monday night, killing at least four people and destroying as many as 80 homes, officials said.

On Tuesday morning, emergency officials were sifting through rubble in Vilonia, population 3,800, to try to locate dozens of people, said Tommy Jackson, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management.

While damage in the central Arkansas town, about 30 miles north of Little Rock, is believed to be significant, the extent of the loss remained unknown early Tuesday because the fierce winds that ravaged Vilonia swept through after sunset and then shrouded the town in darkness by bringing down dozens of power lines, officials said.

“Now that it’s light, I think it will be clearer what happened,” Mr. Jackson said.

Arkansas and large parts of the Midwest and the South have been hard hit by both tornadoes and flooding during the past week. Some areas have received more than a foot of rain. Additional storms are expected in the area Tuesday afternoon, officials said.

On Monday night, the Arkansas governor, Mike Beebe, declared a state of emergency in response to the storms and flooding that have occurred in the state since April 19. At least 14 people have been killed in Arkansas because of severe weather during that time.

“Once the weather calms, damage assessments will begin and disaster declarations will be made for individual counties,” Governor Beebe said in a statement. “This could take awhile in some parts of Arkansas, as water levels and flooding problems are expected to increase in the coming days. ”

Governor Beebe said he planned to tour areas damaged by the series of storms later Tuesday, once damage assessments were made.