Survivors search for belongings amid Ark. tornado wreckage
Pastor Dale Morgan
Survivors search for belongings amid Ark. tornado wreckage*
By JON GAMBRELL,
Associated Press Writer
DAMASCUS, Ark. - Smoke rose from burning heaps of wreckage Saturday as
residents of rural Arkansas cleaned up what was left of their homes
after deadly tornadoes scoured a state that has been plagued by severe
weather this year.
All that remained of Shelia Massey's home were a chimney, a bathroom
wall, and a bathtub that was her storm shelter.
"God's hand was down and held us there while the rest of the house just
blew away," said Massey, 54. "That's all there was to it. The Lord held
us there."
A child poking through the rubble found a photograph of Massey's
husband, who was not at home when the violent weather struck Friday. The
storms killed seven people, damaged or destroyed about 400 homes, and
knocked out electrical and telephone service for thousands of customers
in 18 counties.
Altogether, meteorologists said more than 25 tornadoes may have touched
down across middle America late Thursday and early Friday, but Arkansas
was the hardest hit.
Down U.S. 65 from Massey's house, parishioners at Southside Baptist
Church salvaged what was left of their old sanctuary and their recently
completed new church.
Men backed up pickup trucks to the front door of the old church and
loaded up boxes filled with red-leather hymnals. The storm had collapsed
the roof of the their new sanctuary, bending its steel beams like
sipping straws.
In the countryside outside Damascus, John Rusin, 62, said he and his
wife, Marsha, 60, took shelter in a small room along with two dogs after
forecasters broke in on a television show they were watching. Winds
almost ripped a mattress out of his arms as he held it over his wife, he
said.
"The pressure on it felt like my ears were going to pop off my head," he
said.
Only after the storm passed did he realize it had picked up their house
and moved it 65 feet off its foundation.
Public officials offered comfort and support. U.S. Rep. Vic Snyder,
D-Ark., and a staff member shook hands with volunteers cleaning the
church, and Gov. Mike Beebe toured damaged areas. He has declared 11
counties disaster areas.
National Weather Service teams were sent out to survey damage for their
count of the tornadoes, and state emergency management workers helped
county officials with damage assessments. Arkansas National Guard
members were on hand to provide security.
Elsewhere Saturday, the National Weather Service posted tornado watches
during the morning for parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama as an
arc of strong thunderstorms rolled across the region.
Those storms, with possible tornadoes, damaged at least two dozen homes
and knocked out power Mississippi's Union County. No injuries were reported.
A line of storms crossing southeastern Louisiana damaged trees and
homes. The Weather Service reported 6 inches of rain in parts of St.
Tammany and Tangipahoa parishes, with estimates of 10 inches in places,
meteorologist Bob Wagner said. Flooding was expected along the Bogue
Falaya River at Camp Covington, in St. Tammany, but there was no
immediate estimate of how many people lived in the area.
In Arkansas, Massey, like others in rural Van Buren County, learned of
the approaching tornado from a friend who lived miles south in the
larger town of Perryville and had seen television news reports.
Massey and her daughter ran to the bathroom with Massey's three
grandsons, ages 2 weeks, 2 and 4. The boys and their mother slumped down
in the tub, covered by sofa cushions, while Massey held on to the
outside. Massey said she felt the house shake and the bathtub begin to
move as the storm hit. A wall fell on them, but instead of causing
injury it provided protection against other debris.
Catastrophic weather has been a recurring event in Arkansas this year,
with at least 26 deaths, most occurring in rural communities and on
farms far from the nearest warning siren.
Six of those who died Friday resided among the rolling hills and piney
woods of central Arkansas. A 4-year-old girl and her grandparents died
when a tornado struck their home near Bee Branch, north of Damascus. A
teenage girl died in the city of Siloam Springs in northwest Arkansas.
Near Center Ridge in Conway County, Beebe paused briefly to watch a
bulldozer shove drywall, bedding and a television set into a burn pile.
Beebe acknowledged that state officials have become adept at responding
to disasters since tornadoes killed 13 Arkansans on Feb. 5. After that
bout of severe weather, the state endured a foot-deep snowfall; later,
at least five people died in widespread flooding.
"It never gets any easier," Beebe said.
After walking past mud-stained clothes drying on an uprooted tree, Beebe
spoke with Bobby Rose, 43, who was helping clean up after Friday's
storm. The governor offered his condolences to residents of the rural
neighborhood, but Rose remained upbeat.
"This is Arkansas," Rose said. "We hold up."
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Associated Press writer Kelly P. Kissel in Siloam Springs contributed to
this report.
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On the Net:
Arkansas Emergency Management: http://www.adem.arkansas.gov/