Mena cleans up the mess

MENA — Beautifully restored Victorian homes and the centuries-old oaks that shaded them sat in heaps along block after block.

Craftsman-style houses and charming bungalows in the once-quaint neighborhoodjust off Mena's town square would be bulldozed.

Hammers pounded on roofs Saturday as heartsick residents continued clearing debris left in the wake of Thursday's tornado.

Residents of the Polk County town in the Ouachita Mountains vowed to stay, fixing what they could or making new homes. But they fear the town will never be the same.

"We've got to save our place here," said Bernice Kirkman, 86, who was in bed when the winds whipped part of the roof off her home of 30 years. Glass sprayed her blanket.

Her husband, Cecil, was sitting in his chair in the living room as lumber fell around him.

They escaped without a scratch but were forced to stay at the shelter at Dallas Avenue Baptist Church after local officials said the home was unsafe.

"We got a bed; we got a bathroom," Cecil Kirkman said as the pair sat waiting for relatives to pick them up from the shelter. "That's all we need."

Scores of volunteers and relief groups have flooded the city, offering food, supplies and labor.

"I promise you, two years from now, it will be rebuilt, but it won't be the same," Polk County Sheriff Mike Oglesby said.

After two days of sorting through debris peppered with glass shards, residents were growing weary. And they were still grieving for the loss of three neighbors.

"I'm in deep sorrow, deep misery," one woman said as she gathered a few shirts from the yard where Albert Shaw, 61, died when the house collapsed. Nearby, Anna Cress, 84, was killed when the Dallas Masonic Lodge crumbled. Judy Lobner, 67, was found dead under debris at her daughter's house. Some 30 people were injured in Mena.

Amber Breeden knew better than to ride out the storm in her small white house. So she took her 9-month-old daughter Jeneva to the brick Polk County Courthouse, where dozens of others sought shelter.

As the storm blew over, Jeneva smiled.

Breeden was terrified.

"After this, you don't sleep at night," she said Saturday as glass crunched beneath her feet in her wrecked home near the town square. She said any sound scares her now.

The financial toll on the town's 5,700 residents remained unclear. The tornado hit the courthouse, fire and police departments, county jail, middle school, community college, patrol cars and businesses.

Arkansas Department of Emergency Management crews were still assessing the destruction on Saturday, although early estimates put the number of damaged or destroyed buildings at 600.

Volunteers were trying to put tarps on the buckled roofs of scores of houses preparing for a new round of storms predicted today.

By Saturday afternoon, 600 tarps had been distributed, Fire Chief John Puckett said. He expected the Arkansas National Guard to truck in another 1,200 by Saturday evening.

Work crews said they still needed more tarps and ice chests. Supplies were being accepted at the church shelter.

As of Saturday, the federal disaster aid the state is seeking had not been approved.

The state declared Polk, Sevier and Howard counties disaster areas, although 11 counties had reported damage after Thursday's tornadoes. Entergy reported 629 customers were still without power Saturday afternoon. Southwestern Electric Power, which serves Polk County, reported 1,673 customers without power about 5 p.m.

The National Weather Service confirmed that at least five tornadoes touched down Thursday night. Mena was by far the hardest hit, with an EF3 tornado packing winds up to 165 mph that ripped a roughly 14.5-mile path from south southeast of Potter through Mena and then lifted northeast of Ink. The tornado hit a row of houses north of Ink.

Many residents were home in front of the television or listening to police scanners when the storm approached.

Jimmy Rathel, 79, sat in his chair in his living room, unmoved. He felt the floor of hisChurch Street house rumbling. Then nothing.

So he stepped outside and took a seat on his porch swing.

"I've been in this old country for 79 years, and I'm not afraid," Rathel said as a generator buzzed in his garage Saturday. If he has his way, he won't leave his home, despite the fallen trees and busted windows.

"I've got a garden out back," he said.

When the sirens sounded Thursday night, Betty Beck had loved ones to think of.

The 62-year-old, her daughter and granddaughter, who clutched her 16-month-old son, hunkered down in a hall closet in Beck's home a few blocks off the main drag.

The baby cried. The women prayed.

The closet held up fine. But when they emerged, the picturesque, brick ranch house Beck and her late husband built seven years ago was in shambles.

Much of the roof was gone and glass covered the furniture. She won't be able to stay. And she's not sure whether the house can be salvaged.

"It was our dream house," Beck said as movers packed up the belongings that could be saved Saturday morning. "Each room was based on a magazine picture."

Amid the devastation, there were moments of joy.

"Here, kitty," Jan P. Van Natta called Saturday morning as she walked around her unstable twostory home in the hardest hit neighborhood near town square. A tree had crushed part of the roof and the chimney appeared as if it could topple at any moment.

Van Natta had fled after the storm without her cat, T.K.

Suddenly, she heard faint meows.

T.K. was calling back to her through a broken window in the living room. He had found his way inside.

"Oh, thank God," Van Natta said as she dashed inside to scoop up the agitated cat.

Information for this article was contributed by Nancy Cole and L. Lamor Williams of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.