OZARK — Three Franklin County residents who died after two tornadoes ripped through the area on May 24 and May 25, 2011, were remembered Friday in a memorial service attended by about 100 people.
The three who died were Cheryl Jackson, 43, of Etna; Teena Evans, 35, of Denning, and Julie Holloway, 64, of Denning.
Two Johnson County residents also died in a tornado that developed from the same storm. They were Angel Pelts, 31, of the Bethlehem community and R.G. Baker, 65, of the Hagarville/ Strawberry community, according to the Johnson County sheriff’s office.
“This will be a bitter- sweet kind of event,” U.S. Rep. Steve Womack told the crowd at the Ozark campus of Arkansas Tech University. “It’s a day to remember, but it’s also a day to celebrate.”
Womack, a Republican who represents the state’s 3rd Congressional District, said the tornado was “a sobering reminder of the uncertainty of life.”
He said he visited Denning and Etna shortly after the tornado struck those towns.
“I could only marvel as we drove around the area that the loss of life wasn’t greater,” he said.
“Resiliency” is part of the nature of Franklin County residents and Americans in general, Womack said.
“I think that’s part of the genius of America,” he said. “It’s who we are and what we’re about.”
State Rep. Leslee Milam Post, D-Ozark, said one of her greatest concerns after the storm was “security” for the residents of Denning and Etna.
“Many people there were worried about the day-today, how are you going to get your needs met,” she told the crowd.
Post said she met a woman who survived the storm in her bathroom.
“She came out and her home was gone,” Post said.
But the survivor was grateful instead of sad.
“I’m so glad I had to go to the bathroom,” she told Post.
State Rep. Gary Stubblefield, R-Branch, said he’s proud to live in an area where the residents are “so filled with compassion, sympathy and benevolence.” In a time of disaster, they were able to put their differences aside, he said.
Denning Mayor Paul Lee said community leaders were out helping area residents dig out from under the rubble within minutes after the storms.
“I had a close friend get killed and her daughter was left,” Lee said, referring to Teena Evans, whose 4-yearold daughter, Piper, survived the tornado.
“The tornado took Piper Evans several hundred feet from the trailer and set her down,” Womack said earlier in the memorial service.
Rick Shaw of Etna said the damage was the worst he and other members of the Etna Volunteer Fire Department had ever seen.
“But at the same time, I’d never seen so many miracles,” he said. “It brought tears to your eyes. I’d never seen so many people come volunteer time and money and food. Thank you all so much. I can’t tell you how grateful we are for that.”
Terry Jackson, a survivor who lost his wife, Cheryl, and his home in the storm, also thanked the community.
Denning has recovered from destruction that was “everywhere you looked,” said Denning Police Chief John Barbour.
“We have rebuilt,” he said. “Everything else can be replaced but human life.”
Yvonne Case, the Franklin County administrator for the Arkansas Department of Human Services, said the area’s recovery effort “is about love.”
“It’s just beautiful what happened here,” she said, referring to the efforts of many people who helped after the storm.
Case said she worked on recovery efforts in New Orleans, but emergency markings on houses took on a new importance when they were in Franklin County.
“When you see those marks on the homes of people you know, it’s different when it’s your people,” she told the crowd.
Citations were given to several people and groups who had helped after the tornadoes.
The Rotary Clubs of Altus and Ozark donated oak trees to be planted in Denning and Etna and rose bushes for the families who lost loved ones.
“I think people are moving forward, rebuilding their lives and taking up slack for their neighbors,” said Fred Mullen, Franklin County’s emergency coordinator, after the memorial service. “Farmers are doing projects across fence lines, helping get timber removed, and that’s mostly debris on other people’s property.”
Mullen said about 200 homes in Franklin County were destroyed or severely damaged. The Federal Emergency Management Agency assisted some of those affected homeowners, but the maximum FEMA grant amount for tornado damage in the area was $29,000, he said.
Arkansas, Pages 11 on 05/26/2012