PHOTOS: Arkansans share stories of survival, damage after storms roll through state

A trailer home in Higginson had its roof ripped off in strong storms that moved through White County Tuesday night.
A trailer home in Higginson had its roof ripped off in strong storms that moved through White County Tuesday night.

2 P.M. UPDATE:

Virginia Weaver has luck — and her bathtub — to thank for surviving Tuesday night's storm, according to her family.

The 77-year-old woman was inside her home near the corner of Cherry and Plateau Streets when an EF2 tornado hit the small town of Kensett. Weaver decided to take cover in her green bathtub and wait out the storm, said her daughter, Kim Cox.

But the winds picked up, and the trailer ripped away from the foundation, slid over a ditch and into a tree, where the entire structure broke apart against the thick trunk. Weaver was inside the whole time. A police officer found her, still conscious, sitting in a patch of mud behind the tree with her head tucked into her chest, said Kensett Police Chief John Pollard.

The officer wrapped her in a blanket, and Weaver was taken to a local hospital. She suffered a broken wrist, fractured rib, gashes and bruises but no other major injuries, Cox said.


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“She's very blessed,” she added.

Pollard agreed that Weaver was “very, very lucky,” and said she was one of only two reported injuries. Two homes were destroyed, one had to be torn down, and a handful of other structures suffered some minor damage, he said.

Cox and her relatives were out picking up what remains of Weaver's home Wednesday afternoon. Across the railroad tracks, more than two blocks away, they found her roof, which had been warped into a big ball, as well as some kitchen flooring and her brown carpet. Her welcome mat was discovered in a nearby forest. Neighbors drove by this morning, handing them their family photographs, Cox said.

What's left of Weaver's home is a rectangular plot of dirt outlining where the walls once stood. The home's insides — the wooden carriage, appliances, a bike wheel, a refrigerator — sit propped up against the tree. Pink insulation dangles from branches that reach more than 60 feet off the ground.

And about 50 feet away in an adjacent field is the bathtub, still intact, sitting under a swing set.

“She really hated that bathtub,” said Melissa Passmore, one of the family member cleaning up Weaver's home. “But it saved her life.”

Check back for updates and read Thursday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

11:15 A.M. UPDATE:

As Stephen Tompkins walked home after the worst spell of Tuesday night’s storm, he assumed his backyard shop would be damaged. He shined his flashlight, saw the structure was gone and wasn’t surprised, he said.

Then Tompkins passed the cone of light over his one-story house on Holiday Terrace and saw something he didn’t expect: ceiling rafters with nothing but sky in between them. The tornado had blown his roof clean off.

Seeing it was “surreal,” Tompkins said. “You’re kind of in disbelief.”

But he didn’t have much time to adjust, he said. Tompkins and his brother, Jeff, went into recovery mode. They grabbed the most important items: photographs, the house deed and his guitar collection, he said. The two and other family members were out Wednesday morning sweeping up debris, patching up holes with tarp and taking stock of the damage.

During the storm, Stephen Tompkins said, he was at his mother’s house, two doors down from his own, because she likes to keep track of her family when bad weather hits. The clan was watching the evening news when the worst of the storm broke out.

Tompkins said he heard a noise that sounded like a “cross between a horn and a train.” Lightning flashed across the sky, the power went out, and instinctively, everyone started running to the hall, he said.

Meanwhile, Jeff Tompkins was driving down the road from their cousin’s house. He said he had just parked in his mother’s driveway when his truck started rocking back and forth, tree limbs dropped on the hood and the neighborhood plunged into darkness.

He sprinted to his mother’s door, but it was stuck. On the other side, Stephen Tompkins yanked on the door for about 45 seconds before it finally swung open, letting in his brother and a tunnel of wind behind him. They slammed the door shut and hunkered down in the hallway.

“There was nothing to do. There was nowhere to go,” Jeff Tompkins said.

And it happened so quickly, he added. The most intense thrashing from the suspected tornado lasted just 10 to 15 seconds, he estimated, but it was enough to destroy at least four homes in a town of about 650 people.

But there are benefits in belonging to such a small community, Tompkins said, as he scoped out the neighborhood from his cousin’s lawn. Friends brought biscuits and donuts around this morning, he said. He’s gotten lots of calls from people asking what they can do to help without getting in the way.

There’s a lot to do, Steven Tompkins said. He owns or co-owns seven houses on the block, and the next step is deciding which houses can be salvaged and which can be rebuilt.

He isn’t totally sure where to begin, Tompkins said, though he’s thankful Jeff is there to help him. After the storm rolled through, his brother gave him some practical advice: “Stay calm. Think about what’s important. Go for the photos and the change bucket.”

Check back for updates and read Thursday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

EARLIER:

Five minutes before a storm swept through Higginson, destroying at least three homes and damaging dozens more in the White County town, Shirley Hill had to cajole her sister to get in their storm cellar.

While waiting out the storm inside with their father and two dogs, the rain and wind were so powerful it felt like the concrete walls around them were expanding and contracting, Hill said.

When they came back outside and assessed the damage, Hill's sister thanked her for making her go in.

A corner of the home's metal roof had peeled up, and half of the neighbor's holly tree broke off from its trunk and landed in the backyard. The center of the two-door garage had been pushed back from its normal resting spot.

The Red Cross would classify Hill's house as “affected,” meaning the damage was relatively minor, said Mark Cherry, a disaster action team leader who was on the scene assessing the town Wednesday morning. By 8 a.m. Cherry had surveyed about 40 homes in Higginson to see which ones were livable. Three were “totally destroyed,” he said, and five had suffered “major damage.”

The damage came as a strong storm moved through the area and a tornado warning was in effect. Up to 15 people in White County were reported to have been hurt, though they extent of their injuries wasn't clear. The National Weather Service has not yet confirmed whether a tornado actually touched down.

Hill's next-door neighbor with the holly tree, John Crouch, lives in one of the homes that suffered major damage. Crouch said he heard a loud roar, felt his ears pop and took his dogs into the bathroom to wait out the worst of the storm.

The weather warped the metal fence enclosing his lawn and did some damage to his roof. He's got two broken windows in the front and a few more around back. Plus, the trailer across the street had it's metal roof blown off. Crouch found a hulking piece of the roof wrapped around one of his trees. Another section of the roof, misshapen and more than 5 feet tall, somehow missed the home but sits at the opposite end of his front yard.

Crouch said he's experienced some wind before while living in his house, but nothing like this. He already had crews working on the home to replace some siding, but as of this morning they've got “a little bit of new work to do,” he said.

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