Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Storm Damage Heavy In County

Jim Cross, OES coordinator for Nevada County, has estimated damage to Nevada County during last week's storms of over one million dollars.

The hardest hit was the Bodcaw area, where several chicken houses were demolished by an apparent tornado.

Three of four chicken houses were destroyed or nearly destroyed at the Casteel Farm just east of Bodcaw.

Also hit in Bodcaw and the area were Larry Hicks' chicken houses, where he also lost around 1,000 small chickens, the Ronnie Shewbirt place and the Richard Rowe place.

The old Bodcaw School was damaged extensively with about half of the roof blown off.

Bill Rhodes in the Caney community also lost a chicken house.

There were reports of many houses damaged throughout the county, most of them minor. There was no reports of residences being totally destroyed by the winds.

Cross said that straight winds apparently were wide spread across the county, although the damage in Bodcaw appeared to have been caused by a small twister.

The U.S. Weather Service never issued a tornado warning for the county.

Cross estimated eight to 10 chicken houses were destroyed or were heavily damaged in the county by the storms last Thursday and Friday.

A watch was issued early Thursday before the storms began to hit. Hail fell in many areas of the county on Thursday afternoon.

While Arkansas in other areas was being hit by tornados, heavy rain hit Nevada County with lightning and thunder. Around 1:00 a.m. Friday morning the heaviest storms rolled through, causing the destruction.

Many trees were uprooted in the county and many out-buildings were also destroyed or lost roofs.