Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Area Lucky; No Dead In County

Prescott and Nevada County residents were extremely lucky Saturday.

Though a tornado touched down and destroyed three homes completely, no one was seriously injured.

The twister apparently originated near Fulton in Hempstead County. It followed Interstate 30, for the most part, doing damage along the Experiment Station Road near Perrytown, before demolishing Steve Cox's cricket farm at the Emmet exit.

From there, the whirlwind made its way into Nevada County, where the three homes were demolished.

John Teeter, a local meteorologist, said he saw the tornado form.

"I was monitoring the radio," he said, "and heard it had hit Hempstead County below Perrytown."

Teeter said it wasn't a big tornado and came from a single cell storm. When he saw it, the twister was about 300 yards wide. "I watched it from the south end of the Depot (Museum). It was a classic wall cloud."

He said a weather spotter school had been held Thursday, Feb. 27, and the tornado was just like the film shown during the school.

"This is typical of spring weather," Teeter said. "People took advantage and protected themselves.

While Teeter said he'd like to see an alarm system in the county, it is unlikely one would have done any good for this storm because of its sudden appearance.

He said Prescott's tornado could be rated an F-3 on the weather scale. F-5 is the highest rating for tornadoes, and are normally a mile wide when they form.

Davis Benton, a retired meteorologist from Cale, had to outrun the storm cell from Texarkana back to Prescott.

At the time, he said, the National Weather Service had issued a thunderstorm warning for Hempstead and Nevada counties. When the severe cell was spotted in the storm system, the warning was upgraded to a tornado warning for Clark County.

However, the people in Arkadelphia had little time to prepare for what hit them.

The Arkadelphia twister, he said, would be classified an F-4 with winds of more than 200 miles per hour.

"We'd gone years without having a tornado in Nevada County," Benton said, "and now we've had two in the last six months.

"It's unbelievable to have these types of storms with no more fatalities than we had."

Benton said the storm was being monitored on the Nevada County Rescue Unit's new radar computer system. However, when it got strong it was already upon the Prescott area and there was no time for a warning to be given.

"There is no better example," he said, "of why we need the weather radar in Montgomery County than this. I told State Sen. Mike Ross it we had it (the radar), we could detect storms sooner."

Where weather radar is concerned, Nevada County is in a dead spot.

Benton said there are efforts being made by Rep. Tim Hutchinson to get the weather radar put in the Fort Smith area, but this region of the state is already covered by the Tulsa, Okla. radar.

The new system, he said, is more deeply needed in Montgomery county where it could provide vital weather information for Nevada County residents, along with people living in other remote rural areas.

Arkansas Lt. Gov. Win Rockefeller, who was in Prescott Monday for the ribbon cutting of Red River Knitting Co., called Saturday's tornadoes a tragedy of unspeakable magnitude.

He said the response effort was superb from law enforcement agencies, the Red Cross and other emergency services groups. Rockefeller also praised the efforts made by volunteers, who reached out to help their neighbors during their time of need.

"Everything is going better than expected," he said. "But we need to be aware this is only the beginning of the effort. There is a lot of work to do ahead -- repairs, reconstruction, getting people into homes.

"We'll see how good we really are then," he added. "Americans are renown for being the first to respond when aid is needed."

But, the next two to six months will be critical as people affected by the devastation work to get back on their feet and find shelter. "It's a critical issue," he said. "We might be able to use Habitat for Humanity to help the victims."

Rockefeller said Arkansans need the chance to get warnings quickly so they can protect themselves.

At this time, though, Gov. Mike Huckabee is working hard and has taken steps to get disaster relief moving.

Nevada County Judge James Roy Brown said the county was lucky. County crews spent Saturday afternoon and Sunday working to clear debris from roads so other emergency personnel and utility crews could get through.

"We were lucky it didn't hit downtown," he said, "where there were more people."

In spite of the county's luck, it has been declared a disaster area by Gov. Huckabee.

For those affected by the tornado who were under-insured or uninsured, Brown said, toll-free phone numbers have been set up to help provide assistance. Those numbers are: 1-800-462-9029, and for the hearing impaired, 1-800-462-7585.

Applications for aid will be taken over the phone, Brown said.