ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE, Monday, April 23, 2001
Fort Smith: '96 twister, downtown restoration intertwined
DAVE HUGHES
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
FORT SMITH -- It's been five years since a tornado swept away their homes, but Mike Reed of Fort Smith and Mary Roddy of Greenwood still get nervous in the spring.
"I don't look forward to spring because it's the stormy season," Roddy said.
The Van Buren home she and her husband, David, shared was in the path of an tornado that destroyed or damaged hundreds of homes and businesses and killed two children the night of April 21, 1996.
Reed and his wife, Pam, like many others that Sunday night, were at home in bed when the tornado hit without warning at 11:10 p.m.
The National Weather Service was late in issuing a tornado warning, which brought loud protests from Fort Smith residents and officials. The protests ultimately resulted in a Doppler radar tower being erected just south of the city.
The Reeds remember walking up the walls and ceiling to keep their balance as the winds rolled their mobile home at North 23rd and High streets until it crumbled.
They crawled out of the wreckage with barely a scratch; their home was a pile of rubble.
The tornado came from the southwest, crossed the Arkansas River into Fort Smith near the National Historic Site and roared northeast. It damaged downtown buildings and tore through northside neighborhoods where it killed two children, 2-year-old Angelica Fleming and 5-year-old Kyle Johnson. The tornado then crossed the river again and devastated three more residential sections on Van Buren's west side.
"It was a disaster of major proportions for us," Fort Smith City Administrator Bill Harding said.
About 100 people were injured in the twister.
Property damage was heavy, estimated at $300 million. More than 800 houses, mobile homes and apartments were destroyed or damaged in Van Buren; the number in Fort Smith was 552.
Fort Smith had more commercial and industrial damage, including a direct hit by the tornado at Fort Smith's P Street Wastewater Treatment Plant, which cost about $17 million to repair.
The storm resulted in an explosion of activity as the area mobilized to recover from the twister.
Home builders, insurance adjusters, Small Business Administration and Federal Emergency Management Agency officials, the American Red Cross and volunteer workers from around the country swarmed over the area to help residents and business operators recover.
At first, the Reeds didn't know how they were going to survive after the storm. But they got government money for building materials and volunteers stepped up to help build them a new home.
A backhoe operator dug their foundation for free, an electrician wired the house at no cost and others, such as brick masons and carpenters, showed up and pitched in. Students who took their senior trip to Fort Smith to help with the cleanup assisted the couple with the construction, Mike Reed said.
Today, the Reeds are happy in their two-bedroom home.
"God built it," Mike Reed said. "It's wonderful."
The tornado also spurred downtown development in Fort Smith.
Sam Sicard, president of First National Bank of Fort Smith and chairman of the Central Business Improvement District, said many downtown buildings the tornado destroyed were deserted or underused anyway.
He said the tornado didn't cause the redevelopment to begin but sped it up. He would have preferred that the catalyst wasn't so violent.
"I wouldn't want to have it happen like that," he said.
He said property owners, tenants and business operators began to cooperate to revive downtown.
Today, there are more businesses downtown than there were when the tornado struck, he said. Real estate values also are higher.
"I think we weathered it well," Sicard said.
The city's Civic Center renovation and library expansion were in the planning stage before the tornado struck, but Sicard said he was unsure there would have been public support for the projects.
The tornado brought federal and state funds to the city that created ways for the public projects to move forward.
Crews are putting the finishing touches on the Civic Center renovation downtown, and a $5 million riverfront development held its grand opening last weekend.
Harding said Fort Smith and its downtown are now more attractive to tourists and industrial prospects than five years ago.
Fort Smith learned "how to take a disaster and leverage good from that bad," he said.
Not everyone stayed after the tornado. The Roddys lost their home at 606 Fir Drive in Van Buren after spending $20,000 to prepare it for their retirement.
They planned to rebuild, but by the time they made the decision, no contractors were available. They decided to move away rather than wait.
"We're so much better off than we were before," she said.
Mary Roddy said she didn't think she would feel comfortable or safe in the Van Buren home after the trauma of the tornado.
She said the uncertainty of nature lingers in the back of her mind. She said she was sleepless one night and, while sitting in their sunroom, she composed a poem:
"The Lord has brought us to this house
And here we plan to stay.
That is, of course, if, in His plans,
He keeps the storms away."
This article was published on Monday, April 23, 2001