SOUTHWEST TIMES RECORD, Monday, April 16, 2001


Picking up the Pieces (continued)


Web Publish: Monday, April 5, 2004

Rebuilding Was A Group Effort

By Mary L. Crider
TIMES RECORD • MCRIDER@SWTIMES.COM

When asked about it, anyone who experienced the April 21, 1996, tornado in Van Buren or who worked its aftermath will first say, “Thank God no one was killed.”
“It looked like a war zone, but you couldn’t grasp the magnitude of it because you couldn’t see it all from one vantage point. We thought there would have to be bodies,” said Bobby Gilstrap, then Van Buren’s fire chief.
Concern about rebuilding ran a distant second to concern about casualties. The body search, the relief measures and the rebuilding efforts were all true community efforts, interviewees stressed.
The tornado struck in both Fort Smith and Van Buren. It damaged or destroyed more than 500 Van Buren homes and a handful of businesses, Van Buren Fire Marshal James Griffin said.
Like many people involved in the rebuilding, Griffin was both a victim and a relief worker. The tornado took his Skyline Drive home.
Griffin’s family already had gone to bed when their golden retriever, which didn’t like storms, woke Griffin. Griffin hustled his family into a little half-bathroom. It was the only room not damaged by the tornado.
“It’s the same story as everybody else. The room they were in was the only room not damaged. I don’t feel like it was a coincidence. I feel like the good Lord was looking out for us,” Griffin said.
Five years after the devastation, rebuilding is at least 99 percent complete, said building inspector Terry Wells.
“Most homes have been built back. There are probably not over six or eight where the foundations are still setting — some in Azure Hills and the Tanglewood Addition ... and one is slated for rebuilding now. The neighborhoods off of Rena Road are all built back — a lot of the Clements Addition, Cedar Creek and Timber Oaks. ... One house is under construction on Skyline Drive, and there’s only one (not-rebuilt foundation) left there,” Wells said.
The bulk of the rebuilding was completed within two years.
“By the first anniversary, you saw a big improvement in those neighborhoods. By the second year, if you didn’t know a tornado had come through, you wouldn’t be able to tell. ... For what damage we had, I think there was a fast recovery,” Griffin said.
Van Buren homebuilder Joe Sirmon rebuilt and repaired about 30 tornado-damaged houses, including his own Fir Drive home. Sirmon said he repaired his roof as quickly as he could, then went to work for other people.
Initially, it seemed chaotic.
“There was so much stuff going on around here that nobody knew what was going on. People wanted their stuff done now, but you had to prioritize,” Sirmon said.
Most of the homes in Sirmon’s neighborhood were affected. And homes not in the direct path of the tornado saw a lot of wind damage, he said. Many had roofs or windows blown out. Where roofs were blown off, there was a lot of damage to the inside of the homes, Sirmon said.
Homebuilders worked some seven-day weeks while getting the recovery under way, he said.
“I think things went back together a little quicker than I thought it would. You can still see things messed up like trees, but if you’re not from around here, you wouldn’t notice,” Sirmon said.
Former Van Buren chief building inspector Carl Hines, now Greenwood inspector, said the rebuilding proceeded efficiently because administrative and records systems were already in place.
“We continued like we always had, issuing permits and doing inspections. FEMA provided additional office staff for about three months and funding for temporary help doing inspections,” Hines said.
It was a lot of work.
Hines remembers working 10-hour days and seven-day weeks.
The rebuilding helped spur Van Buren’s residential and commercial growth.
“People who were living there moved to other subdivisions and rebuilt their destroyed or damaged homes. All the businesses on Rena Road and Highway 59 North that were damaged are built back. Sign Art was destroyed. Hales Truck Salvage — they got rid of it. It’s now Cedar Creek shopping center. And the growth since has kind of fed off the tornado rebuilding,” Wells said.

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Web Publish: Monday, April 16, 2001

Arkansans Keep Pressure On NWS

By Samantha Young
TIMES RECORD • SYOUNG@donreydc.COM

WASHINGTON — The National Weather Service plans to shut its doors in Fort Smith but has yet to set a closing date, giving local officials more time to gather data they hope will reverse the government’s decision to leave the region.
A year and a half after a government committee voted to close the office at the Fort Smith airport, one man still reports to work five days a week to monitor weather conditions. He does not have the authority to report temperatures or issue weather warnings.
In essence, Forrest Johns, the sole employee at the Fort Smith post, is a liaison for the public to the regional weather station in Tulsa, which issues information to western Arkansas. He will stay there for at least two years after the government sets a closure date for the Fort Smith branch, according to the NWS.
“There’s nothing new. We are just waiting for word from the Department of Commerce,” said Ron Trumbla, a NWS spokesman.
It is unknown when the government will issue the next set of closings. Meanwhile, local officials continue to collect data they hope proves the region suffers from a lack of reliable weather coverage.
“We continue to believe that the local meteorologists have better understanding of our weather system than they do in Tulsa,” said Mitch Llewellyn, a Fort Smith attorney and volunteer radio ham operator. “We need someone with judgment who can interpret things a computer can’t do.”
Sen. Tim Hutchinson, R-Ark., is hoping to dig up some evidence of his own. He intends to ask the General Accounting Office, the congressional research arm, to investigate whether cities like Fort Smith have lost coverage since the NWS consolidated its offices nationwide.
“Since witnessing first hand the devastation left behind by the tornado in 1996, I’ve been committed to ensuring the people of Fort Smith receive necessary coverage they need,” Hutchinson said in a statement. “It is my hope the GAO report will further this effort.”
The Arkansas delegation’s opposition to the closure of the Fort Smith office may not stop the government from leaving its post in Fort Smith, but lawmakers say they have mounted an effective stall.
“What we have accomplished is that they have moved forward very slowly and more prudently,” said Rep. Asa Hutchinson, R-Fort Smith. “They certainly have not been in a hurry to close.”
While lawmakers await notice from the government about an end date for the Fort Smith weather station, they continue to lobby the NWS to reverse its decision and boost staffing at the airport.
“We are continuing to work with the administration to point out to them that people have suffered a degradation of service and it needs to be rectified by having a full service office in the area,” said Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark.
The region’s weather warnings have been issued from Tulsa and Little Rock since 1994, when the government scaled back the Fort Smith office. Local residents contend that Tulsa and Little Rock officials have failed to alert them of tornadoes, resulting in an illegal degradation of service for their area.
They point to the devastating 1996 tornado that swept through downtown Fort Smith, killing two people in Fort Smith and causing $300 million in damage.
NWS officials say Fort Smith’s weather support has improved in the past 10 years, citing the Tulsa office as one of the best branches in the country. The Modernization Transition Committee charged with consolidating the country’s weather stations agreed with the government. It voted in September 1999 to close Fort Smith’s office.

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Web Publish: Monday, April 16, 2001

Congress Weighs Funding For Mobile Home Shelters

By Rachael Myer
Times Record • rmyer@donreydc.com

WASHINGTON — Living in a mobile home in Sallisaw, Darlene Repp said she feels like a rat that has to dart for safety whenever a tornado hits.
There is no storm shelter in the Paddock Village Mobile Home Park so she, her husband J.W. and their son race to a nearby Texaco station and huddle there until the storm passes.
“That’s the only place I have to go and you’ll be surprised, that’s the only place many have to go,” said Repp, a housewife.
Repp remembers times when she thought the roof of her trailer was about to peel away with the wind. She worries her $35,000 home will end up in shreds.
She is hoping that will change if Congress passes a bill introduced by Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala. The Tornado Shelters Act calls for $50 million to be provided to manufactured home parks to build tornado shelters.
Supporters of the legislation think it is likely to pass this year. It cleared the House on March 22. Sen. Tim Hutchinson, R-Ark., introduced a senate version of the bill April 3.
Arkansas leaders say more money for tornado shelters of all kinds might help protect residents from killer tornados like the one that ripped apart parts of Van Buren and downtown Fort Smith on April 21, 1996. The tornado caused about $300 million in damage. Two people in Fort Smith were killed.
Rep. Asa Hutchinson, R-Fort Smith, said the legislation would give trailer park residents, who often earn low to moderate incomes, a safe haven during severe storms.
“Each year people are choosing (mobile homes), perhaps because of their circumstances or perhaps because of their own choice. I think it is very important we provide this option,” Hutchinson said.
Almost 30 of the 40 Americans killed last year from tornadoes were mobile home residents, Hutchinson said.
Rep. Brad Carson, D-Okla., said mobile home residents should have the same protection as other people.
“It’s an important part of our economy and allows people to have homes who otherwise may not,” Carson said of trailers.
Almost half of mobile home residents earn less than $30,000 a year, according to 1999 figures from the Manufactured Housing Institute. The same year, the average price for a mobile home was $43,600, according to the institute.
About 200,000 mobile homes are in Arkansas, according to the Arkansas Manufactured Housing Association. The most famous mobile home residents are Gov. Mike Huckabee and his wife Janet, who are staying in a trailer while the governor’s mansion is being renovated.
Tony Fiorentine, owner of Paddock Village Mobile Park, said he would have to spend up to $100,000 to build a shelter large enough to protect the 50 families in his community.
“Because of the cost, it’s something we couldn’t do ourselves,” Fiorentine said.
Ken Stell, 65, is a resident of Flat Rock Village Mobile Home Park in Van Buren. He noted he and his neighbors are elderly and, unable to travel quickly, need a shelter close to their homes.
“They would have difficulty in getting organized and getting themselves up there if time were short,” Stell said.
The Arkansas Department of Emergency Management already has a program to help homeowners pay for storm shelters. The department reimburses people $1,000 or 50 percent of the cost of the shelter, which ever is less expensive.
The money is distributed on a first-come-first serve basis, with this year’s funding yet to be determined by the state Legislature. About 600 people have applied already, said Teri Pfeiffer, a department spokeswoman.
Repp said she hopes her trailer home receives funding before the next tornado strikes her home.
“I think it is long over due. Every mobile home should have a shelter. I don’t think people should have to scurry out like rats,” she said.

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Web Publish: Monday, April 16, 2001

Raw Sewage Flowed Into River For Four Days After Tornado

By William Landrum
TIMES RECORD • WLANDRUM@SWTIMES.COM

The city of Fort Smith’s P Street Wastewater Treatment Plant saw damage to the tune of $5.5 million caused by the April 1996 tornado.
“The plant was in the direct path of the tornado,” said Steve Parke, the city’s director of utilities. “As it came toward the plant, the first thing it (the tornado) did was remove all of the power lines, and the plant went off-line.”
Parke said the storm then destroyed the operations building, which included the head works and main pump station, destroyed the chlorine building and caused extensive damage to the dryer building.
“It then removed the roof from the laboratory and administrative building and removed the roof from the blower building,” Parke said. “It then destroyed a small metal building that housed some of our vehicles and specialized equipment. A lot of our vehicles were destroyed.”
Because of the loss of electric power, raw sewage bypassed the plant, and the flow of gravity caused it to discharge into the Arkansas River for four days, Parke said.
“The flow (of raw sewage) normally comes to the treatment plant, and the pumps lift it into the plant for processing,” Parke said. “But with the power off, the flows bypassed the plant and raw sewage flowed into the river untreated for four days.”
Stopping the flow into the river was one of the first priorities, Parke said.
“OG&E had to completely rebuild the power lines, and we had to completely rewire the whole plant,” Parke said. “We were able to put the primary section of the plant back online, which allowed us to perform partial treatment, and several days later we were able to put the secondary section on and achieve full treatment.”
Johnny House, a machinist in the maintenance department, was visiting friends that night.
“I wasn’t working, but some of my friends were and I dropped by there,” House said. “I had gone into the maintenance building when the storm hit. When I tried to lock the door, the winds tried to pull it out of my hands. I managed to hold it closed until the tornado went by. Then the backdraft of the tornado blew the walls and the door frame in.”
House said after the storm was over he began searching for his friends, Paul Handley and Michael Jeremiah. After he found them safe, House said it was then that he realized how destructive the storm had been.
“There were vehicles slammed into each other, and one truck was blown into the treatment building,” House said. “Two sludge trailers were blown into a ditch.”
House said he and his co-workers then checked to make sure the valves on the chlorine cylinders were secured, but because of the loss of electric power, there was little else they could do.
“We knew we had lost all of our machines and pumps because the buildings they were in were pretty well destroyed,” House said.
Michael Jeremiah, a plant operator, also has vivid memories of that stormy night as he prepared to work another shift to cover for another employee who had called in sick.
“Myself and Paul Handley were talking about the weather when about that time my dad, who’s scared of storms, called over there to see if I was going to be on my way home. He knew I was supposed to be getting off at that time,” Jeremiah said. “He told me we had a bad storm coming, and I told him I wasn’t going anywhere since I was going to be working another shift.”
“I told him I felt I was in one of the safest buildings in Fort Smith since this building goes down six floors, and he told me I needed to be getting down there,” Jeremiah said. “We were getting ready to get our samples to pull tests on which we do every two hours.”
Those samples never got tested.
Jeremiah, 34, said he suddenly heard a loud commotion at the front door of the building that sounded like a spewing sound, so he went to investigate.
“While I was standing looking out the front door, it was lightning and I saw an outline on the horizon that looked like it was a long ways off,” Jeremiah said. “It became real noisy, sort of like a rumble and the thrust of a bunch of jets taking off.”
Jeremiah said he and Handley began running toward the basement but got only 20 feet when the storm hit with its awesome fury.
“Paul said he could see vehicles flying through the air and coming toward the building,” Jeremiah said. “I got in the corner next to a door, and Paul crouched between the refrigerator and an interior wall, and the refrigerator began to spin. Then it got real still and began to rain.”
Jeremiah said he and Handley attempted to open a door to get outside and the door would not open. It was then the two realized they didn’t need a door because the walls of the room were caved in — they simply had to crawl over the rubble to get outside and view the wreckage the storm had left behind.
“It was strange because all of the wrecked vehicles had their lights on,” Jeremiah said. “And the break room was completely demolished, but my cell phone and scanner were sitting untouched on the table where I had left them.”
Jeremiah said his main concern was the pumps of the plant and perhaps getting written up because they had quit functioning, as well as the chlorine cylinders.
“I got on my cell phone and got in touch with the Arkansas State Police and told them we needed a Hazmat team out here to help secure the hazardous chemicals,” Jeremiah said. “They dispatched a fire truck, but no leaks were found.”
Only after ascertaining that his family was safe could Jeremiah breathe a sigh of relief and reflect on the night’s excitement.
“I’ve always been an adrenaline junkie, always seeking a thrill,” Jeremiah said. “But that’s the most scared I’ve ever been in my whole life.”
Parke said the plant, which normally treats 7 million gallons of solid waste per day, was partially back online in several stages within eight days. However, it wasn’t until June 10 that the plant was fully operational, Parke said.
The storm dropped a large amount of debris into the large open tanks used to treat the raw sewage, Parke said. Because of this, these tanks had to be pumped and cleaned out and the debris removed by hand before they could be used, Parke said.
The plant was extensively rebuilt and its capacity increased to where it is now able to handle 10 million gallons of raw sewage a day, Parke said. The city spent a year negotiating an insurance settlement and began rebuilding the facility in mid-1997. The final rebuilding phase was only recently completed, Parke said, with the final damage estimate at $5.5 million.
An expansion program due to begin in August will increase the capacity to 24 million gallons per day.
Parke said the $18 million expansion will be funded by sales tax bonds approved by voters in March. Another $18 million expansion is being planned for the Massard Wastewater Plant, with construction to begin in June.
“What we’ll be doing basically is expanding the pump station and the process units at the plants,” Parke said.
Plans are on the drawing board for even more expansion, Parke said.
“Within five years we’ll further increase our handling capacity to 48 million gallons a day,” Parke said.

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Web Publish: Monday, April 16, 2001

Few Will Forget That Long, Dark Night
FAMILIES IN PATH OF 1996 TWISTER REFLECT ON DESTRUCTION, LOSSES AND CONCER FROM COMMUNITY

By Kim Souza
TIMES RECORD • KSOUZA@SWTIMES.COM

Memories of a long, dark, frightening night are forever written on the hearts and minds of those who lay in the path of the 1996 tornado that ravaged parts of the region.
Marr Lynn Bearden of Van Buren and her son Daniel had gone to bed that April evening and never gave the storm a second thought.
“I went to sleep with the television on and was awakened by a horrific clap of thunder about 11 o’clock. Daniel got up and came into my room, I heard the weather man say a tornado had touched down in Fort Smith and to take cover. Daniel and I made our way downstairs as the electricity went off. We grabbed the flashlights and ran to the little bathroom off of the kitchen. We heard a roaring sound, with howling winds banging and clashing all around us, it was so frightening,” Bearden said.
The tornado had cut a path across Lee Creek and slammed into the bluff on which Bearden’s home rested. The second story roof was lifted up and slammed back down while side winds ripped through the houses on both sides. The tornado made its way to the Tanglewood addition, where the storm leveled the home of Mark and Anne Spellman.
“Mark and I were in bed watching television when the electricity went out,” Anne Spellman said. “We heard a brief hail storm and then there was total quietness; when we heard the roaring train sound, we took cover in a center closet. Within seconds, we could hear windows breaking and walls falling down. We just stood there praying to God. When we opened the door most of the house was gone, it was pitch black and we had no idea of the widespread devastation until morning.”
Helen Ogdon recalls an odd feeling or premonition she felt minutes before the storm hit that evening.
“My grandson was sitting out on the porch and I just felt I should get ready for a storm,” Ogdon said. “I took a big cushion off the couch, put on all my jewelry and grabbed my purse. About that time my grandson saw the funnel cloud take the roof off of the fire station near by, and he ran inside. We huddled together in the closet under the cushion and waited for it to pass.”
The tornado destroyed Ogdon’s home in the Cedar Creek Addition in Van Buren. Ogdon had just retired after 30 years with the United States Postal Service and had comfortably settled into what was to be her retirement home.
Rebuild or move on, that was the question many faced in the storm aftermath. For Bearden the answer was simple — rebuild.
“This was home, and I couldn’t conceive of leaving it,” said Bearden, who at the time was establishing her name as owner of a local trucking company.
The Spellmans also wanted to rebuild, but they chose to relocate to Alma because of Anne’s job commute to Fayetteville, where she works as a secretary to Federal Judge Jimm Larry Hendren.
Ogdon was not well at the time and decided to move into rental property she recently had purchased in Fort Smith.
“I sold the lot in Van Buren and put the money into the house in Fort Smith,” Ogdon said.
When asked to reflect on the horrible events of that April storm, all three women found blessings in the most unlikely of situations.
“I will never forget the outpouring of concern upon our community; I came to personally know and love neighbors whom I had only previously waved to in passing,” Bearden said.
“We lost most of everything except for a few fragile items that miraculously escaped damage. In the passing days, we found neighbors returning photos and other mementos to our door steps which they had found strewn throughout the neighborhood,” Spellman said.
Ogdon too found that many of her precious photographs were unscathed; the faded heirlooms of her late husband and the many friends made during her postal career were found intact.
Five years have passed as these families have put the scattered pieces back together again, each with a life lesson learned.
“A home is just a temporary building, the love of friends and family stand the test of time,” said Ogdon, who has made her rental property in Fort Smith her retirement home, which she still shares with a grandson.
“I feel like I got a second chance at life. Van Buren is so blessed not to have had a single casualty in the storm; God was looking out for us,” Bearden said.
Though the Spellmans rebuilt a home in Alma, tragedy again visited in 1999 when Anne Spellman lost her only child, Anson Bartlett, in an automobile accident on his way home to a family wedding.
“There is no tragedy that I have ever experienced that could compare to the loss of Anson. The only similarity at all is that each loss brings one to the sobering realization that we have no promise of tomorrow or what it might hold. We may enjoy a comfortable home today and tomorrow be homeless,” Spellman said with a sigh. “We may hug and kiss our children today, only to find that blessing may not be ours tomorrow.”


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