Elkins Cleans Up

Todd Peterson was installing a dishwasher in a rental property in Elkins at 3:45 p.m. Tuesday when he saw three trash bins spinning over a cul-de-sac.

“It felt like the air was starting to suck me out,” he said. “As soon as I ran inside, the door slammed behind me.”

Peterson, who lives next door, said he didn’t expect to see much damage based on what he heard.

When he emerged minutes later from his home on Danielle Drive, he noticed a fence had been pulled from the ground and moved to the other side of a building.

Peterson then realized the roof on his mother’s red barn had been ripped off.

The barn, which is under renovation, is the Smile Corral orthodontics office.

“A piece of debris hit a gas pipe and there was gas shooting out of the ground,” Peterson said.

The National Weather Service confirmed an EF-1 tornado touched down in Elkins and an EF-2 tornado touched down in Crawford County.

Pete Snyder, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said storm surveyors looked at damage to confirm the intensity of the tornadoes.

In addition to Crawford and Washington counties, meteorologists assessed damage in Carroll County and Sequoyah County, Okla.

“They look at tree damage to determine if there was a clear path,” he said. “If it’s a tornado, you usually see things knocked over in different directions. If it’s a straight-line wind, things will usually be knocked down in the same direction.”

John Luther, Washington County Emergency Management director, said the county issued an emergency declaration, but he doesn’t think the storm damage meets the criteria for state assistance.

“There’s not going to be a state declaration, but we wanted to make sure we did everything we could for our citizens,” he said.

Elkins Fire Chief J.D. DeMotte said he started receiving reports of storm damage at 3:42 p.m. Tuesday.

He said about 50 homes were damaged, but no one was injured.

“During the first pass through, we were checking for any injuries and identifying damage,” DeMotte said. “We had ruptured gas lines and downed electrical lines. A few structures were damaged pretty good.”

Jeremy Mabry, who lives in a subdivision on Jessica Place, said the tornado hit before he got home from work.

Mabry said his brothers, who work for the Elkins Fire Department, called him about storm damage in his neighborhood.

“The shed in the back was destroyed,” he said. “The lawnmower and the kids’ bikes were blown in the yard.”

Mabry said the wind lifted a portion of his roof and there was damage to the master bedroom.

“When I came home, it was basically raining in our house,” Mabry said. “There were shingles everywhere.”

He said his boat was moved about 6 feet and a trampoline blew against a gas meter.

A few homes off Harris Community Road were severely damaged and the roof was completely torn off a home on Hummingbird Road.

Scraps of debris were scattered across a valley and sheets of metal were wrapped around trees behind Hummingbird Road on Wednesday.

Jeff Patrick, communications director with the Northwest Arkansas Chapter of the American Red Cross, said no one in the area requested shelter assistance.

Luther said he spent most of Wednesday assessing storm damage with Washington County Judge Marilyn Edwards.

“I have to commend the sheriff’s office and the rural fire and police department,” he said. “They were all communicating with one another and with us. The storm spotters were communicating with our office and the National Weather Service. It was a joint effort.”

Snyder said Benton and Washington counties received 2 to 3 inches of rain Tuesday night and Wednesday, putting the area above average rainfall for the year.

As of Dec. 31, he said, Northwest Arkansas was about 8 inches below average rainfall.

Snyder said temperatures in Northwest Arkansas will remain in the 50s today and the weekend, with a mild cold front dropping temperatures into the 40s Friday. The rest of the week should be dry, he said, with a 20 percent chance of rain on Saturday.