Priceless pieces strewn for miles

Emily Tittle collects photos outside her family’s home in western Pulaski County, where her father and two of her sisters were killed in last Sunday’s tornado.
Emily Tittle collects photos outside her family’s home in western Pulaski County, where her father and two of her sisters were killed in last Sunday’s tornado.

VILONIA - Amid the roaring of bulldozers and humming of chain saws, a woman climbed a mountain of rubble, passing up a cache of power tools and a jewelry box to get to a framed family portrait that was still hanging level on one of the few plaster walls that remained standing in the neighborhood.




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Near a sea of lumber, cracked and jutting like jagged spikes from the ground, another woman pushed at the sides of boxes jammed into the back of her sport utility vehicle, trying to wedge in a large, framed photograph. A little girl at her side raised up arms full of more frames to include in the load.

Hundreds of homeowners and volunteers from a subdivision off Naylor Road searched the debris that was left in the wake of a “high-end” EF4 tornado that raged through the state last Sunday in a storm system that spawned four other twisters.

Dozens of U-Haul trailers and personal vehicles were backed onto yards and concrete slabs as people filled plastic tubs and cardboard boxes with recovered items.

Five people dug through a mixture of snapped pipes, chunks of concrete, shoes and paper to unearth a dust-covered, soggy box. Almost simultaneously, they took off their gloves and passed the photographs from one to the other, the shared memories eliciting alternate laughter and tears.

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Sherry Lee wipes a tear Thursday after finding her wedding photo at her home in Vilonia. She and her husband, Alan, had huddled with 14 people and two dogs in his mother’s nearby storm shelter last Sunday night, but their neighbors, Glenna and Dennis Lavergne, were killed after declining to join them.

Across the street, Justin Lee plopped a large, cardboard box down at the feet of his wife, Amanda. The couple had been there since the early morning, combing the wreckage that was once the home of Amanda Lee’s mother and father, Tim and Vicki Hunter.

“Look what I just found,” Justin Lee said.

His wife reached down and grabbed a handful of loose photographs: a little boy in a T-shirt and shorts riding a plastic Big Wheel; class portraits; family gatherings.

“That was when President Clinton came through,” Amanda Lee said before gingerly picking up a 1-inch-by-1-inch class photograph of a blond-haired boy of about 5.

She traced a finger around the smiling face, her lips curving into a smile, then tears slowly slipped from her eyes.

“I’d know that dork anywhere,” Justin Lee said, laughing through tears.

“That’s him,” Amanda said. “That’s my little brother.”

Jeffrey Hunter, 22, was killed, and Tim and Vicki Hunter were both hospitalized with critical injuries after the tornado demolished their home last Sunday.

“We’re just trying to sort through everything, hoping to save as much as we can,” Justin Lee said, pointing to the hills of debris. “We may have to tarp it up and just hope that nothing blows away before we can get back.”

Farmers checking their cattle, teenagers hunting and runners following their dogs across ditches are just some of those who have reported finding photographs likely carried by the storm’s up-to-200-mph winds to areas in the state’s north and northeast, including Batesville, Cushman, Pocahontas, Walnut Ridge, Strawberry, Cave City and even into Poplar Bluff, Mo.

Travis Gentry, 19, of Des Arc was in the middle of the woods at his family’s turkey camp between Melbourne and Sydney in Izard County when he looked down and noticed a snapshot. The picture was of a blond-haired woman - likely a mother - holding a crab claw to her mouth to mimic a monster, taunting a young girl.

“It’s pretty crazy. You don’t realize how far that stuff can blow,” Gentry said. Melbourne is three counties north of Vilonia.

The teenager put the photo in his pocket and later listed it on the Facebook page “I love you, Arkansas” in the hopes of finding its owner.

“I just thought they’d like to have it,” Gentry said. “ It’s something nice to have back after you lose everything.”

Storm chaser Jessie Hayes of Russellville set up the “I love you, Arkansas” Facebook page in November as a way to showcase nature photos that he and others take while hiking around the state. On Monday, Hayes posted a message on the page, saying he was devoting the venue solely to returning tornado-strewn photos and mementos - like children’s school worksheets, sports ribbons and diplomas - to their rightful owners.

In less than 24 hours, the page’s followers jumped from about 200 to more than 2,000. Over the week, more than 16,000 people joined the group, and hundreds of found photos have been posted.

“This is Arkansas at its best,” Hayes said. “We have several photos that have been reunited with the owners. It literally gives me chills. This stuff means everything to these folks.”

Hayes said that when photos are matched, the finder either mails the photos to the owners or arranges a meeting to return them.

Numerous photographs and other items are being dropped off at various shelters or outreach centers, and some are randomly posted on individual Facebook pages or Twitter accounts.

Faulkner County Attorney David Hogue said photos can be taken to the Log Cabin Democrat office in Conway, where they will be cleaned and organized for the owners to claim.

The Lawrence County Office of Emergency Services, located in the Lawrence County Courthouse in Walnut Ridge, is also acting as a drop-off point for photos, letters and other personal items. The items will eventually be returned to the Vilonia and Mayflower police departments so the items can be claimed by the owners.

Jessica Allen-White of Mount Vernon said the photos and child’s worksheet she found while volunteering in the Vilonia cleanup were a stark reminder that she needs to develop a system for better preserving and protecting her own photographs.

“The newer photographs you can put on iCloud or Facebook, but the older ones …. We’re talking about getting a fireproof safe, something that is heavy and metal that just can’t be easily scattered around,” she said. “I just cannot imagine if something like this happened to us.”

Amy Doyle of Pickles Gap in Faulkner County was running with her dog when she noticed a piece of paper - showing rows of clock faces with crayon markings throughout - lying among the insulation that was scattered along the side of the road. Another step farther, she found a postcard with a black-and-white photo of the Tokyo Tower on the front.

Doyle has listed her finds on the Internet and said she will not give up trying to find the owners.

“If I lost everything, I’d want someone to reach out. It would mean the world to me,” she said. “I want to live like Jesus, and I want to be a service to others. That’s my motto in life. I want to do whatever I can to reach out.”

Jimmy Hubbard of Lynn was checking fences on his cattle farm outside Strawberry in Lawrence County when he found a sheet from a photo album.

“It’s those types that you peel the plastic back. Everything was intact. It had two pictures on the front, and the back had about eight to 10 baby pictures,” he said.

He found more keepsakes as he rode farther along the fences - a photograph of girls dressed in prom formals, sports team portraits, baseball cards and even an old police report.

“It was just a hodgepodge of stuff. I can only imagine if everything I had was gone and someone two hours away was out checking fences and found them. These are memories that can’t be replaced,” he said. “I may go out some more. As the grass gets taller, they’re going to be harder to find.”

Thad Beeler, spokesman for National Disaster Photo Rescue in Carthage, Mo., said photographs will likely still be discovered several years from now. The nonprofit organization is a ministry of First Baptist Church in Carthage. Its members travel to storm-affected areas around the nation to set up systems to return lost photographs to their owners.

The service - which is free and based solely on volunteer efforts - began in 2011 after tornadoes ravaged Joplin, Mo., and several other states, including Tuscaloosa, Ala.

Beeler said he and his group were appalled at the commercial entities that cropped up at that time that were charging owners to reclaim their photographs.

To date, the National Disaster Photo Rescue group has collected more than 35,000 photographs and has returned 18,000. The organization is currently recruiting volunteers and drop-off locations in Arkansas.

“We work with people in the areas impacted. We do not want the photographs to leave the state,” Beeler said.

“People get attached to the photographs they find. They take personal ownership to make sure nothing happens to them. You start seeing your own images in someone else’s photographs. The main thing I want to get across is to get the photos off the ground and be patient. This will take years.”

Photo collection sites

Several websites and drop-off locations have been established for the collection of photographs and other personal items that may belong to victims of the storms that struck the state last Sunday.

Lawrence County Office of Emergency Services, 315 W. Main St., in Walnut Ridge, (870) 637-4020

Log Cabin Democrat, 1111 Main St., Suite 102, in Conway, (501) 327-6621

I love you, Arkansas at www.facebook.com/iloveyouarkansas

National Disaster Photo Rescue. www.nationaldisasterphotorescue.net or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/NationalDisasterPhotoRescue

Lost Photos, Pets, Etc. From Arkansas April 27, 2014, Tornado at www.facebook.com/arkansastornado

Arkansas Tornado 4-27-14 Photos and Documents Lost and Found at www.facebook.com/groups/466163843514503

Front Section, Pages 1 on 05/04/2014

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