THE INSIDE STORY OF THE MARCH 14TH TORNADO
AND THE INCREDIBLE RESPONSE BY POA HOURLY EMPLOYEES
PART ONE: THURSDAY EVENING
Along with budding trees and greening grass, living in the South in springtime also brings a need to be alert to the weather. With long-range forecasts and up-to-the-minute weather radar, however, we can know with a fair amount of accuracy when and where to expect severe weather.
During the week of March 11, local television weather forecasters warned us that a storm system was coming to central Arkansas. We later heard that this storm system could produce severe thunderstorms with the potential to create intense winds, hail, and possibly tornados.
Many people were then keeping one eye on the weather forecast while going about their daily routines that week. But when the local TV stations interrupted their regular programming Thursday evening to keep viewers updated on the approaching storm system, routines were cast aside to focus on the developing news.
We soon heard that ideal conditions for a tornado were forming just west of Hot Springs Village, with meteorologists warning us to get ready to go to our safe locations.
Then, at 8:05 PM, weather radar picked up airborne debris around Highway 7 North and Casual Place, just a few hundred yards north of our local Walmart store. We knew then that Hot Springs Village was in the path of a twister.
According to the National Weather Service, an EF-2 tornado churning winds of at least 115 mph, touched down at that location. Entering the Village after causing building damage on Hwy. 7, it tore across our rolling terrain for over eight miles, spreading damage as wide as one thousand yards, with some hailstones as large as baseballs. Within minutes it had uprooted thousands of trees and damaged dozens of houses in the Hidalgo Drive area, then crossed Balearic Road just north of the Catholic Church. A Village police officer on patrol was caught directly in the path of the tornado, his patrol vehicle jerking up and down, thumping around in the tornado’s vortex.
The tornado continued through the Village, flew down the Minorca Road valley at the intersection of DeSoto, and up the hill along Viajero Drive, sowing more destruction even as it slowed down to an EF-1 tornado. It uprooted hundreds more trees along Raso Way before it left the Village. The twister finally lifted back into the storm clouds amidst the open fields along Danville Road.
In the twister’s wake, over 1300 Entergy customers in Garland County, and nearly 1200 First Electric customers in Saline County, were without power. Entire neighborhoods were enveloped in total darkness. Dozens of roads were completely blocked by fallen trees and live power lines. Hundreds of people who attended a concert at Woodlands Auditorium were stranded and told to stay in place until roads could be cleared. Some people in cars were prevented from returning home by blocked roads; other people were trapped by fallen trees in their damaged homes.
And then it was over. Many Village residents were unaffected by the storm itself and could soon tuck themselves into bed. But such would not be the case for dozens of POA hourly employees who had to manage hazardous conditions, at first in total darkness, to assess the damage, clear the roads, check on residents, and work their tails off for the next three days.
Contributors to this article:
Hot Springs Village Fire Department:
Jason Miller, Chief
Zach Sykora, Lieutenant
Kyle Eckard, Firefighter
Kyle Speers, Firefighter
Hot Springs Village Police Department:
Bradley Whiley, Operational Commander
Hot Springs Village Public Utilities Department:
Randy Womack, Streets Operator Foreman
Hot Springs Village Recreation Department:
Norman Meredith, Parks & Grounds Maintenance Superintendent
Carrie Avaritt, Operator Crew Leader
Tornado photos used with permission of the Hot Springs Village POA. Thanks to Carley Wiley.
KYLE ECKARD, HSV Fire Department, Firefighter
KYLE ECKARD, HSV Fire Department, Firefighter
KYLE ECKARD, HSV Fire Department, Firefighter
Kyle Eckard has been a firefighter with Hot Springs Village for 4-1/2 years, and considers his co-workers as “another family.” He was on duty at the Cortez fire station along with Captain Jeremy Simmons and was one of the first responders to get into the field after the tornado left the Village. What he enjoys most about the job is “helping people when they need it the most,” and his shift rolled over into the next shift so he could keep on doing just that. Limited visibility Thursday night prevented anyone from seeing a complete picture of the storm’s effect. But on Friday morning, seeing the sheer amount of destruction to the homes that were hit and all the trees blown down, to him, “it was like a different world.”
KYLE SPEERS, HSV Fire Department, Firefighter
KYLE ECKARD, HSV Fire Department, Firefighter
KYLE ECKARD, HSV Fire Department, Firefighter
Firefighter Kyle Speers is married, with two girls ages 10 and 7 at home. He was on duty at the Coronado fire station when the tornado hit, and was watching the weather on TV, so he knew right away it was happening. He thought at first the storm was headed to his home in Jessieville, so he called his family and told them to get into their storm shelter. Then he sat in the station’s fire truck with another firefighter to listen to all the calls from dispatch, in preparation to respond.
Once they were on the road, they were blocked by fallen trees and power lines on Balearic, and could only direct traffic away from the area. They quickly discovered that “there was a lot more to this” than they thought. After they were sure the power lines were not active, he and his buddy Kyle Eckard worked together through the night, clearing roads to create access to damaged areas for emergency vehicles.
Working through the next shift like the other firefighters, the next morning they were assigned a grid area to search. At one of the first houses they came to, they found an elderly woman who lives alone, asleep in her car in the driveway, with her oxygen bottle plugged into the car’s power. Having lost power in her house, her only option was to find an alternate source of power for her oxygen. Her home was not damaged, so the two firefighters helped her get what she needed to spend a night away and were able to move her to a local church where power was available.
He worked for three days straight, and in his recollection, “it was kind of a blur, a busy three days.” Kyle has been with the HSV fire department for nearly 8 years and has been surprised at how busy they have been through the years with home and brush fires, car accidents, and medical emergencies.
ZACK SYKORA, HSV Fire Department, Lieutenant
KYLE ECKARD, HSV Fire Department, Firefighter
RANDY WOMACK, Street Department, Operator Foreman
As the tornado was bearing down on the Village, Lt. Zach Sykora was on duty at the Cortez fire station. He called his wife at home to make sure she and their three boys, all under the age of 10, were going to be safe. He said, “We’ve got a tornado on the ground. I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to talk to you. Call dad right now so he knows…we’re about to be real busy. I love you.” fter that, “All hell broke loose, and I was up for 36 hours.” The tornado missed his home on Danville Road by less than a half mile.
Zach said they heard on the radio that a police officer on patrol on DeSoto had actually been caught in the path of the tornado, but was unhurt. His patrol unit was blocked front and back by fallen trees. Civilian vehicles were also in the area, including a van with children in it. Zach and Firefighter Andrew Hardin arrived quickly to assist the officer and help the family in the van that was blocked, but undamaged. Everyone was frightened but unhurt, and the police officer and the firefighters worked together to move everyone to safety.
After that, they headed into a neighborhood that had been badly damaged, making their way as best they could. Lightning flashes revealed the extent of the damage they were in. “The roof was actually blown off one of the houses.” They made contact with the lady who lived there. “She didn’t really know what was going on. She just knew there was a lot of water coming in her house…so we got her taken care of.” She had a plan and a place to go.
It went on like that for the rest of the night. “I haven’t seen the Village this dark forever,” he recalled. Trying to help Chief Miller and Captain Simmons in the command center to understand the situation over the radio, he said, “It’s tree on tree on tree and they’re going all different directions. I shined a light down the road, and it’s nothing but trees. We cannot get anywhere.”
And then, Zach said, “The next four days, this place was a madhouse.” By Friday morning, the volunteer groups mentioned earlier in the article had arrived. Referring to clearing roads and checking on residents, he added, “We couldn’t have done it without the volunteers.” ach said he enjoys working with Village residents, even helping people in his off hours. “We’re trying to be the calm in a crazy situation,” whether that situation is a car accident, a kitchen fire…or even a tornado.
RANDY WOMACK, Street Department, Operator Foreman
NORMAN MEREDITH, Superintendent Parks & Grounds Maintenance
RANDY WOMACK, Street Department, Operator Foreman
In six years with the POA, Randy has worked his way up from the back of a trash truck to where he is now a foreman in the street department, complete with a Commercial Drivers License. He lives with his family on the west side of the Village, and his home had hail damage from the tornado. Once the tornado hit, he started changing into work clothes, figuring he would be called in.
That night he was busy with a chain saw, clearing trees off roads and looking for leaks in the underground water lines. Randy was surprised to see state troopers with chainsaws helping to clear roads. He was among the crews that took a break at 2 AM, returning early the next morning to pick up where they left off the night before.
Working on Friday, he was assigned to cut trees back to the tree line, from where they had been cut only to the edge of the road the previous night. An elderly resident was watching them work, when Randy saw him trip over a stump and fall down. He and another worker ran over and helped the man get back on his feet, glad that he was unhurt.
Randy is proud of the fact that with all the potentially dangerous work going on in the aftermath of the tornado, there were no accidents or injuries among the POA workers. He is very safety-conscious, saying “I don’t want to have to go tell somebody their father or their son or whatever, won’t be coming home that day.”
NORMAN MEREDITH, Superintendent Parks & Grounds Maintenance
NORMAN MEREDITH, Superintendent Parks & Grounds Maintenance
NORMAN MEREDITH, Superintendent Parks & Grounds Maintenance
Norman and Carrie work in the Recreation department, with regular duties involving maintenance of POA grounds not associated with the golf courses. Norman said he was called by his department head, Terry Wiley, around 8:30 Thursday night, with instructions to contact all his employees to report for emergency duty as soon as possible. They were on duty Thursday night, and again all day Friday and Saturday.
Their first efforts involved working with chainsaws by the headlights of POA vehicles, clearing roads that night after the tornado, with more rain falling. Returning the next day, Norman said, “I never saw anything like that destruction.” As they worked through the most heavily damaged areas, they were also checking on houses to see if there were any injuries. Carrie said one sight surprised her as “there were trees down all around this one house, but the house was not damaged.” In some areas, she said that “it was easier to get to houses by walking through the woods since the streets were blocked by fallen trees.” They were working in teams assigned to search grids on Friday and Saturday, along with EMTs and firefighters. Their biggest fear was that they would find dead or seriously injured people as they conducted home checks. Everyone was greatly relieved when all the search grids had been cleared, to learn there were only a couple of minor injuries to report.
CARRIE AVARITT, Operator Crew Leader
NORMAN MEREDITH, Superintendent Parks & Grounds Maintenance
NORMAN MEREDITH, Superintendent Parks & Grounds Maintenance
Both Norman and Carrie were surprised to see all the volunteers from different agencies that came in on Friday and Saturday to help with the cleanup. Norman said there were also some contractors who came in to assist, leaving their business cards in hopes they would get a call to do some paid cleanup work in the coming weeks.
Carrie has been with the POA for five years. Norman has been working in various capacities in the Village since 1981; with the exception of three years when he took another job. He concluded our interview by saying how sad it was to see all the damage to our forests, and that “it will take years before some of these areas start to look normal again.”