Ozarks: Update
This computer is still buggy, so I'm again keeping my entry short to avoid being cut off.
We drove down through Ash Flat and Cherokee Village on our way to Hardy, and along the road for over a mile, maybe two or more miles, lay the debris from the F4 tornado that passed through. My brother Tim said that the tornado had stayed on the ground for a hundred miles or more, starting at Atkins, Arkansas.
I grew up in this area and lived with the knowledge and reality of tornados, but I'd never seen the destruction before. An entire shopping mall was blown away, and enormous steel sheets littered the upper branches of trees, where the 200-mile-per-hour winds had twisted and wrapped the metal about like tin foil.
Cars and trucks had been tossed around, their windshields shattered, their bodies battered, their chassis crushed. Anyone caught in that chaos must have been terrified. Apparently, no one around here died, which nearly constitutes a miracle.
No photos, unfortunately, but I'll try to find another computer soon and look at Daddio's blog, Exploring Izard County, to find some photos if he should happen to have any.
Labels: Arkansas, Ozark Mountains, Tornadoes
posted by Horace Jeffery Hodges @ 2:13 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Hi Jeffery,
And we were just talking about tornadoes a week or two ago.
I'm sorry that your homeland has been ravaged so.
While no shopping districts were destroyed in Izard County Tuesday evening, many homes and lives were torn asunder. Along one road, Rose Trail, there are at least a dozen foundations standing bare but for debris and the pink or yellow insulation plastered in the treetops as if the homes actually exploded.
Trees are ornamented with hanging clothes and sheetmetal. Documents have been found in Izard County... carried by the storm...from as far away as Clinton, Ar.
Along the Zion Road, the twister cut a path of destruction for seven miles before heading off across the Strawberry River to continue on to Ash Flat and Highland.
Search and rescue teams have reported mutilated wildlife scattered throughout the area including one deer with both front legs amputated by debris.
As one looks upon the destructive path of the tornado, unaffected forested hills stand in contrast those hit which have nothing over four or five feet tall left standing.
As for our excursion today with Jeffery and Family...we had originally panned to visit Moon-Eye on Mill Creek but are unable to do so. Last night, I was informed we would not be able to go to our second choice, the Waterfalls at Gid (well, one of them anyway).
So, though Jeffery doesn't know it yet, we will instead be visiting one of the premier sights in the county, The Natural Bridge near Dolph. Then...if he and his family like, we'll head across the river to visit City Rock Bluff, a 300ft bluff overlooking the White River and Izard County just above Calico Rock before taking a meal together with our friend JK/Kapok.
The kids will have a blast.
As will the adults!
Malcolm, it's a sober reminder of how fragile we are.
Daddio (al-Ozarka), see you later today.
Jeffery Hodges
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An F4 and no one was killed? Miraculous!
There is just wicked weather right and left, thanks to a weird jet stream that dips way down to the Texas panhandle and then is pushed back up by warm, moist Gulf air. Arkansas is caught between the two conflicting air masses on either side of the jet stream. The upper midwest is getting bitterly cold temps in the single digits with strong winds. An Alberta Clipper will dump snow on the Great Lakes and northeast. We are due for wintry mix of snow, freezing rain, and sleet on Tuesday morning, which may bring another snow day.
Since last reporting, I have learned of two or three deaths. I'll blog a bit soon.
Jeffery Hodges
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