STATE NEWS

Jonesboro still picking up the pieces following tornado

JONESBORO — As coronavirus cases continue to be reported in Northeast Arkansas, law enforcement, health care workers, utility providers and volunteers work to _ght two disasters following a Saturday tornado in Jonesboro.

The National Weather Service announced Sunday that its Memphis survey team rated the twister as an EF-3 tornado, with maximum winds of 140 mph. The City of Jonesboro is offering four shelters for those displaced by the storm, as it destroyed storefronts and homes.

The twister originated from a “supercell thunderstorm” that swept through the area. It started just before 5 p.m. about 2 miles south of Jonesboro, just north of Interstate 555 and west of Caraway Road, according to the National Weather Service.

The storm traveled 12.55 miles through Craighead County, ending 3.4 miles northeast of Brookland, the NWS preliminary survey report states. It reached its most intense stage as it approached and moved across the Jonesboro Municipal Airport.

City of Jonesboro medical director Dr. Shane Speights said there were 22 people treated for injuries and none was life-threatening. No deaths were reported.

St. Bernards Medical Center announced that it treated 14 patients with tornado-related injuries. “Most patients had minor injuries and were treated and released. Only two patients required admittance, but those patients are in stable condition,” the statement read. The Arkansas Red Cross began surveying residential damage this morning in Jonesboro and is about 35 percent complete, Craighead County Judge Marvin Day said.

“According to their numbers, 55 of those were major – basically a house that can be rebuilt. 145 were aid-affected … and nine had no damage,” he said.

Day said about 20 houses in east Brookland were signi_cantly damaged. The city’s hardest-hit structure was Busch Agricultural Services on Arkansas 49.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson also did a yover tour to assess the damage in Craighead County. There’s was one word he repeatedly used to describe it – devastation.

“I saw four to _ve miles of devastation,” Hutchinson said. “I saw homes that were completely destroyed, others partly destroyed, as well as businesses that were attened or damaged in some ways. I have not seen this level of devastation since I’ve been governor.”

The city opened four shelters for those displaced by the storm. Jonesboro Economical Transit System buses are available for those who need transportation to the shelters.

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Health Secretary Nathaniel Smith said his of_ce provided guidance to volunteers before they opened, as there were six cases of COVID-19 reported for Craighead County.

“We got a call last night (asking), ‘How do you set up a shelter in the setting of a COVID-19 epidemic,” Smith said. “Part of it is screening people who enter, asking about their recent travel history, symptom (and) doing temperature checks, and also making sure that we have a place to segregate those who may be at risk for COVID-19 from others.”

U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Jonesboro, said his of_ce is prepared to assist residents with their Federal Emergency Management Agency claims. Businesses should _le their claims with the Small Business Administration for federal aid.

Hutchinson signed a proclamation, declaring Jonesboro a disaster area to speed up requests for federal aid, he said.

“I want to assure all of Jonesboro and Northeast Arkansas that the entire state has been in prayer and is a part of your recovery efforts,” Hutchinson said.

Mayor Harold Perrin estimates that the city lost “millions of dollars” due to structural damage to the airport and municipal buildings. While they’re insured, he said the airport is a “big asset” that was almost destroyed completely.

Arkansas State University was not affected by the tornado, but several staff members and students were, Chancellor Kelly Damphousse said. A-State was set to reopen for classes, he said.

“It may seem odd that when the campus was not damaged, and we’re in a virtual, online situation for our classes to cancel classes on the _rst day back, but I am canceling classes for Monday,” Damphousse said. “The problem is many of our faculty and staff have been affected by the storm. Even more faculty, staff and students have been affected by the power outages and lack of internet access. We’re taking a breather … and then we’ll reassess.“ Day said he’s also working with internet service providers to secure Wi-Fi access for those displaced by the storm or without service.

As of 8:20 p.m. Sunday, CWL announced large outages remain on Fair Park Boulevard, East Nettleton Avenue near Cam_ll, Prospect Road, Farville Curve and Clinton School Road.

“We expect (a) large number of restorations tomorrow. … Employees are working very hard to complete restoration quickly and safely. We appreciate customers’ understanding and overwhelming kindness shown to us,” the announcement read. Day said 11 contractors were working with the city utility company to restore power. Restorations should be completed by mid-week, he said.

Craighead Electric announced online that it restored services to customers. Ritter Communications service was restored in Lake City by 5:30 p.m. Crews were still hard at work in Jonesboro and Brookland.

Jonesboro Fire Chief Kevin Miller said the _re department is engaged in a “recovery and cleanup operation.”

“As this cleanup effort starts again today, I’m amazed that over 200 to 300 volunteers with chainsaws, trailers and et cetera showed up today,” Perrin said.

The police department is working in 12-hour shifts to direct traf_c, patrol streets and enforce the citywide curfew, Chief Rick Elliott said.

“We’ve supplemented our force with of_cers from other agencies,” he said.

Unfortunately, Day said shady contractors are looming around Craighead County looking to exploit tornado victims.

“There (are) a lot of people here out to scam you and improper things. … Please make sure that if someone is trying to do work for you that they have a permit from the City of Jonesboro to do business,” he said. While authorities and volunteers _ght “two enemies,” COVID-19 is a blessing and a curse for Jonesboro, Perrin said.

“If this COVID-19 was not in existence, God only knows on Saturday night at 5 o’clock (at) Cheddar’s how many would be in that restaurant, how many people would be at that mall. … We’ll get through this together. We always have, and we always will,” he said.

Tree limbs and other vegetation debris can be taken to the former Strawoor land_ll, 1624 Strawoor Road. Residential debris should be taken to Legacy Land_ll, 236 Craighead 476, Jonesboro.

To volunteer with cleanup, call 870-935-5562. To donate cash, contact the American Red Cross of Northeast Arkansas at 870-932-3212.

Central Arkansas restaurant paying it forward during COVID-19 crisis

RUSSELVILLE — The owners of the Dixie Rose Restaurant in Russell are paying it forward when it comes to keeping the community fed during the coronavirus. The restaurant at 4415 AR 367 is run by Mitchell and Christal Warden and Mitchell’s brother Trey Warden. “My husband smokes all the meats and cooks all of the burgers,” said Christal. “My brother- in law, Trey helps prep plates, he helps make plates and does the to go orders. I do all the desserts, the speciality foods, the soups and Cajun food. We’re at the old Silver Dollar Grill location.”

During “normal times’ they have regular dine in and they also do a lot of catering. “We do a lot more catering than anything,” Christal said. “The dine in has picked up so we have a lot of regulars now. They were using the drive through before all of this and of course that is all what we’re doing now.”

Christal said they are open 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Mon-Wed., Thurs. and Fri. they are open 10 a.m. – 7 p.m. and Saturdays they stay open until 8 p.m.

“We have had a lot of people support us since we got started [one year ago],” Christal said. “We were new to the area and were trying to make it a ‘forever’ thing so we’re tried our best to do our best for our the customers. We have gotten a lot of support from fromBradford, from Russell, Bald Knob and from Pleasant Plains and from Velvet Ridge.”

Christal said they closed their dining room about four days before they were actually ordered to close their dining room because a lot of their customers are older and they didn’t want any of those customers to risk getting sick. We know how fast germs spread. I have four kids, so I get it.”

“We wanted to do something special when we realized that everybody’s jobs were starting to get cut out. I wanted to try to do something that was feasible for families so me and my husband kind of discussed it and we kind of came up with a $10 meal by the pan and it feeds a family for ten dollars; it feeds anywhere from 4-6. We weren’t making a whole lot of pro_ts off of it. Some meals we were making a dollar a pan, some two dollars after all the costs but we were to do it because we know right now people need that. We are Christians and that is our job as Christians to help others; not just to talk about God but to actually walk in his walk. It is our job to act in they ways that he would act and he would help people if he was here, so that is our job.”

Christal said she is from Picayune, MS and her dad owns a restaurants and knows the cost it takes to do that. “A lot of his friends have restaurants and they know the costs. They knew I wasn’t making much out of it so they basically wanted to say ‘let me help you, help others.’ So we started having people from Mississippi call in and they were paying for 20 pans of meals by the pan for people. We had two people do that and we had our Pastor Bobby Majors call and he said ‘I can’t do 20 but let me do 10 [family pans of food.].”

People coming through at the Dixie Rose drive through have been “really touched,” Christal said. “They are like ‘hey, let me donate a meal, I’ll give you _ve dollars to go toward feeding a family. The _rst day we tried to deliver meals out to families in need; families that had kids at home and weren’t able to get out. We also tried to bring meals to the local elderly here who can’t get out because they are high risk. The second day we decided to devote meals to the nurses and _rst responders, truck drivers and everyone on the front lines of all of this chaos right now. Those people are working hard and they have families still. They still have to go home and they know in the back of their mind, they’re risking taking something home to their families and they are working tons of hours, they are wore out and they don’t want to cook so let us provide a hot meal for them. Let us give them a break as our thanks.”

Something The Dixie Rose also does on a regular basis is off a free meal if someone needs it and wants to drive through. “We have beans and rice and beans and cornbread everyday,” Christal said. “It’s not fancy nothin’ fancy but it’s a free meal if somebody needed it.”

“This has just kind of been a chain reaction. People have just been like, ‘hey, let me buy a meal for somebody. My brother in law actually bought 4 meals Thursday for 4 families.”

As far as meal offering for customers, Christal says they alternate specials. Recently, they have done spaghetti, chicken alfredo, chicken and dumplings and pulled pork sandwiches. As far as desserts, she said she has made a lot of peach cobbler. Mitchell smokes ribs, chicken breasts, chicken thighs, Boston butts, cornish hens and a lot of sausage.

“People are really excited about this and it really makes their day,” Christal said. “We put a Bible scripture on most of our pans that we give away and we have a lot our our people who have come through and say, ‘I really needed that verse.’ I had one lady come through Friday and she said she did her devotional and that scripture wound up being at the very bottom of her devotional and she said it was like a little God-mark for her and she kind of got all teary-eyed because she works at the nursing clinic and it has just been a lot of hard work for them here lately.”

Christal said their Pastor Majors came to bless their business when they got it started. The Dixie Rose has a page on Facebook with more information about their restaurant.