Storm batters Benton County
Posted on Saturday, May 3, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/bcdr/News/61419/
BENTON COUNTY — Friday morning’s severe storms claimed the life of one Siloam Springs resident.
Fifteen-year-old Eliana Chacon died about 4: 30 a. m. when a tree fell into the bedroom where she was sleeping at the Choice Mobile Home Park on East Lake Francis Drive.
Her younger brother, 10, was extricated from the same room and taken to Siloam Springs Memorial Hospital and was later released.
“ I live three trailers down from where the little girl died, ” park resident Tressie Harris said, stopping long enough to wipe tears streaking down her face. “ My trailer, No. 15, was shaking. Hail was banging off the sides. You could hear people shouting — I’ve never seen anything like it. ”
According to a release issued by the Benton County Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, storm spotters began tracking a line of severe thunderstorms at 3: 30 a. m. Thursday. Between 4: 15 a. m. and 4: 45 a. m., parts of Benton County took the brunt of the blow, particularly in sections of Siloam Springs, Gentry, Centerton, Bentonville and Avoca, the release states.
When Kevin Upham’s wife woke him up at about 4: 15 a. m. Friday, he didn’t know exactly what was going on. It was dark and it sounded like a train was rolling through his front yard at 501 S. W. Brighton Drive in Bentonville’s Simsberry Place subdi- vision. Glass from the window near the stairwell landing between the first and second floors sprayed through the hallway and into the kitchen some 20 feet away.
Within seconds of getting to his feet, Upham heard his 6-year-old son start crying. He and his wife scrambled to maneuver their way through the glass and gusts of wind now blowing through the house. They rounded up their son and two daughters and tucked everyone away in a safe room beneath a stairwell at the other end of the home.
The Uphams were safe, but — like thousands of others across Benton County — they would have to wait until sunrise to begin to make sense out of what had happened.
“ One minute, everyone was sleeping — and then all hell broke loose, ” Upham said. “ It was a violent, angry sound — like Mother Nature was angry at us. I don’t even remember getting a tarp to stretch over the window. At that point, nothing else mattered except getting the whole family out of there and to a safe place. ”
The National Weather Service dispatched representatives to northwest Arkansas to assess damage and the storm’s path. At presstime, the NWS was unable to confirm that anything but straight-line winds in excess of 70 mph had moved through Benton County.
Regardless of whether a tornado touched down anywhere along the storm’s path, the straight-line winds caused significant damage to pockets of Benton County.
As emergency crews, family and friends raced to Siloam Springs to deal with that tragic situation, the rest of Benton County was getting its first look at what all of the winds, hail and debris they had heard banging against their homes just a few hours earlier had left behind.
For the Uphams, there was quite a bit of damage to deal with. A large, 80-plus-year-old oak tree was snapped off at the base and thrown onto the roof and side of their home. Not only did that tree blow out the window at the stairwell landing, but it also poked several holes through the roof, damaged the brick wall and tore a section of a deck off the back of the home.
“ It’s ugly and scary, but it could have been so much worse, ” Upham said. “ If that tree had fallen on the center of the roof and we took a direct hit, I’d hate to think what could have happened. The bedrooms are up there. Looking around right now, it’s a big mess. But I feel like we were very lucky. ”
Just a short distance away from the Uphams’ home, power lines were down on Arkansas Highway 72 and in a couple of neighborhoods immediately south of Arkansas Highway 102. The section of Arkansas 72 near Tunbridge Road remained closed the majority of the day. Falling trees brought power lines down in several spots on Southwest A Street, just south of the downtown Bentonville Square and in many other parts of the county. The Benton County Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security reported thousands in the county were without power, and some would likely not have service restored until Saturday morning.
Elm Tree Elementary School and Spring Hill Middle School in Bentonville were without power until 7: 55 a. m., but school was not canceled. A fallen power line landed on a bus carrying 27 Bentonville students on the southwest side of town, but no one was injured and the Bentonville Fire and Police departments removed the line.
A power outage in the area of Pea Ridge Elementary School caused students to spend the first couple of hours Friday in the highschool gymnasium. A falling tree took out a utility pole and transformer in town, leaving Pea Ridge Elementary, City Hall, the Emergency Services Building and most businesses in the community without power until 8 a. m.
The repeater tower for ambulance service in the Pea Ridge area was inoperative for a brief time until it was connected to a generator. A separate generator kept the EMS building, which houses the Police, Fire and Ambulance departments, running. By midmorning, residents around town were out with chain saws and trailers, cutting and loading trees and limbs and cleaning up their yards. Several large trees were blown over, while others were broken several feet above the ground. Several large trees and fence rails were damaged at Pea Ridge National Military Park.
Firefighters were called to Ryan Road, north of Shepherd Street, to clear the roadway of two downed trees. SWEPCO service technicians arrived on the scene at 443 S. Curtis Ave. around 8 a. m., cut tree limbs off the downed power lines and restored service to most city customers.
Siloam Springs public schools were closed, and residents were advised to remain off the streets while officials assessed damage and worked to restore power. Several fallen trees caused structure damage throughout Siloam Springs, with the section of town east of Mount Olive Street having sustained the most damage.
Storm damage in Rogers was, for the most part, contained to an area behind the Rogers Activity Center, just off Olive Street. According to Rick Stocker, Rogers Parks and Recreation director, a dozen large trees were down around the soccer fields, and the roof of one of the T-ball dugouts was peeled back.
The main building at the Rogers Community Recycling Center, at 315 W. Olive St., received the most extensive damage.
“ I got a call from one of the guys at the center when I was on my way in, and he said I had to get there because part of the building was gone, ” said Ron Brewer, supervisor of the Rogers Community Recycling Center. “ The whole west roof and wall were torn off and laid over on the backside of the building. For safety reasons, we can’t run any material until we get it fixed.
Brewer said the damaged section of the building housed the white paper and cardboard recycling equipment. He said residents can continue to bring recyclables to the center and that he hoped it would be up and running at full capacity again by next week.
Staff writers Lynn Atkins, Annette Beard and Jessica Weekley contributed to this report.