Officials: One tornado hit county
Posted on Wednesday, May 14, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/hl/News/24441/
BENTON COUNTY — What started as an ominouslooking funnel cloud Saturday developed into a tornado, weather officials said Monday.
Two super-cell storms raced across northeast Oklahoma and northwest Arkansas on Saturday evening. The first reported funnel cloud sighting was near Decatur, according to storm-spotter reports. Another funnel cloud was reported as visible from the Pinnacle Hills area: That’s what quickly became the tornado that struck south Bentonville, according to meteorologist Bart Haake of the National Weather Service office in Tulsa.
“ A tornado is a funnel that is more than halfway to the ground or touching the ground, ” Haake said. “ A funnel cloud does not reach quite halfway from the cloud to the ground. ”
The tornado that touched down briefly in Bentonville was reported 4. 5 miles southwest of downtown Bentonville at 6: 35 p. m. It traveled about 1. 5 miles and lifted 3. 8 miles southeast of downtown. It had a path that was 100 feet wide and reached winds of about 100 mph. The wind speed earned the tornado an EF 1 rating, Haake said.
The numbers, however, do not tell the tornado’s story as well as the damage it caused. Two schools next to each other — Pinecrest Private School and Central Park Elementary School at Morning Star — were damaged. A fence at the nearby St. Valery Downs subdivision was damaged, but many other buildings close to the tornado’s path were left unscathed.
Morning Star principal Galen Havner said there were no real problems on Monday despite all the excitement over the weekend. It took construction and volunteer crews about 10 hours to clean up the mess, which included lots of glass from windows that were blasted from their frames.
“ Most of the kids already knew (there had been a storm ), ” Havner said. “ We welcomed them back and told them there had been some storm damage. We then told them to tell a teacher if they find a piece of glass and not to touch it. The minute they saw we were in our regular places, they were fine. ”
Scott Passmore, construction manager for the Bentonville School District, said Morning Star’s damage was mostly to the windows, siding, some ceiling tiles and the roof. The roof damage was mostly from flying debris, he said.
The flying debris very well could have been from the Pinecrest Private School, which is catty-corner to Morning Star. Pinecrest School was closed Monday and remained closed Tuesday.
Owners Randy and Allison Williams said the building has been deemed structurally sound. Roofing work continued through Tuesday. The school reopened to infants through 5-year-olds on Wednesday morning. Those children will use areas of the building that were not damaged while the remaining wing undergoes extensive repairs.
Randy Williams said schoolage students were moved to Eagle Heights Baptist Church, 3801 S. W. Eden Brooke St. in Bentonville, a short distance away. Pinecrest arranged with the church to use its facility for school-age children until the remainder of the school’s main campus is repaired.
“ We’re going to be removing all of our playground surfacing in the next 24 hours, just to make sure there’s no debris mixed in, ” he said. “ There are absolutely no corners being cut. ”
Sections of the building’s roof were damaged or torn off, the water and HVAC systems were damaged, playground equipment was toppled and more. In the last couple of days, structural inspectors, engineers, insurance adjusters and roofing crews worked to get the doors of Pinecrest Private School opened again. The Williamses were at the facility within minutes of receiving word of the damage from an assistant director who was inside when the storm hit. “ When I pulled up, I got sick to my stomach, ” Randy Williams said. “ I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I was just thankful anyone who was inside was OK. I’m extremely thankful for that. ”
Staff writer Jeff Mores contributed to this story.