‘Chainsaw symphony’: Hot Springs Village cleans up tornado damage
HOT SPRINGS VILLAGE — After being knocked down by an EF-2 tornado, Hot Springs Village is getting back on its feet.
The damage left from Thursday’s storm is extensive, with community leaders saying that about 1500 trees and 350 power lines were snapped or toppled.
“Hear the chainsaw symphony,” Sterling Bryant said.
Many woke up trapped on their street or driveway, including Sterling Bryant. A warzone is how his wife and many others described what happened to their community.
National Weather Service confirms EF-2 tornado in Hot Springs Village
“It was just a strange noise, you could it hear it coming. It was like ‘vwooom’, and we were in the closet in there, and it just shaking, the whole house is shaking,” Bryant recalled.
His home used to rest in a dense forest, and within five minutes the dense forest was gone, felled on top and around him.”
To see all this this and then when daylight, we’re lucky,” Bryant said.
Hot Springs Village General Manager Kelly Hale said the tornado waylaid a five-to-seven-mile swipe as it traveled through the village.
“This was a very serious storm, and it hit pretty hard. We had one that hit in 2011, and I’m told this was about four times worse,” Hale said.
Arkansans see plenty of hail, flooding from Thursday night severe storms
Hale didn’t get a lick of sleep as the focus was to get the trees off the road, so that emergency vehicles can function in a place where the average age is 67 years old.
The next goal is to restore power, so that people can get back to a normal life.
“Hot water and partial electricity man. I can make it,” Bryant said.
First Electric Cooperatives said the majority of outages should be restored Friday evening, but there are some isolated outages that should regain power hopefully by Friday night through Saturday morning.
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