BLYTHEVILLE, Ark. — The cleanup from Tuesday’s storm was just beginning for folks in Northeast Arkansas.
Strong winds and heavy rain hit the area before moving into Shelby County and Memphis Tuesday.
Besides broken limbs and a some structural damage, a number of folks had no electricity and were trying their best to keep cool.
“I’m fixin’ to get me a motel room to stay in for the day, because the power is still out,” said Judy Cullins of Blytheville.
Cullins was not a happy camper.
Tuesday afternoon a powerful storm sent a large tree crashing into power lines on Highway 61, around the corner from her home.
Since then she’s had to rely on horsepower to keep her cool.
“I been in my car all night trying to stay cool. Got up this morning at 5:30, went to work and now I’m just getting off. And I’m hot,” she said.
You didn’t have to travel far from Blytheville to see how much trouble the storm caused across Northeast Arkansas.
Becky Misner spent Wednesday cleaning up her yard off Mississippi County Road 314.
Misner said the storm was one of the worst she’s been through.
“I had gone to the grocery store and as soon as I got home the wind kicked in and liked to blew me down when I got out of my car carrying my groceries,” she said.
In Leachville, high winds sent a large tree crashing down on to an SUV.
Fortunately no one was inside at the time.
Around the corner a sheet metal canopy at Gary’s Food Mart was ripped away, but there were no injuries.
The storm spared the Leachville Food Pantry next door, which just opened in February.
Jo Ann Cardin, a Board member on the Leachville Foundation, said it was a miracle there was no damage to to the building or the food inside.
“No, there was no problems here at all. I walked around the building just to make sure. The roof is fine, the doors are fine and hey, what more do I need?” said Cardin.
But the stormy weather caused quite a scare for a hundred church members from Alabama doing mission work in Monette and the surrounding area.
The volunteers hunkered down at First Baptist Church as the storm toppled trees and power lines and tore some shingles from roof tops.
It turned out this wasn’t the groups first “storm” experience in this part of Northeast Arkansas.
“Last year when we were here we stayed in Manila and the tornadoes came through here. And we actually sent crews up here last year to work,” said Nanci Swan from Jasper, Alabama,
Entergy crews, assisted by utility workers from other states, have been tied up with scattered outages.
Cullins was told her power could be back on sometime Wednesday night.
