NWS: 2 tornadoes confirmed in county
Two confirmed tornadoes passed through Garland County during Friday night’s wave of thunderstorms, according to the National Weather Service.
An EF0 tornado passed through a wooded area near Mill Creek Road, while an EF1 tornado hit the Lonsdale area. The EF0 caused minimal damage, but the EF1, coupled with an another tornado that touched down near the Garland County line earlier that evening, impacted multiple structures in the area.
Bo Robertson, director of the Garland County Department of Emergency
Management, said the EF0 mostly impacted an off-road park by Mill Creek Road. He said other than trees that were knocked down and the roof of a metal building that was bent, no other damage was sustained in the area.
“It’s a wooded area,” Robertson said. “There’s no homes, so we got really lucky with that. There weren’t any structures.”
Robertson said any trees that fell into the roadway during the tornado were cut and cleared that night. He expressed gratefulness more damage was not sustained.
“We got pretty lucky. I wish I had more for you, but I’m kind of glad I don’t,” Robertson told The Sentinel-Record Monday.
Lonsdale and the surrounding areas were not as fortunate. National Weather Service Meteorologist Chris Buonanno told Arkansas Online that a storm produced an EF2 near the Hot Spring-Saline county line, close to Lonsdale, and an EF1 “very close” nearby.
The tornadoes caused extensive damage to structures in the area, according to Fire Chief Eddie Tackett of Lonsdale Volunteer Fire Department.
Tackett’s initial interaction with the tornadoes’ aftermath occurred while he was responding to a call in reference to a tree that had fallen on a home owned by Shon and Sandy Smith at 3725 Ten Mile Road in Saline County. He said while making his way over to the house, he and the other firefighters saw the full scope of the damage that had been caused.
“Shortly after we started our response, we realized we had a lot more than a response for a tree on a house,” Tackett said. “We started running into a lot of trees down and some structures that were damaged.”
Friday night’s tornadoes were followed by a damage assessment by the fire department on Saturday. The assessment revealed that the tornadoes took place about a mile apart.
Tackett described damage such as roads that were blocked by trees, downed power lines and impacted trees. He said the tornadoes had caused damage to 51 structures in the area, and that five structures had been destroyed.
Though extensive property damage was sustained in the area, Tackett said he is grateful that the storms did not physically harm anyone that he knows of.
“We were fortunate to wind up not having any injuries,” Tackett said.
Along with their damage assessment, the fire department has been working since the tornadoes to fix the damage that was sustained in the area. Tackett said his department was working in the area Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
Tackett said the storm came unexpectedly, and that no indications were given to the Lonsdale area.
“There (were) no warnings in place,” Tackett said. “This one just blew up right in our face.”