Sanders lauds city’s recovery post-storm

Almost a year after a tornado devastated parts of Central and Eastern Arkansas, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders used Easter as a metaphor to explain how Little Rock has rebuilt after the storm.

Speaking Friday in front of Pulaski County Title, which, businesses on Cantrell Road in Little Rock, was destroyed in the March 31, 2023, storm, Sanders recalled “the destruction of last year’s tornado that was devastating for our state.”

“I don’t think it’s lost on anyone that the one-year anniversary of last year’s tornadoes falls on Easter Sunday,” Sanders said. “The joy of Easter seems at odds with the tragedy of that day. But beneath the surface we are also here to mark a similar triumph; one of rebuilding, rebirth and resurrection.”

[Read more on the March 31, 2023 tornadoes]

The tornadoes killed four people in Wynne and one in North Little Rock last year. In Little Rock, 50 people were injured and 2,648 structures were damaged. The Little Rock tornado caused high-end

EF3 damage, according to the National Weather Service, the strongest tornado to hit the state capital since 1999.

Sanders, who first came to office in 2021, said she relied on her father, former Gov. Mike Huckabee, for advice on how to handle the disaster. Sanders said her father told her “people first and the paperwork later.”

“In all of my conversations from local law enforcement all the way to the president of the United States, that was my guiding message,” Sanders said.

Both Sanders and Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr. praised Arkansans for coming together to help clean up and rebuild after the storm. Scott broadened the governor’s Easter metaphor to include other concurrent religious holidays and festivals.

“Whether you are a Christian and it’s Holy Week, whether you are a Muslim and it’s Ramadan, whether you are Jewish and you’re focused on the Passover and whether you are a Hindu and you’re focused on Holi – the festival of colors – we’ve entered a time in our faiths that focuses on good versus evil and how we all triumph together.”