Hot Springs residents caught off guard by early morning storm
An EF2 tornado that swept through southeastern Garland County shortly before 1 a.m. Wednesday caught most residents off guard, with many saying they were asleep at the time.
Around 12:45 a.m., Prasad Mumbarkar, who lives at 102 Hamilton Oaks Drive, just off the 5300 block of Central Avenue, said he was sleeping when he was awakened by the sound of trees crashing outside.
“It was a very loud noise, and that was one of the scariest moments of my life,” he said. “My neighbor upstairs got bad damage, both cars got trees on them, with broken windows and one of his bedrooms has a tree through it.”
Mumbarkar said damage to his place was “not bad compared to everyone’s,” noting his was “more traumatic mentally.”
He said his car did sustain some damage but “not something that I would worry about.” He said this was his first time to deal with “something like this” which “is something nobody is prepared for.”
Mumbarkar said he had only moved to Hot Springs a month ago so this was pretty shocking, but he said a lot of people have told him “it’s not something that happens often.”
He said he was awake most of the night until 3:30 or 4 a.m. and then he slept in his car briefly, “if you call a one-hour nap sleeping.”
Joy Hayes, with Hot Springs Realty, who is the property manager for several of the residences affected
in the 100 block of Hamilton Oaks, showed The Sentinel-record the damage to the upstairs apartment at 102 Hamilton Oaks, where tree limbs had crashed through the ceiling in a bathroom and adjoining bedroom.
“That just blows me away,” she said. “He was in the other bedroom, thank God. He said the noise that it made was freaky.” She then showed the back deck “where you feel like you’re in a tree house,” with large limbs surrounding it.
Hayes pointed out the roof ripped off next door, noting she was thankful the electricity had been turned off because there was standing water all over the area.
“It always seems to take this path; it follows the water I guess,” she said, noting the hailstorm last June “ripped right through here, took these windows out and took the trees out further down.”
She noted some of the trees that struck the buildings “are massive. Absolutely massive.”
Hays said she lives on the other side of Lake Hamilton off Highway 270 and “I heard it, heard the sirens, and it sounded to me like it was around Blakely Dam,” but she noted it’s hard to tell the direction sounds are coming from sometimes.
She said “the main thing” was that no one was seriously injured, although she noted one female resident nearby “got cut by glass.”
A mobile home park on Thunder Road, just off the 800 block of Amity Road, was heavily damaged, with several of the homes moved off their foundations and one completely flipped on its roof on top of vehicles.
Gary Strakshus, owner/ manager of Brundage Woods Mobile Home Village, located a short distance away at 668 Amity Road, said, “We got very lucky. No damage at all here. The park off Thunder Road is a total mess.”
He said the tornado “just seemed to bounce over us” and then hit further up the road.
Tom Brown, pastor of New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, 1534 Shady Grove Road, said the “tornado came through. (We) got the alert on the phone, the sirens went off and (we) heard the wind and walked outside” around 1:45 to 2 a.m.
“There was an Entergy employee in the front yard checking for broken poles. We talked and ended up walking over to the church, and you can see the damage over there as far as the trees. Minimal structural damage, but a lot of tree damage.”
He said they contacted the insurance company and were waiting to hear from the adjuster, noting they have “people coming to help, you know, obviously clean up so we can at least start functioning again within reason. The big thing is going to be getting the power back on but that’s for everybody.”
Brown said, “We’re very fortunate. Last I’d heard, nobody had lost their life in any of this so all this stuff. … I mean I hate the fact that 120-year-old oak trees on the church property blew over, but you know, they weren’t going to be here forever anyway.”
Scott Hecke, owner of Copper Leaf Landscaping and Maintenance, noted their building on Poundridge Drive collapsed.
“We’re trying to get all these trucks out because (the building) had fallen on three of them,” he said. “So we’re trying to get all that moved so we can get back to work (Thursday). Luckily all our good equipment was in these trailers, and it didn’t get touched.”
Hecke said they had just redone the office and put new siding on it, noting, “We came out here at 3 in the morning and had to climb. … I bet there was 30 trees from New Hope to here … climbing in and out of trees to get over here and I just was sick. Here we are today.”
Donna Mann, a resident of Poundridge Drive, said there were trees uprooted on her property, but none touched her home.
She noted around 1 a.m., “We heard the loud noise of the wind, and then our phones went off. And when our phones went off, we thought ‘Uh oh, better turn the TV on.’ And they started saying it was over by the track and ‘there’s rotation … not sure if it’s touched down.’ Then whenever we looked and they said something about ‘There’s Shady Grove Road and Papa’s Trail’ and then a little after that (my husband) hears it.”
She said they grabbed pillows and blankets and her husband said, “‘I hear the train! Turn the music on — this is it.’”
Mann said she “heard loud (noise) for a while and the house was shaking, you could hear the wind whirling. Then we come out and that patio stuff’s just sucked out to the back (yard).”
After examining the damage closer with a spotlight she said her reaction was “Oh no … no,” but she stressed, “That’s when you thank God. Last week we just finished the siding from back in June. I said ‘Dear Jesus, protect our home and us right now,’ and I was screaming it. That’s all you can do.”