Arkansas Tornadoes of April 25, 2011

The highest-rated tornado of the 18 that occurred in Arkansas on April 25, 2011, traveled 21.3 miles through Garland and Saline Counties. For the first few miles of the track, the tornado moved through mainly heavy forest. Satellite analysis shows the tornado began approximately 1.25 miles south of the Hot Springs Reservoir near Kelly Hollow Drive. It moved with a narrow path to the northeast parallel to Poulan Trail and then crossed the trail, jogged to the north-northeast, and widened slightly. The tornado made a turn along Breshears Road to the east-northeast. Along this part of the path, there were pockets of snapped and uprooted trees.

It reached a width of 630 yards (0.35 miles) near Milroy Trail. The tornado essentially maintained this width and was intense along a 1.5 mile stretch from near Milroy Trail and Walnut Valley Road to Highway 7. Numerous homes were heavily damaged or destroyed along this part of the path.

One of the homes destroyed on Walnut Valley Road was owned by David Bigley. He told The Sentinel-Record, “I’ve been through storms like this before, but this was the first to happen so suddenly.” David and his grandchildren were in the living room when they lost power. He recalled hearing what sounded like a locomotive. The family ran into the bathroom, and suddenly several trees fell on that end of the home. “The house shook for 10 to 15 seconds, and it was over. As for coping with something like this, you don’t. It happens so fast you can’t think about it.” The family survived.

Billy Curtis’ Walnut Valley home was destroyed. He had owned this residence for 20 years, and it was the strongest storm he had seen roll through that area. Near Narrow Lane and Arkansas 7, pieces of homes and downed trees littered the landscape. Per the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on April 27, 2011, “In one yard, all that stood where a mobile home once sat was a front door and a toilet. The home’s injured owner dragged a mattress to a nearby field and planted an American flag in the middle before he was taken to a hospital, neighbors said.”

Jamie Longsioux had been in town when she got word the storms were rolling in. She tried to rush to her mobile home and her four kids. “There was a fender bender in front me, and then I ran out of gas trying to get here. It was terrifying. I made it to the Shag’s Car Lot and pleaded with the man there to give me a ride,” Jamie told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. The mom made it home and sought shelter with her kids at a nearby church. After the tornado hit, Jamie returned to a heavily damaged trailer. Trees had crashed through her daughter’s room, and another was on the roof above the living room. “It was just destroyed,” she said. “I got the most important things out of the trailer before the storm – you know, my children. We’re all OK.”

The Teen Challenge of Arkansas at the intersection of Walnut Valley Road and Highway 7 was handed a hard blow by the tornado. Two staff members sought shelter in the basement in one of the bathrooms. “It sounded like a 747 flying right above our heads,” staff member Cathy Thompson said to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Teen Challenge Executive Director Tim Culbreth told The Sentinel-Record, “The most important thing is that no one was hurt. I did have a couple of staff people with some bumps and cuts. Two of our staff people were in our store office building, and that’s pretty much a complete loss.” There were 35-40 residents who had been moved out of the dorms into the multi-purpose building. This was a part of their safety plan. “Everyone got down on the ground and stayed calm. It was an exciting evening for everyone,” Culbreth said.

Per the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the iron beams of the Teen Challenge of Arkansas rehabilitation center were twisted “like a spider’s legs.” Roofs were removed from several buildings. The most severe damage occurred to the 13,000-square-foot building at the front of the property. It contained the administrative offices and Vintage Mall. The entire left side of the building was demolished.

Garland County Coroner Stuart Smedley saw the storm coming and tried to race home. Before he could get there, he had to park near the Teen Challenge Vintage Mall. The tornado passed, and he was safe, but his trek home became more interesting due to the tremendous amount of downed trees on the roads. The Sentinel-Record reported he had to “crawl the rest of the way home.”

“We had an after-school program and still had 15 workers here, but we had them lay in the hallway. I saw it coming over the top of the trees,” said Walnut Valley Baptist Church pastor Tim Forrest in an article in The Sentinel-Record. Only 30 minutes before the tornado hit, there were approximately 60 kids at the church. In an article on arkansasonline.com, Mike Kolasch, a volunteer with the after-school program, said, “The last child had been picked up not five minutes before the worst part of the storm hit.”

Youth pastor Sam Bierig was one of the staff who remained in the building. Per the Saline Courier, “We knew it was going to get bad, but we didn’t know just how bad,” he said. “We all got in the hallway of the fellowship hall. Some of us were very scared, some of us were just praying, and I was thinking about a lot of different Bible verses.” He added, “It got pretty intense. We saw stuff flying around just 30 feet from us, our ears were popping, but no one inside the church had any kind of damage to their bodies. God really protected us.”

Heavy damage occurred to the church buildings and across the property. Three vans were damaged, and one was flipped onto a smaller sports car. Across the parking lot, three homes near the highway were obliterated. The foyer of the church was destroyed, and several other buildings were unroofed.

After the storm had passed, Rachael Jeans and her father Jeffrey emerged from their Walnut Valley area home to help a neighbor on Narrow Lane. They stopped to talk to a firefighter when a man ran toward them with a baby in his arms. Rachael held him, attempting to keep him warm. She told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, “He was just wearing this diaper that was soaked through with water.” He was struggling to breathe, like he was in shock. His eyes were barely open…There was nothing I could do.” Rachael and Jeffrey noticed the baby had a knot on his head that started to bruise. They frantically searched for more help and called for an ambulance. “We didn’t know where the ambulance was, and we thought we were going to have to try to drive him to the hospital,” she said. “Then someone yelled that the ambulance was coming, and they took him off my lap and ran him to the ambulance.” Tragically, 8-month-old Alexander Ellington suffered a brain injury and didn’t survive. He was the sole fatality in this tornado.

The tornado moved away from Highway 7 and made its way east-northeast into the Ranch Estates area. Numerous homes in this subdivision had varying degrees of damage. April Paholke and her children told KATV that she knew the storm was coming and calmly told her children they were going to the basement to play a game. “We’re going to play a game, and when I say go hide, we’ve got to go to the bathroom and hug ourselves,” Paholke recalls telling her children. “Two minutes after I said that our electricity went out, and I said, ‘Go hide.’ And no sooner as I went in and covered them, the glass blew through.” The family survived with little injury, but the home was devastated.

From Ranch Estates, the tornado turned to the northeast and moved through more sparsely populated areas. Still, there was significant blowdown and minor damage to buildings. The twister snaked its way out of Garland County and into Saline County at Hot Springs Village.

Thousands of trees were downed along the Saline County portion of the track. A tree smashed on the back of The Christ Luthern Church. Several homes behind the church, including one under construction, were damaged by falling trees. At the head of Lake Balboa, on Balboa Drive, a utility building on the property of Village Church of Christ was destroyed. The church building was not damaged. Over 100 homes suffered some degree of damage from the falling trees. A cell phone tower was blown down, and there were widespread power outages.