A drought in the west and too much rain elsewhere – that’s the story. The January tornado in Cincinnati, Ark., was not that unusual. You can have a tornado about any month of the year. Fort Smith had a bad one back in the 1800s about the third week in January. Army records showed it was warm and then the twister came. With no warning systems, there was lots of lost lives.
The biggest snow fall we’d had here in years swept in last winter. In fact the U.S. had super records of snowfall all over. We hit some record colds. It dropped way below zero in north Arkansas and Oklahoma. This snow has not all melted and there is still flooding going on in parts of Montana and the Dakotas. Billings, Mont., had snow recently, and here we are in June.
The horrific storm in Joplin, Mo., scattered ones in Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma make this the worst storm season in our area. But Alabama had a bad one and other places scored some tough fights with nature. A good friend of mine near Joplin escaped without any damage on their farm, but their married granddaughter and family survived in a bath tub in the strike zone. Her neighbors were killed.
The outpouring of folks to aid victims has been amazing. The Harp’s store up there is the only major grocery open in Joplin, they tell me. They brought in generators to run the store and many of their employees have worked long hours. The gal in charge of their trucking says the demand is making them run 24 hours back and forth. A Harp’s employee told me they had a big sign out front on huge steel posts that used to face one direction and now faces the opposite direction.
Through churches, plain folks and businesses, there has been a great amount of generous truck loads of donated food and water delivered to the victims.
Ozark Electric Co-op sent bottled water to those who were affected. Our line crews went down there with poles and men to help them at Arkansas Valley Electric Co-op to replace all they lost and restore power.
The Joplin tornado was an F-5 with over 200 mile per hour winds. The forces that tossed cars around like leaves are unimaginable. Victim after victim saying, “It was bad, but I am still alive, so I won’t complain.”
The healing process begins.
While meteorologist tried to explain what happened in the weather. They blamed the late snowfall that still covered the ground up north for part of that cold air that met the warm. This clash caused the bad storm in Missouri and several other twisters that folks experienced. The high humidity from the record high flooding over the central U.S. increased the forces available. Watch out, folks say we may have a tough hurricane season in the tropics. Changes in temperature means more weather related things for us. May God bless you until we meet again.
Western novelist Dusty Richards and his wife Pat live on Beaver Lake in northwest Arkansas. For more information about his books you can email Dusty by visiting ozarksfn.com and clicking on ‘Contact Us’ or call 1-866-532-1960.
