Tornado in Mena last night

[Fish]

Reports are that damage is pretty bad there and three people killed:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/weather/04/1 ... index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Not sure what we could do to help, but Mena is one of my favorite towns in Arkansas - home base for the Tot. Hope they can recover quickly from this disaster.

- Fish

[okieboater]

Ate many a great local breakfast meals at skyline grill in down town area of Mena just across the RR tracks

scary times for mena and I hope they can recover

Tulsa weather guys followed the storms over to Mena as poteau ok got some damage but not nearly like Mena did

scary times

dave

[michelle Ashford]

Talked to Brian down there this morning, he is cleaning up. he has a business that didn't get too much damage, but the schools, courthouse, college, homes, other businesses...destroyed. They were still checking houses this morning for trapped people. it is an awful thing to happen to such a beautiful place.

[rickyrod]

Drove threw there this morning . One of the worst things I've seen . Stuff everywere.

[Bozman]

They didn't open the tornado thrashed area up to most traffic until late Friday afternoon, and then imposed a curfew at 8:00 pm. I finally got in this morning, helping my son cut trees off his vehicles. I had been told but could not have imagined how much and how bad the damage was. I've never seen anything like it, except on TV. In the area I was working in, and drove through (about 4 to 6 blocks wide and 14 blocks long) there was probably only 10% of the houses that didn't have major structural damage, roofs missing, and many....way too many were totally destroyed. So far I've only heard of 3 people killed. From what I saw today i'm suprised it wasn't dozens. And....all of those trees....there used to be alot of really big ones. I have lived here all my 47 years, and never seen anything this bad hit this community, and I have only seen a very small part of the damage.

Hope to see you on the river soon. Brian Abbott aka Bozman.

[RomanLA]

I stopped there yesterday and dropped off a bunch of baby supplies. I was here for Hurricane Rita, but I had never seen anything like that. It was absolutely horrible!

[Fish]

If you want to help out our friends in Mena who were hit hard by the tornado last week, here is some info on the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund:

Those who want to donate can also contact one of the following chapters:
American Red Cross of Greater Arkansas (501) 748-1004
Diamond Valley Chapter (870) 246-2682
North Central Arkansas Chapter (501) 268.2691
Northeast Arkansas Chapter (870) 763-4481
Northwest Arkansas Chapter (479) 306-4688
Ouachita Valley Area Chapter (501) 623-9321
South Arkansas Chapter (870) 863-8196
Southeast Arkansas Chapter (870) 534-7312

Please send tax deductible contributions to Red Cross Disaster Relief, 1709 S. Greenwood Avenue Fort Smith AR 72901 or donate at any the following banks (and accounts #'s): Benefit Bank (#900009515); First Security (657999); Arvest (0013620134); Regions (0087667134), US Bank (15180188733) and First State (5013623). THANK YOU!

I got the info here: http://www.thecitywire.com/index.php?q=node/3667" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and http://arkansasmatters.com/content/full ... cid=211071" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

- Fish

[Bozman]

Thanks Fish.....and everybody...I'm sure that your thoughts, prayers, and any contributions are very much appreciated and needed. There are a lot of people working in the area, and hopefully the weather will cooperate.

[Jim E]

Here is a link to several pics from the damage.

Mena storm