Memorial Day 2024: A Storm to Remember
Memorial Day is a day to honor the US soldiers who have died serving their country. It is a long weekend and the unofficial start to the summer season. In Arkansas at Beaver Lake, we kicked off the start of the summer diving season. We had the RV park ready for campers and the hotel booked. The pool was sparkling and we held our first scuba class! The weather on Saturday was beautiful. Sunny and warm, but not to hot. The lake was cool, but the visibly was close to 15’! Boaters and Jet Skis were abundant with campers cooking up brats and burgers. Children were enjoying their new water toys and soaking up the sun. We enjoyed a BBQ at the dive shop, welcoming back friends and catching up after the long winter break. But a storm was brewing…
Living in Arkansas, we are not immune to thunderstorms and tornados. May is the wettest month of the year, averaging 6.3”. This helps fill up Beaver Lake and supply the drinking water for the Northwest Arkansas region, serving more than 450,000 customers. This storm swept through Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Kentucky. We knew it was coming…we just didn’t know the severity. My husband and I were awakened at 2:00 a.m. on Sunday to our phones shrieking to warn us of a Tornado Warning! We quickly put on our shoes and ran through the rain and hail to the bath house. We found 3 other campers closely monitoring the storm with minute-by-minute updates from the local weather channel. Slowly, other campers joined us, along with a few anxious pups. We laughed and nervously chatted while we waited out the storm, the strength in numbers easing our anxiety slightly. After about 40 minutes, we slowly made it back to our campers to wait out the rest of the night, but Mother Nature wasn’t quite finished. The wind came up again, shaking our campers and nerves. I can’t say for sure how long the wind blew (later determined to be 80 – 100 mph straight line winds) before it finally started to die down and we could get some rest.
As the sun came up, we slowly ventured out to assess the damage. The dive shop and campground did not have electricity, but our manager made coffee for everyone with her solar powered unit! Overall, we were lucky - some hail damage, downed limbs, but no major tree loss or structural damage. Other areas were not so lucky.
Prairie Creek, Horseshoe Bend and Rocky Branch suffered major damage on the lake. It was confirmed that 7 tornados touched down in Benton County with one crossing over into Madison; 2 in Decatur, 2 in Centerton, 1 in Rogers, 1 in War Eagle, and 1 in Clifty with winds reaching up to 155 mph.
Roads were blocked with debris and stoplights were out, backing up traffic for blocks. Power poles split like toothpicks, leaving many without electricity in Rogers and Bentonville for 5+ days. Hundred-year-old trees were uprooted and laid on their side. Parts of Rogers are unrecognizable with buildings completely destroyed. Sadly, some lost their life early that Sunday morning and our hearts go out to their families. The Rogers and Decatur tornados will go down as the two largest in record in Arkansas, stretching over 1.5 miles wide. This will also go down as one of the costliest single storms for any county in the United States this year, due to the highly populated area.
The outpouring of volunteers has been overwhelming. Multiple locations have offered free places to lodge and free meals. Neighbors have helped cut down trees, remove fence, and haul away debris. It was not the Memorial Day we planned and it may not be the summer we planned either as the clean-up efforts continue, but it did bring us all together. As we slowly pick up the pieces and rebuild, we will lean on our neighbors and friends. We appreciate what we have and are grateful for our community. We love this place. We are Arkansas strong!
