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DAMASCUS, Ark.—Amid clear blue skies Saturday, a plume of gray smoke rose from a pile of burning debris as rural residents in Arkansas cleaned up what was left of their homes after tornadoes scoured the state.

Shelia Massey raked through her family’s property. Only a chimney, a bathroom wall, and a bathtub that had served as a makeshift storm shelter remained.

“God’s hand was down and held us there while the rest of the house just blew away,” Massey, 54, said. “That’s all there was to it. The lord held us there.”

A child poking through the rubble found a photograph of Massey’s husband, who was not at home when the storms hit Friday. In all, seven people were killed, about 400 homes damaged or destroyed, and electric power and telephone services were knocked out to thousands of customers.

In the 18 counties that reported damage, the recovery task was under way Saturday.

Gov. Mike Beebe, who toured damaged areas, added four counties to the disaster list before he set out from Little Rock. Chicot, Crittenden, Lonoke and Mississippi counties joined Benton, Cleburne, Conway, Grant, Pulaski, Saline and Van Buren counties on the list.

Near Center Ridge in Conway County, Beebe paused briefly to watch a bulldozer shove drywall, bedding and a television set into a burn pile. The governor said President Bush called him Friday night to offer the federal government’s full support, and to commend him on the state’s response so far.

Beebe acknowledged that state officials have become very adept at responding to disasters since tornadoes killed 13 Arkansans on Feb. 5. After that bout of severe weather, the state endured a foot-deep snowfall and then widespread flooding.

“It never gets any easier,” Beebe said.

After walking past mud-stained clothes drying on an uprooted tree, Beebe spoke with Bobby Rose, 43, who was helping clean up after Friday’s storm. The governor offered his condolences to residents of the rural neighborhood along M&M Road, but Rose remained upbeat.

“This is Arkansas,” Rose said. “We hold up.”

Near Damascus, down U.S. 65 from Massey’s house, parishioners at Southside Baptist Church were salvaging what was left of their old sanctuary and their new church, just recently completed. On a side road of the highway, Arkansas national guardsmen and a Humvee provided a sense of security.

Men backed up pickup trucks to the front door of the old church and loaded up boxes filled with red-leather hymnals. A darkened hallway led to the new sanctuary, where the storms had collapsed the roof, bending its steel beams like sipping straws.

The gray cornerstone of the old church offered a simple Bible verse: “Occupy till I come.”

Officials tried to offer comfort. U.S. Rep. Vic Snyder, D-Ark., and a staffer shook hands with volunteers cleaning the church. National Weather Service teams were dispatched in the early morning to resume their tornado count, and state emergency-management personnel helped county officials with the damage assessments.

Among those killed in the storms as 4-year-old Kadi Brumley, along with her grandparents—Malcolm Brumley, 62, and Robin Brumley, age unknown—when a tornado struck their home near Bee Branch, north of Damascus. At Siloam Springs, straight-line winds that destroyed a mobile home took the life of Eliana Chacon, 15.

In the countryside outside Damascus, John Rusin, 62, said he and his wife Marsha, 60, took shelter in a small room along with two dogs after local forecasters broke in on a network television show they were watching. He said winds almost ripped a mattress out of his arms as he held it over his wife.

“The pressure on it felt like my ears were going to pop off my head,” he said.

Only after the storm passed did he realize it had picked up their home and moved the house 65 feet off its foundation.

Like others in rural Van Buren County, Massey got first word of the storm from a friend, who lived miles south in the larger town of Perryville. The friend called to warn Massey of the approaching tornado after watching television news reports.

Massey said she, her daughter, and Massey’s three grandsons, ages 2 weeks, 2, and 4, ran to the bathroom. The boys and their mother slumped down in the tub covered by sofa cushions, while Massey held on to the outside. Massey said she felt the house shake and the bathtub begin to move as the storm hit. A wall fell on them, but instead of causing injury it became a protective barrier from other blows.

The family’s helplessness in face of catastrophic weather has been a recurring event in Arkansas this year. At least 26 people have died from violent storms including the latest bout—with most of the deaths occurring in rural communities and among tracts of farm land far from the nearest warning siren.

Six of those who died Friday lived among the rolling hills and piney woods of central Arkansas. A teenage girl died in the city of Siloam Springs in northwest Arkansas, but it wasn’t immediately clear whether the storm that hit there was a tornado.

Among the series of storms Feb. 5 that killed 13 people—nearly all in rural areas—some had winds greater than 166 mph, according to National Weather Service estimates. There were no fatalities—and no injuries—when a tornado hit the Little Rock metropolitan area April 3.

In addition to the violent weather that included a tornado fatality in January, Arkansas has also seen a foot of snow, a foot of rain, flash flooding and widespread river flooding this year. At least five people died in the floods, according to state emergency management spokeswoman Renee Preslar.

“We could use a little bit of a break,” weather service forecaster Chuck Rickard said.



Associated Press writer Kelly P. Kissel in Siloam Springs contributed to this report.



On the Net:

Arkansas Department of Emergency Management: http://www.adem.arkansas.gov