STUTTGART, Ark.—The sound of air wrenches is like that at any auto dealership service department. But the mechanics at Joe Morgan Chevrolet Cadillac in Stuttgart have a little more fresh air than most.

Segments of yellow insulation wave beneath the holes in the roof above the work bays, and a breeze blew Thursday through where the walls used to be. Parts manager Tommy Graves said it is getting easier to work. Phone service has been restored in the city and soon the business will have Internet access again.

“We had to go back to hand-writing everything, like we did in the old days,” Graves said.

The EF-3 tornado that went through the south part of town didn’t kill anybody, but that was probably because it struck at night. Crushed paint containers still rest under the roof of the Sherwin-Williams Co. store on Main Street. The other side of the flattened building was a Family Dollar store. The debris squeaks in a breeze.

Shanda Harwell, emergency management coordinator for Arkansas County, said more than 150 homes sustained major damage or were destroyed. Another 30 to 40 businesses sustained similar damage.

Patriot Biofuels, an alternative fuels plant, took a direct hit from the tornado. Its building was destroyed, and the company is assessing how much of its equipment can be salvaged, CEO Cal McCastlain said.

“Our sentiment is to continue to go forward with operations. We’re just in an assessment mode right now,” McCastlain said.

McCastlain said the future of the company will depend on the insurance settlement, costs for replacing equipment and operational projections.

“That’s typical of any business plan. We just have to factor in a tornado,” McCastlain said.

The company’s 10 employees have continued working, devoting themselves to clearing the plant site.

“We all see what’s happening with the price of petroleum and transportation fuels. That reinforces our belief that biofuels have a role to play in overall energy needs. The Stuttgart site can play an important role in those biofuels,” McCastlain said.

The debris from the building is at the back of the plant site, waiting to be moved. So is much of the other debris in the city of 10,000 people. Some destroyed buildings have been cleared, with piles of rubble waiting to be picked up. Cut-up tree limbs mix with other debris in piles along the city’s main drag and in surrounding neighborhoods.

Not far from the destroyed Family Dollar store, William E. Rule was standing in his workshop, working on a chain saw. Before the storm, he would have been working in private, but the tornado lifted up the Quonset hut shell and tossed it into a neighbor’s tree. He was able to salvage the frame and sell it for scrap.

“I think it does this town some good to have this every 15 years. Got rid of a lot of junk,” he said with a slight grin. Rule later mentioned that his neighbors have been known to fuss about items of his they see as junk. It was all on display Thursday — mowers, ceiling fans, saws. Next door was his 1950s-era house, which only lost a few shingles. But he said the house must have twisted a bit in the tornado.

“The upstairs door won’t open and the downstairs door won’t close,” Rule said.

His property sustained a few thousand dollars worth of damage, but Rule was keeping busy with repairs and cleanup around town. He drove off with the chain saw and a stump grinder on a trailer behind his pickup truck.

Nearby, Ray Dardenne was helping out a friend, Heath Mitchell, whose boat and ATV repair business was leveled. Dardenne and a couple of helpers were in the sun, dust riding the wind as they cleared the slab so builders could get to work on Friday.

“Heath is one of the better ATV mechanics we have here on the prairie. We need to get him up and running,” Dardenne said. “The community needs him.”

Harwell said volunteers are helping cart off the debris, which is being taken to the city landfill in Prairie County to the north.

“I feel that we were fortunate here. All the agencies worked so well together,” she said, pausing to sniffle. “We’re all hacking and coughing here — dust from the debris and the pollen.”

At the auto dealership, service manager Gary Woods said there has been plenty of business. The cars and trucks on the lot sustained more than $200,000 worth of damage, and customers have been snapping up the discounted vehicles, either because the tornado left them carless or just to get a deal.

Woods spoke as computer technicians installed new desktop units in the trailer where the dealership now has its offices.

“The shop, we can’t lock it up. We don’t have any walls,” he said. Guards are on duty through each night. The steel frame of the dealership, built in 1963, is solid and will stay. Everything else will be gutted and replaced. Woods said he hopes the work will be done in about six months.

The twister destroyed all the dealership’s computers and all the workers’ desks. One valuable set of items made it through, riding out the storm in a heavy fire safe—the keys to the vehicles.

“We only lost one set of keys,” Woods said.