Homeowners are still cleaning up across south central Arkansas this weekend. Friday morning's storms cut across half a dozen counties damaging upwards of 30 homes. One of the hardest hit areas is Hampton, Arkansas. That's about an hour and 45 minutes south of Little Rock in Calhoun County.
Driving into Hampton the evidence is everywhere. You see gigantic trees yanked out of the ground. Some of them crashed into houses like one on Main Street that doubles as the offices for the South Arkansas Sun newspaper. But now that building needs some major roof repair. Everywhere you look you see downed power lines. Ouachita Electric Cooperative workers have their work cut out for them since the storm did the heaviest damage in a densely populated area. John Robinson with the National Weather Service said, "I looked back at the radar and it was very apparent that the storms strengthened right over Hampton and then weakened right after they got out of town."
Robinson says across south Arkansas it was straight line winds that did the damage. And as people get rid of trees in their yards and fix their roofs the Hampton School District is waiting to find out from the insurance company just how bad its damage is. Vicky McDougald with the district said, "we can't do any repairs of course until insurance is determined."
Seventy-five mile an hour winds mangled the football field and re-arranged the school grounds. But McDougald is most concerned about structural damage to the fine arts building and the gym. They may be condemned. Engineers come out monday to find out. The worst part is, the district planned to save those two buildings in an upcoming remodeling project. The district wanted to start taking bids on the project Tuesday. "I don't know, we may have to start from scratch now," McDougald said.
Hampton School officials canceled classes for Monday and they'll decide then when students will return to class. They may have to temporarily use portable buildings if the others are damaged beyond repair.
