600 homes damaged in Mena, Governor Mike Beebe tours the damage

600 homes in Mena were damaged by Thursday night’s tornado. Governor Mike Beebe toured the damage by helicopter Friday afternoon and talked to storm survivors.

Governor Beebe wasted no time checking out the mess in Mena. Dozens of homes on Hamilton were destroyed. He says it is some of the worst he's ever seen. "If it hits one home it is terrible for that one homeowner but in just sheer numbers of homes, I don't know if I've seen one since I've been governor that's any more wide spread than this," Beebe remarked.

As Gov. Beebe met with neighbors he assured them help is on the way. "More often than not they say they're lucky that they're still alive and more people weren't killed or severely injured. Also some of them are in shock you know and still in awe of the devastation. A lot of them are talking about how quickly your life can turn around and yesterday (Thursday) at 8pm everything was normal and by 8 this (Friday) morning everything had changed."