LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — One Little Rock neighborhood is still on the road to recovery after a devastating EF-3 tornado destroyed multiple homes on March 31, 2023.
"Getting things back to some semblance of normal, some semblance of nice, if you will, has been a bit of work,” said John Payne, President of the board for the Walnut Valley Homeowner Association
It's now more than a year later and residents in Walnut Valley are still trying to put their lives back together. As they continue to pick up the pieces they have found themselves reminded of the devastation by some city entities.
"One of the bigger issues has been lots and spaces that have not been kept up or have other people dumping things in spaces and keeping them hard to clean up. The city has for a while, done what they can, and worked with us, but at this point in time, they're sort of dropped a hammer and are basically saying the moratorium on not hitting houses is up," Payne described.
Now some of the lots have been getting a warning from the city of Little Rock to have the properties cleaned up.
While Payne, said he respects this warning from the city, he feels as though this citation lumped together a large group of residents who are genuinely trying to fix their homes in Walnut Valley.
"Some just now, literally a year and a half later, [are] seeing good money from insurance companies so they can get started on what they're going to do. Some of them had issues with contractors coming in doing good work or not going to be doing work, disappearing,” Payne said.
In a statement released by the City of Little Rock, they said:
"The City’s Planning Department and Code Enforcement Division have worked collaboratively with property owners in the tornado zone to support cleanup, repair, and reconstruction. Starting last winter, the City has reached out to some property owners multiple times informing them of the importance of complying with city code as the rebuilding process moves forward. The notices issued recently are another effort to ensure property owners continue to make progress with cleanup and code compliance."
Meanwhile, Payne said they will continue to strive as a community to get back to the place they once were.
"We’re going to do more community things. Make sure that people who are here, who stay here, know that we’re here for them and hopefully bring more people into the neighborhood," Payne said.