LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Almost two months after an EF3 tornado swept through the state, Arkansans are still rebuilding and recovering. Though some have been experiencing hold-ups along the way.
"You see other people going through it, but to just deal with it yourself is, yeah, it's emotional," Wellness Revolution Crossfit owner, John Vincent said.
Since the tornado happened, he has been working to figure out the next steps for his Crossfit gym in West Little Rock.
"You don't know what the next few weeks are gonna look like or months or years to get what we have all the momentum we had back up and going," Vincent said.
The tornado tore up the roof and walls, and that left Wellness Revolution Crossfit unable to reopen just yet.
"I'm here still working in the office up front. But the energy is not here. It's not the same, the momentum is not here. And that's what I'm really excited to hopefully get back as soon as we possibly can," Vincent explained.
He also said that it has been taking longer than expected.
"We're still waiting on insurance, the damage is on our roof. And so we got to get a new roof, or so we're told, but the insurance hasn't approved that yet. So we've been going on for eight weeks. We are hopefully in about two or three weeks getting that roof on," he added.
He's still working on replacing the thousands of dollars worth of equipment they lost.
"As far as the equipment we were at, like 85,000. As far as the chiropractic stuff, we're on $140,000 worth of equipment and X-ray machines and technology we had up there," he explained.
Luckily, the chiropractic office was able to open back up— but he's ready to have his gym family back.
"The thing about the gym is it's a community, it's an energy. And everybody kind of cycles off each other," he said.
Vincent also shared that help from the community is what has made this process a little bit easier.
"We had over 100 people here, like with trailers, like loading this stuff up and getting into storage," he added.
Now, he said he is looking forward to what's next.
"I'm just ready to get that future started," said Vincent.
In the meantime, his usual gym members have been going to another nearby Crossfit facility to continue their fitness journey.