HOT SPRINGS, Ark. — During the overnight hours on Wednesday, a powerful EF-2 tornado swept through the city of Hot Springs leaving behind a path of destruction that caused a significant amount of damage.
Homes were destroyed, several trees were knocked down, and lives were forever changed. Luckily, recovery efforts are underway as two local non-profits have been working tirelessly to bring hope to those in the community.
"We're out here serving people, serving contractors, serving people doing tree damage, and all that kind of stuff. [We're] just trying to help everybody put their lives back together," Captain Bryan Brinlee with the Salvation Army.
He said volunteers have been handing out water, coffee, and snacks out of their disaster relief trucks until the power comes back on for residents impacted by the storms.
"It's very hot out here, especially when you're cutting trees all day long and a lot of the residents need help pulling limbs off of their house and then a lot of them just need support, emotionally," Captain Brinlee described.
Making sure the community heals from the disaster is also something very personal for Captain Brinlee since he lives in the area where the tornado hit the hardest.
"I was actually standing on my front porch when the tornado hit and then we have several people here at our core in Hot Springs that are trained in disaster relief so emergency management crews started contacting us no sooner than this happened that night. By that morning, we were all out here serving," he explained.
Walking outside and seeing downed trees and roofs caved in, can be emotionally draining but that's where Jim Powell with the American Red Cross steps in to assess the damage.
"Red Cross will send the build a damage assessment team. Tim and I are on that team, and we've got another team in the area of two young ladies. They give us a list of streets that they noted from yesterday's drive-by that have damage on them and we'll assess each of them and build cases for the individual clients," Powell said.
He also said that after accessing the damage they will determine how much funding they can provide for each damaged home.
"They don't have any other avenue. They can't live there anymore. It's just not a livable space, so we get to go out and help some of those people financially," Powell said.
Powell said they're just glad to be a beacon of light during a dark time.
"Hopefully by next week, we'll be able to help them and give them a little recovery effort on the Red Cross part," Powell said.