NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — This week marks five months since an E-F3 tornado tore through parts of Central Arkansas in March.
While recovery efforts are still underway, some of the areas that were hit by the storm have been brainstorming solutions for any future disasters.
A new survey was mailed to Amboy residents so they can share their experiences from the storm and give their thoughts on how to improve things moving forward.
One of the neighborhood board members who created the survey hopes the feedback will better prepare them in case something similar happens again.
"It's one thing to just let people talk, but it's another to listen to what they're saying," Amboy Neighborhood Association Board Member, Paula Lively said.
Lively wants to give her neighbors in the Amboy Neighborhood a chance to reflect on the tornado that hit the area earlier this year and she has been using a new survey to do it.
It includes questions that are focused on how city services in North Little Rock can be improved and how people got their information in the wake of the devastating storm.
"What would you want us to do differently? Or could we? And so that's the type of questioning that folks will find," Lively explained.
Since March 31st, she said the neighborhood's response has been mostly positive but she wants to hear from those who haven't shared their experiences.
"There may be a little individual. Well, they didn't cut down my little bush over here, you know, just something like that. That is a big thing to one person, but that's the only one it affected. Those are the types of things I've heard. But I think overall folks were very pleased with the amount of help that we got," she explained.
"Amboy got hit worse than anybody. But I cannot say enough about the volunteers, I remember hearing the chainsaws going off," North Little Rock Mayor Terry Hartwick added.
Mayor Hartwick said he hopes nothing like the March tornado ever happens again, but if it does, the city is ready to respond.
"I cannot say enough about city employees. And how we've handled the whole tornado. It's I mean, it's not something we want to practice but we were there," Mayor Hartwick said.
When it comes to feedback from his residents, Mayor Hartwick has been happy to hear people's thoughts and said the biggest complaint he's heard is about insurance companies' long processes.
"I hear that more than anything," he explained.
Mayor Hartwick also said the city is about to crack down on all the homes that haven't been touched or lived in since the tornado.
"I'm waiting till after Labor Day. So after that, you'll see the city get a lot more serious about these homes that have not been touched. Because the neighbors next to it, we owe it to them too," he said.
The surveys were just mailed out, so neighbors should be getting those any day now.
To see the survey that was sent out, please click here.
Lively plans to start analyzing all the responses in the next few weeks.