PENDLETON, Ark. — When we visited Pendleton this spring, traveling by car wasn’t an option.
"There's a devastation that can't be explained," Pendleton resident Peggy Hill told THV11 in June 2019.
Things look much different now.
“We still have people come down and ask ‘how high did the water get?’ ‘How high did it not get?’ Hill said with a smile.
Hill and her husband own Triple P Restaurant, where two prominently-displayed aerial photos help tell the story of what they and their neighbors have endured.
“This is what a hundred-year flood looks like,” Hill said.
As the Arkansas River reached historic levels this spring, it flooded Hill's restaurant, her home and the homes of many others in Pendleton.
“There's families that haven't even gotten to get started on their house,” Hill said. “There are families still reconstructing. There are families still in campers.”
Having returned to her home several weeks ago, Hill considers herself lucky.
“This experience can humble someone to have to look at what you've got and what it took away,” she said. “It'll open your eyes and make you really think ‘you’re blessed and you really just don't see it until you have to.’”
Hill says she will celebrate Thanksgiving with that new perspective, and moving forward, she won’t forget the flood that changed her community forever.
“It's been a teaching experience, a learning experience, and I hope no one has to go through it again,” she said.