WYNNE, Ark. — Last week's storms didn't just affect Central Arkansas, they also damaged areas to our east.
In Wynne, the damage isn't hard to spot after a confirmed EF3 tornado ripped through town.
"It's tough, this is our home," Wynne School District Superintendent Kenneth Moore said. "As you have seen, we've got mass destruction on this site."
Wynne High School is a near-total loss. The building has been torn apart, and now hallways and classrooms have been left to soak in the rain from outside.
While it's hard to see something like this go, since Moore also walked these halls— their fast decision making actually saved student and faculty lives.
"For me personally, felt like the Lord was just telling me it's not worth it, let's get them out of here," he said.
Had they not made the decision to dismiss the students from school early, our conversation with Moore would have been a much tougher one, he explained.
"This was the cafeteria," he said, in a video as he walked through the destroyed school. "We would've lost every kid."
Just over an hour later, pieces of the school were strewn around campus.
"We got the kids out of here at 1:30, the last person out of the building was at 3:30," Moore said.
Though it's difficult to see, Moore is not thinking about the building.
"That building is a building, it's not a life," he said. "I'm just thanking the Lord that we got our kids out."
Damage is everywhere in Wynne, but the community has been stepping in to clean. In the meantime, prom and graduation will still happen, Moore said prom will be on April 22, and graduation on May 20.
"It's massively important for us to get some kind of normalcy," Moore said. "It gives hope to our kids in our community.
Hope means that there's a chance to put these bad memories behind them, and work on filling their school with good ones.
"We're gonna cry when we need to cry, but then we're gonna laugh and we're gonna say, 'OK, we're good,'" he said. "We're gonna come out of this, and we're going to do it together."
Wynne High students will return to in-person classes soon, and East Arkansas Community College's Tech Center will be opening its doors so students have classrooms to continue their education.