News

SUPERCENTER, CHURCH, HOME VICTIMS OF MOTHER NATURE

By Ray King and Erin France/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Saturday, October 31, 2009 12:36 AM CDT

A storm system that blew through southwest Pine Bluff late Thursday night dumped a significant amount of rain and caused damage to the Walmart Supercenter on South Olive Street, and a church and home on Ridgway Road.

A car, tossed by severe winds that struck the Walmart Supercenter and some surrounding businesses late Thursday, rests on its roof in the Walmart parking lot Friday. Pine Bluff Commercial/Ralph Fitzgerald

The storm, which hit at about 11:30 p.m. Thursday, damaged part of the supercenter’s roof and ripped off the facade in front of the building, Pine Bluff police Lt. Bob Rawlinson said.

“It didn’t completely collapse the roof but the building sustained a significant amount of water damage,” Rawlinson said.

The supercenter reopened after noon Friday, said Walmart spokesman Kelly Cheeseman.

She said the store was closed after it lost power Thursday night and sustained some damage.

According to the National Weather Service at North Little Rock, 3.95 inches of rain had fallen in the Pine Bluff area by Friday evening. For the year, the county has received approximately 68.14 inches of rain.

“We’ve had so much rain and the water has had no place to go,” said Jefferson County Judge Mike Holcomb, who spent part of Thursday night and Friday morning checking road conditions in the county. “We went out on Rosswood Road and some of our other roads and so far, the only thing we found was just a lot of water.”

Karen Quarles, interim director of the county Office of Emergency Management said the damage in the county was “pretty well confined to that one area from the (First Assembly of God) church to Walmart.”

Electrical service was knocked out to a large section of south and west Pine Bluff, and at about 8:45 a.m., the Entergy Web site reported that 2,200 customers were without service.

Friday afternoon, Diane Tatum, a spokeswoman for Entergy, said more than 1,000 people still were without power, and it may take until this afternoon to restore everyone’s service.

A weather service spokesman said Friday afternoon that a survey crew was in Pine Bluff to examine the area to determine if the damage was caused by a tornado or by straight line winds, but their report was not expected to be completed until late Friday night or early today.

Walmart Supercenter

At the supercenter, Rawlinson said one car was turned over, the front door was blown off, and buggies were scattered across the lot.

The strong winds picked up Joshua Dilworth’s car Thursday night and turned it upside down.

“Mine was the only one that got it,” he said.

Dilworth, a Walmart employee, took pictures of his car Friday morning as it was towed by Smith’s Wrecking Service.

“I’m glad I wasn’t in it,” Dilworth said.

“An ice machine that had been full of ice and was in front of the building was picked up and blown almost to the Murphy gas station,” he said.

A supercenter security guard was taken to Jefferson Regional Medical Center early Friday morning after the pickup he was driving was blown over by high winds.

Rawlinson said the man, who was not immediately identified, was in good condition Friday.

In the shopping center next to Walmart, the power outages stopped business although some customers still wanted in, said Trasie Clingan, Cato’s store manager.

“It’s ugly,” she said, looking out across the Walmart parking lot at the debris.

Just as Wing Stop owner Rob Cheatwood pulled up with a generator Friday morning, the power returned.

Cheatwood said he and his wife, Stephanie, had been up since 2 a.m. trying to save their restaurant’s food.

“I used all the ice in the store,” he said.

Then he drove to the Big Red Truck Stop about 3 a.m. and bought 36 bags of ice, Cheatwood said.

“We were here from 2 o’clock to a quarter to five,” Cheatwood said.

He said he thought the business would be ready for customers about 4 p.m. Friday.

“Our food loss will be minimal,” said Wing Stop store manager Tom Tamburo.

Friday morning police officers guided cars through the Walmart intersection.

Wing Stop employee Chrystal Fallis-Quintero said coming to work Friday was challenging.

“I had to tell (the police) who I was and what I was doing,” she said.

Also at the shopping center adjacent to Walmart, Rawlinson said a sign at the Burger King restaurant was blown down, utility poles were blown over and sitting at 90-degree angles, and glass from parking lot lights covered part of the lot.

First Assembly of God Church

Down Ridgway Road, Rawlinson said the steeple at First Assembly of God Church “almost looked like a witch’s hat” as it was hanging down on the roof, and one of the large columns in the driveway was knocked down and blown approximately 30 yards away.

“We’re blessed because it could have been a whole lot worse,” said Jerry Dortch, the church’s business administrator.

Dortch said the church’s sheltered drive-through was damaged by the storm Thursday night and would be one of the first things repaired.

Wade Kelley, who cares for the building’s maintenance, said some flooding did occur inside the structure because a pump that normally controls the flow of water under the church lost power when the electricity went out.

At first glance, Kelley said it looked like hundreds of thousands of dollars could be necessary for repairs.

“It looks a lot worse than it is,” he added.

Dortch said some carpet may need to be replaced, but he expected the church will be open for Sunday services.

“We’re fine inside, we’re blessed,” he said.

“Yes,” Kelley added, “We’re blessed it was all cosmetic.”

717 Ridgway Road

At 717 Ridgway Road, across from First Assembly, Debbie and Ronnie Reed sat on white wicker patio furniture on their front porch — one part of the house that still had a roof.

The Reeds’ home could have been the hardest hit structure in the area.

When told of other structural damage in the area, Ronnie Reed smiled.

“Well, I always like to be No. 1,” he said.

Besides the roof, the front yard was littered with branches, and while flooding was not an issue, he said, rain was.

“There’s water damage from one end of the house to the other,” Ronnie Reed said.

A moving company loaded up possessions from inside the house.

As one worker loaded a child’s play stove, Debbie Reed called out for him to be careful.

“Everything’s got to be moved,” she said.

Ronnie Reed said he plans to repair the house and return.

“This is home,” Debbie Reed added.

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