Governor doles out $200,000 for cleanup

Mountainburg to get bulk of money for damage caused by April 13 tornado

Two counties and two towns will get nearly $200,000 today to help with cleanup from tornado damage earlier this month, according to Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s office.

The governor will send money to Mountainburg, Mulberry, Crawford County and Howard County through the emergency proclamation fund. The destruction from the tornadoes didn’t qualify any communities in the state for state or federal disaster money. County judges declared disasters for their counties and applied to the governor’s fund, county officials said.

Mountainburg, which had an EF2 tornado rumble through April 13, will receive the bulk of the money, according to Hutchinson’s office. The $100,000 will be used to remove hundreds of oak tree stumps left after tornado wind ripped the rest of the trees away, said Brad Thomas, Crawford County’s emergency management coordinator.

The rest of Crawford County will get $22,500 to remove stumps, too, and Mulberry will get $10,000 to repair lightning damage at the city water-treatment facility, Thomas said.

“It was such big tornado, we had these old oak trees and they just left a big stump,” said Thomas, noting he counted about 250 in Mountainburg and even more outside town.

Howard County will get $42,900, to be split about 50-50 between the county Road Department and North Howard Rural Water Association, Kevin Smith, the county judge, said.

North Howard Rural Water Association serves about 1,000 people and will use the money to repair a pipe that ruptured when a nearby tree was uprooted by the EF1 tornado.

Some of the money will reimburse the county for the Road Department’s work removing trees and debris from roads mostly west of the Umpire community, Smith said.

“It was a full week of work there,” he said. “A lot of trees.”

Smith said county leaders are “thrilled” to receive the money.

“I tell you, it’s always good to get some help for a disaster like that because you can’t budget for tornadoes and thunderstorms and floods and that kind of stuff,” he said. “You just have to work with it when it comes.”