More than 100 homes were damaged, over half severely, by the EF2 tornado that hit the area around Hot Springs Village Thursday night, and most of the worst damage was in Garland County, officials said Monday morning.
County Judge Darryl Mahoney anticipated issuing a written disaster declaration for the Garland County portion of the Village, a gated community that is split between Garland and Saline counties, Monday afternoon.
"I think power's back on to everybody that can get power right now," he said.
"Water's back on to everybody that can get water. All the roadways are open. They're not perfect, but they are open, just got a lot of debris, man.
"We're still pretty deep into it," he said, noting he gave a verbal declaration Friday.
"I just now got the damage assessment in from ADEM (Arkansas Division of Emergency Management)."
The progress Entergy Arkansas and First Electric Cooperative made over the weekend exceeded the expectations of HSV Public Works Director Ken Unger.
"Fortunately, the power companies were able to swarm us over the weekend and got pretty much everybody back on with the exception of a couple dozen people," he said. "I think they're hopeful to get that power restored, hopefully today. Our water infrastructure while we still probably have various leaks in the system, it's nothing we can't handle with the plant production, so we're doing OK there."
The American Red Cross was in the Village Monday afternoon to offer assistance to those affected by the tornado, but it was not the only charitable organization helping.
"We've had volunteers and staff out doing damage assessment," John Brimley, regional communications manager for the Red Cross, said. "What that looks like is out looking at homes, particularly residential property, just doing some assessments to see where damage is, to see how we can assist, and then once we've gotten a pretty good idea for the damage assessments and all of that, the next step is the recovery piece, where those who have been impacted, we'll sit down with them and kind of go over their case and figure out what recovery looks like and devise a plan for that."
Garland County Department of Emergency Management Director Bo Robertson said approximately 125 homes in the county were affected by the tornado, based on a report from ADEM.
"I'm going to guess probably about 125 homes that are affected anywhere from just affected where they have maybe some soffit or shingle damage, all the way to major with trees falling through the house, collapsed roofs, things of that nature," he said.
Unger said 58 homes had sustained major damage, according to the report, and most of those were in Garland County.
"I've got a whole list here of major damage, and the thing about it, which is one of the great things about this community is, a lot of residents here have strong relationships either with their church or with their neighbors," he said. "And when they're impacted by something like this, generally speaking, their neighbors will step up and help them out and give them a place to stay."