April 6, 2006

Caruthersville tornado: Day 3

"Still Here and Standing Tall" reads the message on plywood covering the windows of Kristin Turner's 18th Street home. Prior to the storm, she was planning on buying the house she shares with her daughter and boyfriend. She still plans to purchase it, she said.

Caruthersville

Bill Orton and his mother Hazel Orton are living in a home without power but they aren't budging. Hazel Orton relies on oxygen, but that didn't stop her from attempting to sweep away glass and other debris around the back door to her home. Where she swept, a carport had been ripped away from the house.

Caruthersville

Debbie Dunavant and most of her family lived within shouting distance of each other on 18th Street. How the family will rebuild the homes -- or if they will -- hasn't been too much on anybody's mind yet, Dunavant said as she worked to clear debris and thought about how she might protect what is left of her house from predicted storms.

Out in the country about 10 miles from Caruthersville, the people of unincorporated Braggadocio are also making decisions about their future.

Outside the shattered Braggadocio Baptist Church, a makeshift relief station has been set up. Winds stripped bricks from the exterior walls, collapsed the roof and partially caved in the structure.

Wesley Huffard, and a friend, Pat Pikey were picking through Huffard's mother's home, Marla Gill. They were searching for heirlooms and photographs before the shattered 140-year-old farmhouse is bulldozed today.

Braggadocio

She's not going to rebuild, Gill said. And she's not taking much from the home, which had been furnished with antiques. "We salvaged a little furniture," she said. "But it's covered in mud."

The city of Caruthersville has plans to move the debris lining streets to a central location and burn it.

In all, the tornado Sunday destroyed 21 homes in Pemiscot County and caused major damage to 57 more. Another 64 were moderately damaged. In addition, 15 businesses sustained damage, including three that were destroyed.

James Bullington walked through what was left of his aunt's house on 18 street.

Caruthersville

Power was out to about 1,600 homes as of Wednesday afternoon, and tap water in Caruthersville was under a boil order.

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