Everyone remembers the infamous 93 tornado. What about other, lesser-known tornadoes? I remember coming back from vacation when I was a kid and seeing some damage. I specifically remember the Tastee-Freez sign (when they had the "Big T" logo) was bent. I remember hearing that a tornado came through but I never got any confirmation. This would have been in the early 80s, possibly as late as 1985. Does anyone know the storm I'm talking about? It wasn't very strong if it was indeed a tornado. I also remember when the Grannis tornado hit, but I was in Mena so I didn't see it. I've been out of town for every tornado that has hit Mena (missed the 93 storm by 5 minutes.)

What are some other tornadoes in Mena that you remember?

One got my grandmother's house in New Potter...I believe it was 1990. She was in the house when it happened and was fine. A large brick flue fell to the floor and missed her by a few feet. The same tornado got a trailer house in the Rocky or Shady Grove area - Lawrence residence.

I could be wrong, but I think the one that hit New Potter was in the mid to late 80's. I remember it somewhat. It took off part of our chicken house's roof and picked up a jon boat and wrapped it around a post. Side note on the boat, my great-grandpa took it and straightened it out and used roofing tar to seal it up. When he passed away, my dad got it back and now I've got it. My son will have it one day.

I was reminded earlier tonight of a tornado that hit sometime around 91-92. It did some damage to a house between Mena and Potter. I think it happened during the school day. Don't remember much else about it.

Seems like I remember a tornado touching down on top of the mountain, probably 20-25 years ago.

Tornado of 93 i was at deer camp east of Hatfield, standing in a clear cut looking to the skys in the west thinking, boy that don't look good. I came in later that evening and found out it wasn't good.

I used to spend my summers in the 70's with my aunt & uncle that lived on the west side of Cherry Hill. In the summer of '74 (I think), my aunt was still working at the shirt factory in town and my uncle and I were doing farm stuff when a bad storm rolled in real quick. We went in the house until the storm passed. The phone rang and it was the neighbors telling us that my uncle’s Aunt Daisy Miller’s (?) place had got hit by a tornado and they needed help. My uncle and I went to her place and I couldn’t believe my eyes. She had 2 chicken houses that sat no more than 75 -100 feet apart, but the one on the left was completely gone!!! There were chickens everywhere! We spent hours catching chickens and cleaning up debris. Daisy’s house was OK. The whole experience taught me how a small tornado could do damage with such precision!

I was with my godparents, camping on the mountain when this one hit. I believe it was in '89 or so. I was pretty young. I remember they were shuffling me into the bathroom but tried to distract me so that I didn't freak-out. When we came out of the bathroom there were camper trailers tipped over and tents and trash scattered around.
Then the one in '93, my mom and I were home by ourselves in Cove, while my dad and brother were at deercamp. We didn't know what had happened until we started getting calls to see if we were okay. It actually hit my stepbrother and stepsisters' mom's house in Hatfield.