There is an article about Mena on the front page of the Times Record paper this morning.

Thanks!
I hope there are some left when I get into town today.

Residents Can’t Catch A Break
By Rusty Garrett
TIMES RECORD  RGARRETT@SWTIMES.COM

Sunday, May 10, 2009 9:19 AM CDT
A month after a tornado tore through the center of the town, residents of Mena continue to struggle to recover from the storm.

“I’m trying to get some kind of normal back in my life,” Richard Bagwell said in a telephone interview Friday afternoon. A barn on Bagwell’s property was flattened and the roof of his home was severely damaged when the tornado hit.
Friday for him was another in a succession of long days, with scant chance for relaxation.

As he labors to construct a temporary roof over the shell of his home, to get it “in the dry,” he said he has been fighting a losing battle against the elements.

The rain, which at one point fell for 10 successive days, has quadrupled the damage to his property, he said.

“There’s no place to rest, no way to get away from this mess,” he said.

Bagwell said the stress has put a tremendous strain on his family.

“It’s just not easy,” he said.

Polk County Judge Ray Stanley said there is no shortage of residents in similar straits.

He said 165 homes in

Mena were destroyed by the storm and another 701 homes suffered major damage.
“There’s some still living in their damaged houses” Stanley said. “We’re waiting for them to bring in some trailers.”

Federal Emergency Management Agency information officer Win Henderson said Friday that the primary focus of the agency has been helping those in damaged homes secure emergency home repair grants to make their homes safe, sanitary and functional.

For those left homeless by the storm, Henderson said FEMA is still searching for temporary housing in the form of private rental homes or apartments and motel rooms, some in nearby towns.

Once that source runs out, Henderson said FEMA secures federal property, such as HUD homes, in which to place people.

“When all of those resources are exhausted, we will give some consideration to moving mobile home in,” Henderson said.

FEMA had registered 651 applications for individual assistance from those affected by the storm at the close of business Thursday, Henderson said.

Of that total, 119 applicants had been approved for assistance and $575,000 in grants had been allocated.

Henderson said another 71 applications for “unmet needs,” such as medical and funeral costs, accounted for another $107,000 in assistance.

FEMA’s disaster relief centers, which opened in Mena, De Queen in Sevier County and later Doddridge in Miller County, provided face-to-face assistance for those seeking help. Henderson said by Thursday, 443 people had been through the Mena center, 68 in De Queen and 23 in Doddridge.

The agency is closing the De Queen center, at 105 S. Fifth St., at 6 p.m. today and reopening the Doddridge facility, at the Doddridge Community Center, Monday and Tuesday, shutting it down at 6 p.m. Tuesday. The Mena center, located in the parish hall of St. Agnes Church, 207 N. Eighth St., will remain open until further notice, although beginning Monday it will open an hour later, at 8 a.m., and close at 6 p.m. weekdays. Saturday hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday hours are 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Stanley said the storm has created some problems cities and counties don’t regularly face.

“We had 11,000-plus tree stumps,” he said. “It was an unreal thing.” He said the county used a lowboy trailer to haul them to a burn site.

He said the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality has worked with the county in loosening regulations to allow the burning of the mountains of brush and limbs that had been cleared from the path of the storm. The process is being accomplished with an air curtain burner that reduces emission and burns debris more quickly and completely.

“We’re on our way back,” Stanley concluded Friday. “We’re a bunch of strong people.”