Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to this installment of the Know the news podcast. I'm your host, Chris Swindle, metro editor for the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette. Storms wreaked havoc in northwest Arkansas on Sunday, May 26. In this episode of Know the news, I spoke over the course of two days with a meteorologist, a local reporter, a city mayor and a county judge about the storms, their aftermath and what comes next. In this first segment, recorded Thursday, May 30, a National Weather Service meteorologist and the mayor of Bentonville share their thoughts.
I'm speaking now with National Weather Service meteorologist Craig Sullivan and Bentonville Mayor Stephanie Orman. Thank you both for joining us. I'd like to start with you, Craig, and ask you if you could give us the current assessment of the storms we experienced last Sunday. How many tornadoes are there currently confirmed in northwest Arkansas and where were they?
[00:01:02] Speaker B: As of right now, we have confirmed seven tornadoes across northwest Arkansas. Looks like we have, I think all of them, all seven of them at some point in their path, did affect Benton county. One other extended over into Madison.
So I can give you a quick rundown of where they were.
The first one, of course, was over at, in the centerton area. This one was rated as an ef three or Decatur. Excuse me, I'm sorry, Decatur, not Centerton. There's a lot to process here.
This one, let's see. This particular storm right here was interesting in the fact that it had a, a path width of 3200 yards, which, this is not really an official statement by any means, but it could potentially end up being the widest tornado path ever confirmed in the state of Arkansas, which is kind of interesting.
Let's see. And then along those same lines in the same area, there was actually an anticyclonic tornado that was kind of going on at the same time as the one in Decatur. This was a couple miles south. South. And this was rated ef two.
[00:02:15] Speaker A: Can I ask, can I ask you what? Anticyclonic. What does that mean?
[00:02:21] Speaker B: Most tornadoes rotate in a cyclonic or counterclockwise fashion. This one rotated in the opposite direction.
[00:02:27] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:02:28] Speaker B: It's a little bit unusual. It's not unheard of, but on rare occasions, you will get anticyclonic tornadoes. But the vast majority of them are cyclonic, or counterclockwise, I should say. And then moving on what looks like a short time later, there was an EF one tornado that was confirmed in the centerton area.
Quite a few roofs of houses damaged and some trees uprooted.
And another EF two was confirmed somewhere near what was called Pawpaw Hollow, I think that was north northwest of the town of Vaughan and ended near Centerton.
Also, quite a bit of damage to some homes in the area.
And then, of course, by that time, we're moving over into much more populated regions.
The latest ones we have had confirmed were just yesterday they went over to Rogers and surveyed the damage in Rogers itself, and we did confirm ef two tornado damage in Rogers, it looks like, along Walton Boulevard and Dodson Road.
A lot of the damage was concentrated around Dixieland Road area, where the mall is over there, I believe.
Now, one thing about these tornadoes, too, I should add, is that there was a considerable amount of straight line wind damage throughout a lot of Benton county, and some of these tornado circulations were embedded within that, and that did make the surveying rather complicated, but that is what we know right now.
And there's also a lot of damage in the Bentonville area. A lot of that was straight line wind damage. There is a possibility we may have had a tornado in Bentonville itself that has not been surveyed as of yet. There is some video out there that makes it a little bit suspect that maybe there was one.
So besides the Rogers tornado, then we had another one, near war Eagle, which was rated as a ef one.
And then the final one was over at Clifty, which actually extended partially into Madison county. That was also rated ef one as well.
So that's a rundown of all seven of them right there.
[00:04:39] Speaker A: And the damage in Bentonville. You were saying that there's a possibility that it could be confirmed, a tornado there. How long do you anticipate it will take before you're able to say one way or the other if there was or wasn't a tornado in Bentonville besides the one in Rogers, which I believe, if I read the report correctly, started in Bentonville and then traveled into Rogers, but it was mostly in Rogers while it was on the ground.
[00:05:07] Speaker B: I, to be honest, do not know what somebody's going to have to go over and survey again. I don't know if they have any plans to do that immediately. I'm sure sometime in the next day or two someone will have to run back over there and take a look at it.
But let's see, as far as the Rogers tornado is concerned.
The start location we had plotted was 3 miles south of Bentonville, and the statement would say southeast Walton Boulevard, west of Dodson Road.
Whether that's really Bentonville, Rogers, I don't know the layout of that. The two cities are so close together, you know, they've grown together at this point. So that's where we had the official starting point.
So, and that, but that was a, that was confirmed as an EF two. And that damage path was about a mile and a half wide and it's widest point as well. So we had not only the, you know, the nearly two mile wide one over at Decatur, but we also, the Rogers tornado was also wide as well.
[00:06:08] Speaker A: So it seems like from an outside observer, obviously not a meteorologist, that this is, these are some very severe storms that came through, very large tornadoes. How do they compare to the severity of other storms that you've seen over the years in this area?
[00:06:34] Speaker B: They're right up there for sure.
As you know, the EF scale is ranging from zero to five. Five, of course, being the most extreme violent damage, which, those are extremely rare.
In fact, you have to my knowledge, there has never been an EF five tornado confirmed in northwest Arkansas that I know of.
The last EF four, which is also, which is on the higher end of the scale. The last EF four that occurred in the northwest Arkansas area was actually in Sebastian county back in 2011. That speaks pretty well to how the higher end ones go. Now. These tornadoes are the strongest we observed over there in a few years at least. So pretty rare. Not super high end on the scale, but definitely significant, especially in terms of the damage that we saw around the area.
[00:07:29] Speaker A: I'd like to switch now to mayor Orman. I've seen photos and video from your city, and, you know, it's hard to say right now. It might not have been the hardest hit of all of our area communities, but it certainly took a wallop. And I'm curious how cleanup efforts are going there in your city.
[00:07:47] Speaker C: So we originally had about 10,000 customers that were out of power. We're down to about 1100. Those are in very intricate areas where we have poles that are in lines that are wrapped around each other. So we're working hard. We've got crews in from several different cities because we have mutual aid agreements with other cities that have electric departments. So we're moving as quickly as we possibly can on that. We had originally over 80 roads closed with downed trees, and that number is down to somewhere between 25 and 30, I believe. So our teams are working extremely hard out there to get everybody, get the roads cleared and get the power lines up. I will say we're going to be requesting more and more surveys, because if you go look at the damage, I do believe that we are seeing areas where there's, there's the rotate, it looks to be on the ground, the twisting and the rotation piece of it there and not just straight line winds from what we're seeing. So we're hoping that we'll be able to gather more data and build to understand that better.
So, but a lot of damage. We are a tree city, USA, and those trees, very large trees with very large roots just literally lifted out of the ground and many instances are laying on homes or businesses.
[00:09:12] Speaker A: As you've been out in the community and these recovery efforts are ongoing, what is the overall feeling of community members in the wake of all this damage and having to do all this, putting the pieces back together?
[00:09:25] Speaker C: Well, what I will say is that we always say in Bentonville we have a can do attitude and that's exactly what you're seeing with neighbors getting out. We've been encouraging because we've gotten a lot of requests of what can we do, how can we help? Just walk outside your door and look to your right or your left probably, if not your own home and start working with your neighbor. And that's what they're doing. So the cleanup efforts are ongoing with neighbors. And then obviously our crews are up. We're starting to pick up storm debris. We do have one facility that's been open, our compost facility. We had to close it for a little bit yesterday because we just got overwhelmed and had to do some grinding that's opened back up. We're hoping here in a few hours to be able to open up a secondary site, but both of our Bentonville sites are, or the one we have open now. It is getting overwhelmed. We are getting ready to open up a secondary one. So we're doing everything we can to try to open up sites. There's a lot of permitting and different things that have to go through that. The process to be able to open those up, then you also have to have the manpower out there to make sure that we can run the facilities. So we're trying to get everything go through all of the documentation to make sure we're doing it right and get it open. And then we're also, our teams are also out doing our own work to try to make sure that we are.
[00:10:46] Speaker A: Documenting all the damage that actually leads into what I was going to ask next. You know, it's very early in the overall damage assessment and trying to figure out, place a price tag on things. And I'm curious, you know, what does that process look like and what does a timeline on that look like for you? Is it too early to say at all or do you have an idea?
[00:11:10] Speaker C: We had to get assessments by the end of day yesterday to the county. So the county, so we're trying to work with the federal government to get the disaster declaration, and it would be a decoration through the county. So we were working yesterday. Now we are just giving them damage assessments to public facilities. So there's a whole other side of that that is on the private side for damage assessment. So I think that, you know, across, I think it'll be across several counties that you're going to see extensive damage and those numbers will be high.
[00:11:56] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I'm sure.
So you mentioned that, you know, if someone in the community wants to know what they can do to help, they can just walk out their door. Is there anything else specific either for people there in the city or from people outside the city where you would direct them if they wanted to make monetary donations to any groups or if they wanted to come in, put boots on the ground in some way and help, how would you recommend people go about that? What is most helpful for the city right now?
[00:12:25] Speaker C: So the city, the county is working on, I believe, a way to kind of funnel especially monetary donations, because right now at the city level, we're just not really set up to take those in and then do all of the stuff that you have to do to make sure, from an accounting standpoint, we get it out quickly. So I think they're working to work with an organization to be able to kind of funnel those monetary donations from the private side just directly to that, and then they can directly get him out. So I would say more information to come on that, but it'll probably come out from the county, from the city's end. We're, we're trying to just connect resources for people. So if you have a need and you're contacting our city, we're trying to reach out and make sure that we can connect you to a resource. So we'll be that connection point for any of our Bentonville residents. But the county is putting out a full list, I think, of just resource sites. And, you know, people don't know if you're in Bentonville, if you're in Rogers, they may recognize that they're in Benton county. And so we're trying to also make that not confusing as well for people and direct them into one site. So we are actively checking on our residents, especially those without, continue to still be without power, and trying to make sure that we're providing all the resources there. But we're real focused on that. And then again, letting those resources be directed into one place right now, which seems to be right now, the county website for everybody.
[00:13:55] Speaker A: Well, thank you both. I know you've got a lot of work to do. So thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me today. I know our listeners will appreciate the update. In this second segment, also recorded Thursday, reporter Tracy Neal gives us insight into what he is seeing on the ground in some of the hardest hit communities.
I'm sitting here with Tracy Neal, cops and courts reporter for the northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette, out of Benton county. You've been traveling around Benton county, talking with residents who are impacted by the storms and first responders, and I was wondering if you could just give us a glimpse into what you've been seeing on the ground out there.
[00:14:31] Speaker D: Well, I've been out in Decatur. The Decatur. I went out there yesterday, and some of it, you know, I will say what someone told me, it looks like a war zone.
Some houses that were there are no longer there. You know, I've seen flipped over vehicles and houses demolished.
[00:14:55] Speaker A: What is the overall mood of the people in the community that you've spoken with? They're trying to pick up the pieces. So how are they coping?
[00:15:03] Speaker D: Well, they're coping. I think some of the people I talked to are probably still in a little shock, still getting used to the idea or whatever, so. But of all the people I talked to, no one suffered a major injury or they didn't lose any lives, so they were blessed on that portion, only have to replace property. And unfortunately, someone probably lost something of sentimental mental value, of course, but they don't, they didn't lose a family member. For the mother who was huddled in a hallway or a closet with two signs, they walked away without any injuries.
[00:15:43] Speaker A: Yeah. And that's. That's fantastic.
You were in Rogers a little bit this morning. Probably gonna go back out there later. So how's that looking?
[00:15:53] Speaker D: I also spent portion of yesterday, Thurston Rogers, too, and I was out there this morning. And Rogers, from being in Rogers all the time, you're just kind of shocked at what you're seeing from just driving down, you know, just doing something so routine as driving down walnut. And when you actually see what it looks like in that area now, it's kind of just, it amazes you.
[00:16:19] Speaker A: Just so much destroyed.
[00:16:20] Speaker D: So much destroyed. And places that you were so familiar with are just.
[00:16:24] Speaker A: Aren't there, just gone. Yeah. That's one thing that all the photos seem to do a really good job of telling is just how much of it has been destroyed.
One thing that I think listeners might be a little interested in is how you ended up covering this story. When the storms hit, you were out of state over the weekend. You get called early on a Sunday and we're asked to start reaching out to people in Benton county from a state away. And just trying to figure out what you could speaks to how good you are at what you do, that you can actually do that from that distance. And I'm curious if you could give our listeners just kind of like an inside look as what it's like as a news reporter trying to do that from such a long distance.
[00:17:05] Speaker D: Well, you know, it wasn't that big a deal.
Most of it was done because following things online, you know, making a few phone calls here and there, but it really wasn't that hard. It wasn't a big obstacle. You know, I was awakened. Someone called me. I guess they were checking on me and wanted to know whether I was in Benville.
And I think the person who first said something like, Suzy Q is gone and there's gas leaks everywhere. So I was thinking maybe something exploded or whatever. And I never, and finally when I learned there was a tornado and I was just kind of just shocked at what I was seeing online and how the destruction or whatever.
[00:17:55] Speaker A: And that brings up a question that I'm horrible. Haven't even asked, like, how was your place in all this?
[00:18:01] Speaker D: Oh, I guess I'm one of the lucky ones. I don't think I even lost power.
[00:18:06] Speaker A: Oh, really?
[00:18:06] Speaker D: No.
[00:18:07] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:18:07] Speaker D: Well, that's, and there, there's branches everywhere, but. So that's, that's lucky and blessed.
[00:18:14] Speaker A: Well, thank you a bunch for coming in. I know you got a lot to do, so I won't take up any more of your time, but thank you very much. As Tracy has been traveling in the area, he's been speaking to area residents whose homes were damaged or destroyed here. He speaks with Lance pike. Indicator.
[00:18:30] Speaker D: What's your name?
[00:18:31] Speaker E: Lance pike.
[00:18:32] Speaker D: And what's your, what's the address here?
[00:18:34] Speaker E: 23261 car.
[00:18:37] Speaker D: Okay, and can you just, and you said you were home when the tornado hit?
[00:18:40] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:18:41] Speaker D: Can you just describe what happened?
[00:18:43] Speaker E: Well, the emergency alarm went off. I went to get it before I could get to the cell phone. It sucked our roof off and sucked me out of my bed.
Roof collapsed in on the wife.
We couldn't, couldn't hear anybody or hear each other because of tornado. It was so loud, we couldn't even hear each other. And once it gave us a minute, we'd gathered ourselves and crawled out from any damage, got outside and got into a vehicle.
From then on, it's just been chaos.
[00:19:15] Speaker D: Okay. And what all kind of dance to your house now? What kind of damage did you.
All the damages. You said you had a shop back, that it's gone now.
[00:19:24] Speaker E: Yeah, we had a 40 by 40 shop carport that's all gone. Got a fifth wheel trailer sitting right there upside down.
[00:19:38] Speaker D: Okay.
And I know, I know it's really soon, and you were talking about that you really hadn't started thinking about the future yet.
So you just take an hour by hour, day by day.
[00:19:54] Speaker E: All the community and churches and everybody's come by. They're helping feed us and stuff. We got the schools here now. Help us try to pick up some debris and stuff.
Good people, volunteers, church groups come by and help us. Giving us water and food really helped us out a lot.
[00:20:14] Speaker D: Okay. In the meantime, how you and your wife been able to stay?
[00:20:18] Speaker E: I'm staying with my daughter in Westville, Oakland.
[00:20:20] Speaker D: Okay. So you in Westville and you said you lived here eight years?
[00:20:26] Speaker E: I lived here 40.
[00:20:27] Speaker D: 40 years. Okay.
[00:20:29] Speaker E: This house and my mom and dad live up the road. We're a whole community down here. It's me, my brother got cousins, children, four different places out here, and they've all been pretty much destroyed.
[00:20:42] Speaker D: Yeah. You said other relative.
[00:20:43] Speaker E: Your other relative lost his trailer completely. And my nephew or my cousin lost his trailer completely.
Soul chaos is what it is.
[00:20:57] Speaker A: This next clip shows Justin Smith speaking outside his in laws property that was damaged in the storm on North Third street in Rogers.
[00:21:06] Speaker D: Give me your name and the experience you went through.
[00:21:09] Speaker F: Yeah, so I'm Justin Smith. We live out near Rocky branch. When it came in, it was just howling winds, hail, lots of thunder, lots of lightning. I had four young sons, so we got them all downstairs and huddled up and just hunkered down and listened to it come through. The whole house is shaking, creaking, moaning, you know, thought the roof was going to collapse on us, basically. But all in all, it was not a fun experience.
You know, lots of devastation around here.
[00:21:40] Speaker D: So. So I know your front of your in laws place now. So is it homes out in Rocky branch like area or something like this.
[00:21:48] Speaker F: Too, or there, there are some like this, but it's mostly just property damage. Power lines completely destroyed, trees down across the roads, hundreds of trees down as.
[00:21:57] Speaker G: Far as you can see.
[00:21:58] Speaker F: Basically, it looks like, it looks like a war zone for the most part.
[00:22:02] Speaker D: And you were saying that you, in order to get out of your neighborhood, you had the neighbors and everyone came out and had to cut.
[00:22:08] Speaker F: It took an entire day to clear the road and cut things down so you could just make a trail to pass through, basically.
[00:22:15] Speaker D: And no one of your family was injured? Anything?
[00:22:16] Speaker F: We were not injured, thankfully. It could have been so much worse.
[00:22:20] Speaker A: In this next segment, I speak today, Friday, May 31, with Benton County Judge Barry mooring about the damage in the county and what comes next. I'm speaking with Benton County Judge Barry Mooring. Thank you for joining us. I know you're very busy. Got a lot to do.
Judge Mooring, all the photos and videos coming from your county show communities that were devastated. There's just so much damage in so many places. So, you know, at this point, almost, almost a week out, how are the cleanup efforts going in the county?
[00:22:53] Speaker G: Yeah, I would say we are slowly starting to get back on our feet. Some of those efforts are proceeding quicker than in other areas.
I would say more of the city and urban areas where there are more resources readily available are getting up and running quicker. But they also have a different kind of devastation. If you've been on walnut, for example, over in Rogers, in the more rural parts of the county, some of those have been harder to get to. The Cuhn Hollow area, the Decatur area, there's massive devastation out there. And we're positioning road resources and other resources out there to help just open up roads.
And we're working with FEMA to get resources like water and porta potties and showers and things to places like that. So it varies where there are more resources, it has come back faster. And then we will uncover other pockets of the county where frankly, even communications have been difficult because of either down power poles or no cell phone service. And we're getting to those one at a time. I know people are hurting, and I hope they'll just be patient as we, as we get to them as quickly as we can.
[00:24:05] Speaker A: So what are you hearing when you get out in the community from residents, business owners, first responders, all those types of people are out there trying to pick up the pieces.
What are you hearing from them? What's the mood in the county?
[00:24:22] Speaker G: That's a great question.
You know, I think that folks are somber.
I think they're staring at a new reality.
I think they're looking for hope and optimism where they can find it, and they are finding it. There's a lot of help that's now being deployed around the county, the vast majority of it not coming from government.
We have this invisible safety net in the county that becomes across Benton county, in our cities, not just in the county, but that invisible safety net becomes very visible in times like this. And you hear these stories of a church just going to a street and going and starting, or, you know, the sheepdog organization just hitting an area and going, or, you know, one of our companies providing meals. Those things are happening. And so there are reasons for hope, but I don't want to fool anybody. This is going to be a tough slog here for a while. It is going to take a long time to completely recover from this, and some folks aren't going to recover for a long time.
We need to keep those people in our minds. We're working on efforts to get relief to them, both FEMA and public sector efforts as well as private sector efforts.
But that's also why they call this a disaster. This is not what we do every day. This has thrown us all off the rails here for a little bit, but we're working rapidly to get back on.
[00:25:51] Speaker A: One thing that came up yesterday. I know we reported it in today, Friday's edition of the paper was that this has taken more housing options off of an already tight market with all the damage and some just destroyed homes. Can you speak to that a little bit and what you'd like to see done or what you're trying to do at your own level, what you'd like to see done at other levels of government to try and help alleviate that added strain?
[00:26:23] Speaker G: I would say that issue and the debris removal issue are going to be the largest lingering issues.
And on the housing front, I've been on several tours with our federal delegation, and they've been particularly helpful as well as with FEMA and Adam. And this issue keeps coming up. And so right now, today, there is no easy answer. I don't want to fool people that there's presto, some easy answer, but it is definitely going to be one of the items that we talk about with FEMA.
This won't be an issue that they haven't seen before. And, you know, if you go back to Hurricane Katrina, they provided, you know, temporary housing trailers, and there was some controversy about all those. I don't know if they've ironed that out or what, but we are going to need some help in that housing space. And just, if you think about the contractor community here, the builder community, it's not like they were sitting around before this disaster started. They were extremely busy getting work done. And so this is a problem that's going to compound itself. I'm going to continue to raise it with FEMA and our partners I know that there's a variety of private sector organizations that have this on their radar, and we're going to have to think it through. I don't have an easy answer now, but there's complexity to that. I mean, think about, for example, one of the issues that came up is as houses get rebuilt in the current framework, they all have to be inspected and approved for occupancy. Well, can you imagine the building inspecting crews in Bentonville or Rogers or even ours at the county, how overwhelmed we're going to be with that? We're going to have to figure out how do we make sure that our bureaucracy is not standing in the way of people getting back into their houses as well. There's just a lot of complications that we have to think through there, and we're still a few days into it, but it's rapidly rising to the top of the list.
[00:28:15] Speaker A: Does that seem like something where added staff, even on a temporary basis, may be required to help get those inspections through when the time comes?
[00:28:24] Speaker G: It might be because, so I'm thinking about it from kind of a macro level and we've had kind of some brief discussions. You know, we will.
The best thing is to put people back into their homes, right?
The best thing is not to put people in a temporary home. If they have a home that they can go back to. The best thing is to get that home fixed and get them back in it. But that home has to be fixed safely and it's got to be the code. And I'm getting into kind of bureaucratic stuff here, but that is the code. We can't be a reason why that's not happening rapidly. And so that will be an issue that we'll raise. It's funny, I'm not a disaster expert by any stretch. I've been through a couple of things like this, nothing on this magnitude. And there's kind of an evolution of how these things go. There's the initial hit.
There's the fear, the scare, the coming out of your basement, the wondering what your house looks like, the coming out in your neighborhood. For me, heading downtown in the emergency operations center, and it's all about, you know, twelve calls coming in and first responders and ambulances and road department all being dispatched. It's about life, safety, life saving. That's all you're focused on, you know, for the first 24 to 48 hours.
And then it evolves into, holy cow, I mean, do we have people trapped? Can we cut roads open? You know, it's kind of a bit of a rescue relief. And now we're evolving into this recovery, and the recovery is going to take a long time. A long time. I've heard that the little rock folks are still getting debris removed from their tornado. That was last year, a year ago. And so we're moving into this recovery phase, and that's where housing is going to be a huge issue.
[00:30:15] Speaker A: I can tell you from having a job where I have to read the news every day that we definitely still see stories on a regular basis coming out of our sister paper in Little Rock about the damage and when about the damage there in Little Rock and North Little Rock from the previous tornadoes they had. So I have to imagine the same will be true here.
Is there anything that you want people to know as the recovery process continues, as far as things that they can do to help or things that they should avoid doing because maybe they think it's going to be helpful, but in the end it might be harmful.
[00:30:53] Speaker G: Yeah. So first of all, there's some real simple things to do. One is go to our website and we've got a dedicated website for disaster relief out there where we will update with all sorts of things ranging from where have debris collection sites opened up to registering your personal damage on our personal damage assessment location to what county offices are open and closed.
So we've got a site like that, I believe the cities do now. And so there's a lot of resources now being information, I should say, being pushed out. I would encourage people to go do that.
I would also say from a county perspective, we do have a personal damage, personal damage reporter. Now it's called the Benton county citizen damage reporter. This is software that we have that will feed directly into FEMA when they start to do personal damage assessments. So with a presidential declaration, the idea is that FEMA will set up a disaster recovery center and that's where people will go or they will go online to in order to get FEMA assistance with their personal damage. You can help short circuit that by doing the Benton county citizen damage reporter we will turn that entire database over to FEMA. And I think as of this morning, I think we're nearing 3000 people that have already done that. That's a real simple stuff you got. And this is for structural damage. If you have a fence down or tree down, not what this is for. If you have a tree through your house, that's what this is for. So you should absolutely check our website. Go do the personal damage reporter then if you have debris that you want to dispose of in the county and the cities have these sites, too. There's nothing stopping you from gathering up the debris that you can vegetative organic debris and taking it to one of our debris sites. We have three sites now up and running at the county for folks to take their vegetative debris for free. You have to be a private citizen, not a contractor, and has to be vegetative seven to seven Monday through Saturday. And those sites are out on that website. One is the fairgrounds, Benton county fairgrounds and others, our Decatur Road yard, and another is up on Highway 62.
Those are some things you can do kind of in the fast action sense. I'll tell you from what we're now going to do, we're beginning our bidding and contracting process for debris removal, and that's going to become housing's one huge issue. But debris removal is going to be the other big one. And what that means is we in the county, and I know the cities are working on this as well, but we will start to contract with a company or companies who will go through our neighborhoods and go down our county roads and pick up the vegetative debris that's on the roadside in the right of way.
That's going to be a massive, massive exercise. We're hoping to have two, hopefully three runs through the county on this and it will be months to get that done. I think in Little Rock they did three runs and they had three weeks between each run.
Stay tuned for news coming on that because a lot of people, even in my name now, my neighborhoods in Bentonville, Piles and piles of debris that I think people are wondering, what am I going to do with this?
The help is coming there. It's not fast, but help is coming there.
So stay tuned for news on that. And then the other kind of debris that people are struggling is what do I do with that broken couch, that sheetrock, that two by four?
We're looking to have an answer that also would be a curbside pickup for that. We hope to have news on that coming out next week as well. What you have to do, though, is you have to keep those piles segregated.
We can't pick it up. If the furniture is mixed with the organic, we can't pick that up.
Keep those separated and then also keep your household hazardous waste separated, your paints because those are going to have to be taken to a household hazardous waste center. And so more news to come on that as well. But the debris piece is going to be huge.
[00:34:48] Speaker A: Well, I know you've got a lot to do. We talked a little bit before this got started about how busy you are, so I'm not going to take any more of your time. I appreciate the update. Appreciate you joining us. Thanks a lot.
[00:35:01] Speaker G: Thank you. Hey, I appreciate you guys getting word out. It is incredibly helpful that the media is all over this, too. Thank you very much.
[00:35:07] Speaker A: Thank you. We're going to take a quick break and then come right back. Stay with us.
[00:35:12] Speaker H: If you're enjoying this podcast, consider a newspaper subscription to the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette or the River Valley Democrat Gazette. We have a special offer for our podcast listeners, so visit nwA online.com nwapodcast to get started. You can also click the subscribe button on our websites, nWA online.com and rivervalleydemocratgazette.com, or call us at 479-684-5509 and be sure to say that youre a podcast listener. Now back to the show.
[00:35:43] Speaker A: In other news coming soon, Tracy Neal and Lydia Fletcher tell us the stories of people affected by last weekends storms and how theyre picking up the pieces in its aftermath. Stacy Ryburn gives us an update on the Fayetteville Housing Authority, which is currently searching for a new director. Campbell Roper provides insight into the direct care model for payment of medical services and how it differs from the traditional insurance based payment model. Thomas Siscente gives us the latest on an ordinance before the Benton County Quorum Court calling for special fire dues elections for the Hickory Creek and Pleasant Heights fire departments. Sadie Lacicero looks at Pride month in the river Valley in what's Up, Becca Martin Brown previews the play last of the Red Hot Lovers, which is on stage at Ozark Mountain Smokehouse in Fayetteville from June 6 through 8.
April Wallace writes about dark Waters, an exhibition on display at the momentary in Bentonville through October 13, and Monica Hooper interviews country music star Derrick Spentley, who'll perform June 8 at the Walmart amp in Rogers. In profiles, April Wallace tells us about the creative life of Nancy Couch. All of this and more will be available to our subscribers on our tablet and smartphone apps and at our website, nWA online.com and rivervalleydemocrategazette.com dot. I really appreciate you listening up until this point and for your support of local journalism. Know the news is a weekly podcast brought to you by the newsrooms of the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette and the River Valley Democrat Gazette. Again, I'm Chris Swindle, your host for this weekend. Until next Friday, so long.
