Someones memory!!

Sam has been volunteering with a local church. This church is across from the library and across from the park. Sam was tearing down a storage unit that was destroyed in the parking lot of that church when he located a picture.

This picture came from someones home and is a memory for them. If you have seen these people, if you know them, or know someone who might know them send me an email. As you can see it is a man with two women and the date is Aug 21st, 1977. I have downloaded this to Channel 4 news in LR in hopes someone might see it! There are allot of people who still don't have cable or dish so that will not get to all of them. As soon as they will let me out I am going to start walking through the devastation area and see if I can find them. Then if that don't work to the Mena Star I go!!

Tornado? What tornado?

Well that is the new thing around here. Aleeyah seems to be having ALOT of problems from the recent tornado. She has even gone as far to say

"Mommie, our house was supposed to blow away! You know like everyone else!"

WHAT?!?!? I don't understand why she thinks that. I can't drive around the devastation, but I can go through the areas that are not hit the hardest. Peach orchard to 375 West and that way don't look so bad. She really thinks that our house should not have been spared! I just don't know what to do. Sam says that it is just a 4 year old being scared but I am really concerned! She has heard and seen so much in the last week that she is associating tornado=death. Totally heartbreaking to me.

So the new "rule" around the house and around Aleeyah is to not mention the tornado. Act "as normal" as we can around her and speak of things when she is not in the room or asleep. Not lie to her if she asks but just don't mention it. That is the only thing I can think of right now. It is horrible, she won't let go of my pants pocket when I walk. A little girl came into mom's and ran in and told Telissa about the tornado. Aleeyah came screaming and crying. She misunderstood and thought that a tornado was coming. What scares me the most is that Sam has to go back to nights tomorrow night and how is she going to react to him being gone? What is she going to do with him not here to tell her every night that it is ok? We are building a safe room in the garage, starting on it SOON. I contacted a man about putting a shelter in, but Aleeyah REFUSED to

crawl into a hole in the ground. Looks like we will be standing up in a safe room instead. As long as we have something, next time we might not be so blessed. Continue to pray for all those who have been effected, even in the littlest ways!!

Terrified!!

I am not sure how to get the girls through this "terrifying" time. The minute it turns dark Aleeyah starts hanging on to me and literally won't let go. So I am spending all my night time hours trying to convince her that things are ok!! The NOAA weather radio went off last night (who knows why) and Aleeyah and Averrie was eating. I was standing at the end of the kitchen bar when they both came FLYING out of the bar chairs screaming!! It took me two hours to calm them down. This tornado has taken homes, lives, cars and my children's innocence. A child should have no cares in the world. They should be able to trust that things are ok. Averrie wants to know when the "dark" is coming back.

Aleeyah is just plain terrified!! She cries if she hears thunder, a train, the NOAA radio goes off, anything. I am not sure what to do with her!! I know that some have told me not to take her through the hit area. Well, I live in the hit area. To get to walmart I have to drive through it. To get home I have to go back through it. It is everywhere around me. There are no back streets for me!!! I mean think about this......I go to town, I have to take 8 west to Sampson...ok then I can't take main cause of damage..so I have to go over the mountain to Eagleton and back through 71. OHHHH but Gilcrest got hit, so there is damage!! So instead I take 8 w and go to peach orchard and take 375 back into Reine by the radio station. Yea, have you seen 375? DAMAGE!!!! It is every where!!!

I just don't know what to do with Aleeyah. Averrie is not having such a hard time with it, but Aleeyah is not doing good. I have just been leaving them home, or staying home while Sam gets what I need. I can't do that forever. Sam is volunteering and helping people with their homes, and goes to work at 1:00 pm. So that leaves me to take and get what I need. The girls are having to go with me. I am just lost at what to do. Maybe something will come soon!!

Let there be light!!

A United States flag hanging high in a tree. Where did it come from? Who really knows!!

I have electricity!!!!!!!!!! Finally after 2 1/2 days I have lights. I have heat, a stove and can wash clothes. I just am heartbroke that so many more families tonight don't have that luxury! They are in shelters without a home. Little children have lost their sense of security and comfort. I set and look at my two daughters laying in bed and it cuts me to the bone. To think that 400 more yards and there I would have been to. Pray for the families you guys. The ones in Arkansas and the ones in Tennessee. That young mother and newborn daughter gone in the blink of an eye. The weather forecast is calling for more storms tomorrow. I don't know where people will go. They have NO where to go! I set here tonight and for the first time I hear a train going through Mena. Showing that there is life coming back in this ravished town. I don't remember the tornado of "93" that much..but this one will be forever etched in my mind. The good, the bad, and the ugly. The hurt, the pain and the tears that I have shed for so many. So tonight I go to lay my head down in my bed and I pray for all those who are without a bed tonight. I ask the heavenly father to lift them up. For he is a mighty GOD, and a just GOD, and a loving GOD!!!!

Toto...we are not in "Mena" anymore!!

A truck next door to Brenda and Gary Moore's
Twin Oak Apartments, see the car on the sidewalk

Off of Hensley street on west boundary

On the corner of Averritt and West boundary less than 1/2 mile from the house

R&D industry

This is the honest truth about it all. Everything that we knew is gone. I went to see Brenda and Gary Moore today, and I had to walk there. AMAZING!! I could not believe it, I did not even know what street I was on. There were people setting and just holding their heads in their hands. Such a sense of loss and confusion. Then there were so many people laughing and hugging, and telling each other that we WILL RISE out of this. We will come back from this. Today is the first day that I have been able to get to west boundary. I live just a stones throw from west boundary. When we seen that twister on the ground it was hitting the field in front of me, and west boundary. I cried the whole time that I drove down that road today. God had his hand on my house, I now know that!! He did not see it time to take my home. I was to close to the destruction to be saved, YET I WAS!!! Thank you precious Lord for that!! They are now telling me that my electricity won't be on for another a few days. Up to five is the word. That is ok, we received information that Sam will have a job. He will work 1:30 to 7:30 at night. Thank goodness....... I wanted to share some more photos with you from around town. No one knows what I mean by the statement that we are not in "mena" anymore until you have seen it. I know that Holly, Kristy, Shauna and Kim know what I am talking about. To be in a place and not even know where you are!!! AMAZING!!

Another dark night.

Well it is another dark here in the Frost household. We have one phone line, and I have taken it over for this blog. Thankfully the laptop that Sam bought me is coming in handy. I have to stop every so often to charge the battery by the generator. We had to break down and get a generator today at Atwoods. Thankfully, they was open. We are use to a fan at night, the sound keeps us asleep. Last night we had no electricity, so that meant no fan. We were up all night with Aleeyah crying wondering if it was going to hit us again. Today, Averrie just keeps asking if the "dark" is coming back. I am having to reassure my children that life is safe. How do you do that when we have to drive through such devestation each time you go to town? Today, as we drove through the damage area, I was so happy to see Aleeyah and averrie asleep. I don't want them to see this stuff. To think that every storm is going to do this to the town. Sam got called to work tonight, to try to take care of some of the motors. They are trying to keep them dry, and tarp them. We all need to pray that they want to rebuild the motors plant. I just keep looking around and crying. I wonder what all these people will do. How will they rebuild? Did they have insurance? I have offered what i can and pray that I can help the best that my means will let me. You know, I don't really remember the tornado of "93" but they say this one was worse. I have never seen anything like this. To drive down a street that you have been living in and driving down that street all your life. Yet you don't know where your at!! To see people standing on the side of the road crying and trying to dig through their belongings tears my heart out. That could have been me and my family. Those first couple of hours when I could get no one that I knew on the phones, the feeling that my life was about to change. You know, tragedy's will bring out the best or worse in people. You know that Arkansans stick together through thick and thin, and they are proving to do the same this time. One thing, to you all in mena, we are to "love thy neighbor as thy self" please if you can find a way to help out please do!!

Devestation!!!

US Motors


Mena Hospital

US Motors

House on 375 West

US Motors