Often wondered if it was a type of survival humor on the part of the school system to use that name. Today, very little remains of the 40-year-old disaster, and Jonesboro quickly rebuilt. The search and rescue efforts were completed by Sunday morning, and responders are moving into the cleanup and recovery phases, Craighead County Judge Marvin Day said. KATV Tornado touches down in Jonesboro, Arkansas. (KAIT) - A week after an EF-3 tornado hammered the city of Jonesboro, city officials announced Saturday, April 5, that a curfew in effect for the city has been lifted. The bad news is that almost 300 citizens were seriously injured, many homes were completely gone, if not wrecked beyond repair, and city officials later calculated the tornado had inflicted more than $60 million damage on their town. A tornado ripped through Jonesboro, Arkansas on Saturday afternoon. The storm moved across Jonesboro around 5 p.m. local time, according to a video posted by the National Weather Service in Little Rock. Copyright © 2020 Memphis Magazine. You can imagine the horror as the family pulled itself from the rubble and began a frantic search for their child. My husband had to stop his car and walk in knee water to reach us at home with electric wires popping in the water that had been blown down from the storm. Tornado caught on camera tearing through Jonesboro, Officials: Pregnant woman among 5 killed in 'mass murder', Dr. Birx: Trump presented graphs that I never made, Biden's HHS secretary pick: If we do this, we will get the pandemic under control, Rioter charged with threatening to 'assassinate' Ocasio-Cortez, officer, 'What research did you do? The tornado developed quickly in Arkansas and looks to have caused considerable damage At the local airport, at least one airplane was overturned, and hangars were damaged. Although we're technically on the outskirts of the boundaries of the nation's tornado alley, we're still on the map for other 'nader records. The approaching winds had knocked out power to many areas anyway. "We've already asked you to stay at home for this virus but we're really stressing to stay at home," Elliott said. At least six people were injured after a tornado ripped through downtown Jonesboro, Arkansas on Saturday, ripping entire walls off buildings, flattening homes, and leaving cars overturned. Storm damage in Jonesboro, Arkansas, on Saturday. His dramatic life story is so well-known that schoolchildren are taught to recite it for extra credit. Vance Lauderdale is the history columnist for Memphis magazine and Inside Memphis Business. @NWSMemphis continues to … The damaged remains of a vehicle lie in a parking lot outside a damaged Ashley HomeStore after the tornado Saturday in Jonesboro. The 2 junior high mascots are the Whirlwinds & Cyclones! I was a 25 yr old sergeant on the Jonesboro PD and was on duty the night the tornado hit. JONESBORO, Ark. Arkansas wasn't as damaged as some of the other states but the impact was still devastating. There were miracles among the tragedies. Don Blanchard We ended up going back to sleep and the next morning when we started to head out of town we drove around a bit and I think it was over by the University that I saw the strangest site. The Jonesboro Municipal Airport and a Busch Agricultural Resources rice mill also suffered heavy damage when the tornado struck about 5 p.m. Day said. Within a few minutes, the damage was done, with the powerful winds erasing entire neighborhoods. Joyce Glenn @NWSMemphis continues to … For more on the Jonesboro tornado, read this from Saturday. Jonesboro last saw tornadoes in 1968 and 1973, Rick Elliott, Jonesboro’s Chief of Police said. In Jonesboro, Arkansas, a violent tornado did damage in the town with six reported injuries. And even though meteorologists had been following the storm on radar, their systems were fairly crude compared to the storm-tracking equipment available today, with the result being that by the time anyone realized what was happening, it was too late. My mom, her husband, my sister and I were traveling thru from Missouri on our way to Alabama and we stopped to spend the night at a hotel that was very close to a Walmart there in Jonesboro. Southern, Midwestern, and Northeastern U.S. were all affected from the 362 tornadoes that touched down. Within a few minutes, the damage was done, with the powerful winds erasing entire neighborhoods. ‘Like a bomb struck’. … When he investigated, he found the smashed remains of a baby crib lying on the banks — with the little boy still sleeping inside it, unharmed except for a tiny cut on his hand. It could have been much worse, of course. Hurricane was the name of our athletic teams. 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