By: Carl Manning, American Red Cross

The tornado tore through the Rogers, Arkansas neighborhood creating damage and destruction that left residents starring in disbelief at what they saw.

Power lines were down, and homes were without electricity, scores of trees were uprooted and broken, and the streets were littered with broken limbs and other debris including pieces of homes.  

Asmond Ralpho huddled in a closet with his wife, Sulynn, three children, two of their friends and his mother. Inside, they felt the house shake and shudder while outside were the sounds of crashing trees and debris hitting the sides of the house.

After the storm passed, Asmond made sure his family was unharmed and then went outside to check on his neighbors, pounding on the doors and calling their names.

He recalled at one house, the owner heard him pounding on the door and got scared because he thought the storm was still doing its damage.

“I wanted to make sure that everybody was OK,” he said. “It’s what you do.”

Sulynn said she was scared, but she did her best not to show her fears to keep the children from becoming frightened.

“We are very blessed that we’re OK and not in the hospital or worse. God has a plan for us to make life better for us, I really believe,” she said.

A week after the storm, the neighborhood was in the process of recovery.

Fallen trees were sawed and stacked along the roadside along with piles of branches to be picked up. Utility crews were stringing new power lines and cleanup crews with trucks and front-end loaders were busy picking up assorted debris as homeowners worked to return their neighborhood to what it once was.

Asmond and Sulynn said they are going though the process with dealing with insurance companies and planning repairs on their home.

“Our lives could have been much worse and I feel very fortunate,” Asmond said, while his wife stood next to him nodding in agreement.