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By JERRY DEAN
Arkansas Democrat
This tornado - stricken city never will be quite the same since the Good Friday twister swept through a residential area March 28, leaving nine dead, 62 injured and 128 homes destroyed.
But Warren residents - hardy, resolute, and sometimes tearful - worked valiantly Saturday to return their community as nearly as possible to whatever was normal before the storm struck.
Warren Mayor John B. Frazer was everywhere Saturday, closely watching demolition of irreparable houses, conferring with police and workmen, talking with officials of Warren's major employer (Potlatch Corporation) and with residents of the city.
"The first problem", Frazer said, "was just getting through the streets - removing the debris and hazards. We still have 85 trees with dangerous branched and tin hanging above sidewalks and streets."
"But we've turned the corner on this thing now," Frazer said, "thanks to a lot of hard work on everyone's part."
Also supervising the clearing was R.V. Warner, vice-president of Potlatch's Southern Division.
He talked about reopening the Potlatch plant as soon as possible. The plant employs about 900 persons in the Warren area.
"Our goal for the sawmill part is three weeks," Warner said. "We will be 12 to 14 weeks even starting on the manufacturing end of it. That will take most of the year."
But Warner said the Potlatch employees would be given as much work as possible in the cleanup and rebuilding of the plant.
"Some of it is highly dangerous work," Warner said, "so they can't do all of it. But as much as we can, we'll use our own people."
One Potlatch employee the storm displaced is Preston Burks, formerly a resident of hard - hit Wheeler Street. He was able to save only a bed, a refrigerator, a platform rocker and a few clothes from his house that is no more.
Oh, yes And the Burks family Bible which lay Saturday in a bush, its pages drying in a warm April sun.
Frazer, clad in a lumber jacket's plaid shirt, blue jeans and boots, looked exactly like any other of the hundreds of workmen busy at their individual tasks.
But his responsibilities were awesome.
Police Chief Tommy Dunnaway, who also seemed to be everywhere at once, had nothing but praise for Frazer.
"The mayor's proved himself a tremendous leader, a take - charge kind of fellow," Dunnaway said, "He's tired; he's been putting in 14 - hour days ever since this thing bursted."
Dunnaway said the police barricades of the stricken area and a curfew had halted the three instances of looting that had occurred shortly after the storm.
The police chief said his 10-man force had been kept busy, especially since the Warren police operated the ambulance service as well.
Dunnaway said law enforcement officers from Jefferson and Drew counties, from Fordyce, Camden and El Dorado all had helped the Warren force, and had made his job easier.
Dunnaway said that the Warren High School ROTC had been doing a good job keeping unnecessary traffic out of the disaster area.
"We got it on the downhill drag now," Dunnaway said of the disaster problem. "You just had to be here last week this time to know how far we've come."
Dunnaway commended all the disaster relief agencies that had assisted and specifically mentioned work crews from Cummins Prison Farm and persons from the Mennonite Church who had assisted in the cleanup work.
For some Warren residents, things never will be the same.
One such family is that of prominent lawyer Clint Huey.
The Hueys, four of their 6 children and Huey's birddog, Huckleberry, sat solemnly by and watched as bulldozers pulled steel cables attached to what had been their home since 1960.
The imposing, aluminum-siding, two-story house had stood since about 1900, and the Hueys had spent "a fortune" making it a dream home - five bedrooms, music room, 41/2 baths, spacious.
But two hours after the bulldozers began, there was little left but rubble.
The loss was eased considerably by the presence of long-time friends of the Hueys who came from Little Rock to help salvage what they could.
W.H. "Sonny" Dillahunty, the U. S. attorney at Little Rock, Harold Duke of Little Rock, Secret Service agent in charge, and Asst. U.S. Attorneys, Robert Fussell, Walter Riddick, John Forster, O. H. "Bud" Storey, Gene O'Daniel and Richard Pence and others helped clear the house of valuables before the razing began.
Huey was asked what his family would do now.
"They say it would have taken $90,000 to repair," Huey said. "I think we'll build a low-level, sprawling ranchstyle house right there," he said, indicating a sloping portion of his spacious lot.
Then, as an afterthought, Huey added: "With a sunken recreation room and a storm cellar."
Mrs. Huey watched bravely but tearfully as the bulldozers did their work. The house, empty, withstood the assaults defiantly for some time, before finally giving way.
At one point, a window sash seemed to raise itself, as though someone had just opened it to see about the commotion.
Despite the loss, Huey considered his family lucky. The upstairs bedrooms were unroofed, and it was unlikely anyone on the second floor could have survived.
Huey's neighbors were hard - hit, too. A brick wall collapsed on the luxury car of his neighbor nearby and the wind unroofed that house. The house next to it was a mass of rubble.
"They told us to put all the stuff we didn't want out in the street because the convict labor wasn't allowed on private property," Huey said. "My neighbor there just hired a D-6 (bulldozer) and pushed his whole house into the middle of the street."
Huey said that one morning he counted 18 dumptrucks from five different counties lined up in front of his house.
The Hueys at least understand - as well as anyone could - why their house is gone.
But Huey's birddog, Huckleberry, wandered questioningly among the army of strangers who were destroying his house. Huey had Huckleberry's dog house in the back of his pickup truck, and eventually the dog sought some comfort there.
While crews were working Huey's street, Jaycee and Citizen's Band Club volunteers were getting directions from Warren Jaycee President Kip Kelley who was working with CB dispatcher James Bruce of Arkadelphia.
The two men were directing chain-saw crews from a county fairgrounds loading dock where Bradley County pick tomatoes will be sold in a few weeks.
Kelley had been working as hard as anyone on the cleanup, but Saturday his foot was in a cast and crutches leaned against his chair.
Kelley ordinarily is director of the Jay-Kay Children's Center for mentally-retarded children. His "kids" were participating in the Special Olympics today, but he thought this once, his work at Warren was more important.
Kelley broke his foot when he tripped over some furniture during cleanup operations last week.
"This is the first time in three years I haven't gone with the kids to the Olympics," Kelley said. "It was a hard decision whether to go or to stay here and do this. But all I could do there was sit and cheer. I think I'm being more useful here."
Kelley and Bruce were in constant communication with about 30 Jaycees and citizen-band crewmen, mostly working along Shop Street, near the Potlatch plant.
The workers responded to names like "Sunset", "Quartermaster", "Dirt Hauler", "Little Pine," "Lame Duck" and "Whiskers."
"Little Pine" was James Melugin of Arkadelphia, who had come to Warren with a truck, a radio, a chain saw, and a willingness to work hard.
"Whiskers" was Ed Ray who had come from Malvern, similarly equipped.
Jaycees from Bearden, Pine Bluff, Crossett, Hermitage, Fordyce and other communities had joined the others in an overnight camp-out at the fairgrounds.
"We had 30 or 40 Jaycees last night," Kelley said, recalling the near-freezing temperatures. "I think we should have between 50 and 100 more tonight."
The CB radio kept crackling:
"The dump trucks are getting way ahead of us, Lame Duck."
"What's your location, Little Pine?"
"The Salvation Army van is bringing you some food. Stay there."
"We need some help here, but only temporarily."
Mayor Frazer, driving through a devastated low-income neighborhood, was monitoring police calls on the radio in his car.
A call came over Frazer's radio, asking him whether to level some half-destroyed houses.
"We can't bulldoze until we get releases," Frazer replied. "Most houses on Glover Street are rented or owned by people out of town. The only clearance I got was on Shop Street."
"Is there another place we can take this heavy equipment?" the radio voice asked.
"Try 504 Martin," Frazer said as he passed that address. "Leave the house alone. Get everything around the house. Cut and haul."
A barrage of radio calls followed, each with its own unique problem for Frazer to handle. He answered each and then relaxed.
"I'm glad I've got just one frequency," he grinned.
A station wagon with Federal Housing and Urban Development Department workers flagged down the mayor's car.
"We're looking for two people in this neighborhood," said HUD disaster team chief Jack D. Cohen.
Frazer made a quick call.
"One man's house blew away, and he's drunk now," he replied. "The other man lived with him. The house is gone."
Frazer drove on, slowing to point out two church buildings, side by side.
"That's St. James," Frazer said. "That's the new church they were building behind the old one...what's left of it."
Across town, Mrs. Huey watched through a pair of sunglasses that had one lens missing, as the Huey home toppled. She wept briefly, then regained her composure. Like other Warren residents, willing to accept the past tragedy and face the future.
*taken from The Eagle Democrat, Wednesday, April 9, 1975, pgs. 1 & 5
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