Education in funnel clouds : Bentonville schools faced the brunt of Saturday storms
Posted on Monday, May 12, 2008
BENTONVILLE - The flag changed direction.
One moment, it was waving toward the south, southeast, maybe east. Then, it snapped the other direction.
That was Chanci Osborne's first indication that the weather was not getting better right away.
Squish, squish, squish. Every footstep through the east wing of Pinecrest Private School, where Osborne serves as assistant director, was saturated with evidence that the storm had taken its toll on the building. It was about 7: 30 on a still blustery Saturday night. The winds were still swift, but the danger of tornadoes had lessened. Osborne's squishing steps led her down the west wing of the school, back to the window she was looking through when she saw the flag perform its about face.
Osborne stepped out of the school. The wind fought to shut the door. She pointed to the flag, and then to the sky.
"I saw brown clouds start swirling," she said.
Her hand traced the clouds'path, a counter-clockwise circle that wrapped around the spot where Osborne was recounting her story.
Three adults and six children were at the school when the clouds began to circle, Osborne said. They had come because one of the classrooms, the only one without windows, served as a storm shelter. They had sought refuge in that building only once before - there were no funnel clouds that time, no damage from the storm.
This time was different. Osborne told of her dash to the classroom shelter and hiding the children under the nap mats in case of falling debris. She said their ears popped when the suction started.
Gusts buffeted the side of the school, where playground equipment had been strewn randomly by the wind. Osborne said she was not worried.
"I'm from Texas," she said. "Tornado Alley."
A parking lot away from the doorway where Osborne recounted her story, Central Park Elementary School officials where venturing through their building.
Glass crunched, crunched, crunched under the weight of timid footsteps as those traveling through the main entrance glanced over their shoulders to see the empty panes and ensure no more was going to fall. One large section of frame had become loose and was blowing in the wind, prompting many to wonder when it too would fall.
Central Park principal Galen Havner said a crew would be out Sunday to clean up and make repairs. As he waited for more glass to fall, he made jokes.
"It will be more than our deductible," he said. "I think so. "He laughed as he admitted he didn't know what the school's deductible was.
No one was at the school at the time, as far as he knew. And there was little damage aside from a handful of windows in the main entrance. There appeared to be some damage to one door, he said, and there was some buckling of the siding on the school's exterior. There was no structural damage... and no reason to give his students an unscheduled day off.
"We'll have school," he said.
Pinecrest was not so lucky. The western point of the roof had been damaged. The east wing was soaked. School officials will be keeping the doors closed at least one day for repairs.
A broken section of wall bordering the St. Valery Downs subdivision showed the path of the funnel cloud. About 50 feet of the concrete wall, reinforced with concrete underground, had simply been pushed backward, away from the street.
Shaun Turner, chairman of the subdivision's property committee, said the wall represented the bulk of the damage. There was some property damage, but nothing major.
The clouds dissipated almost as quickly as they had formed, Osborne said.
"Once it was gone, our ears came back and the pressure was gone," she said. "It wasn't near as scary as I always heard."
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