You know bad weather is coming.
The meteorologists in Little Rock have been talking about it for days. Your anxiety just gets worse with each social media post from a weather expert. Forget TV. Many folks in rural Arkansas can't get local Little Rock stations. That's because they either have a satellite for cable, Roku or a TV antenna that might pick up Shreveport, Louisiana, instead of Little Rock.
The potential for torrential rain, tornadoes, straight line winds, hail and lightning is eminent.
Many times, all you can do is pray. That's because rural Arkansas – and the state in general – has a long way to go in preparing for the worse in bad weather.
In cities, sirens go off when a tornado warning is issued. If you live in a rural part of a county, no sirens exist. You will not know you are in a warning unless a warning comes across the TV – again if you can get a local station – a weather radio if you have one or your cell phone. Cell phone warnings are hit and miss in rural Arkansas. You may get one. You may not.
Telling folks "Check media" is a joke. Many homes don't have high speed internet. They have satellite dishes for internet that go out when heavy rain falls. Fiber optic? Forget about it.
Cell service is iffy in South Arkansas. Some people still have landlines and can sign up for a warning call.
Many people just have a cell phone. They also have cell phone boosters at their houses in order to get a signal. The boosters are powered by electricity. The electricity goes out so do the boosters. You're in the dark and out of the know. Obviously, you can't go outside because it's storming. Chances are you may not have a signal in your yard. That's true even on a sunny day. Pine trees in South Arkansas block signals. Cell towers can be a rarity.
If you are lucky enough to get a warning, you go to the inner room of your house, the basement or storm shelter.
Some people, especially those who live in mobile homes or the elderly who are alone, seek out shelter in public buildings. For example:
However, not every county does this.
Cleveland County does not open its courthouse. Kingsland in Cleveland County has a shelter, but that's 7 miles from the town of Rison and many miles away from other parts of the county where people may need shelter.
Churches throughout rural Arkansas often open their doors and people hunker in church basements.
But what if you have pets you don't want to leave? You just huddle in your safe space and pray. You watch a live stream cut in and out on your phone with meteorologists in Little Rock telling you a storm is coming, and it is getting closer to you.
Maybe.
They often disregard South Arkansas to focus on more populated areas.
If you ever lived in the city with tornado sirens, they sound scary. But living somewhere with no sirens is even scarier.
No Man's Land
During this latest round of storms, meteorologists kept pointing out that places like Camden and small towns in Nevada County – Willisville, for example – were too far away from Little Rock to be picked up on radar.
That was a terrifying piece of information to learn. How many other counties are too far away from Little Rock to be picked up by radar? How many potential lives were in immediate danger?
Arkansas likes to pretend it is a hip metropolitan state with Little Rock and Northwest Arkansas – home of Walmart – as meccas of progress to lure industry. But travel 60 miles from Little Rock in any direction and you are in rural Arkansas where modernization is desperately needed.
The aftermath
Much of rural Arkansas consists of gravel backroads. Some county judges make sure roads are maintained – graders regularly making their rounds, prompt road repair for a washed-out culvert. But many county judges don't. They either don't have the financial resources, the manpower or the equipment to properly maintain gravel roads.
What happens after the rain?
People can be trapped for days because gravel roads are shut down. Water washes out the roads, and the water remains. Say you need an ambulance, but you are seven miles off a paved county highway in the woods on a gravel road. You may simply be SOL – shit out of luck. Between the water and the mud, the road is impassable. Here's a road in Cleveland County. Who knows how deep that water is? Who knows if you make it through that how much more water is on down the road?
Even before this round of weather, the Reckoning heard stories throughout 2024 about rural county roads that were destroyed with each hard rain. That meant people on those roads were trapped. They couldn't go to work. Nurses treating people in home healthcare situations couldn't get treatment. Ambulances couldn't even get down the road or mail trucks. People can be truly trapped.
Here is a picture of how one road looked even before the storms.
Rural Arkansas needs help with its infrastructure. A source who spoke on condition of anonymity says, "Critical infrastructure is falling apart and rural Arkansas needs help with it. Money from the government is disbursed based on population.
A lot of these small counties would kill for that 4,000 bed prison they are trying to build so it could boost their population. That would boost your county a tier or two. Our state turnback monies and half cent roads. Sales tax is based on population. Our tax base is dying, and no one is coming here."
That's right. No one is coming here to help.
