Support for Arkansas Week provided by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
The Arkansas Times and KUAR FM 89.
And welcome to Arkansas Week this Easter weekend.
I'm Dawn Scott, your guest host.
Thanks so much for being here with us.
Former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson has made it official.
He is running for president of the United States and we'll talk with him a little bit later in the program as he urges the Republican Party to move on from former President Trump.
But first, one week ago today, a devastating EF three tornado cut a path of devastation through Arkansas.
This weekend, a slow cleanup continues and there is widespread damage.
Trees snapped, homes and businesses destroyed.
People displaced everywhere, especially in Little Rock and the East.
Arkansas town of Wind.
Miraculously, there were few injuries, but five people were killed in the state.
The storm brought down power lines with crews, brought in from outside areas to assist in the restoration process.
And joining me now to talk about the storm, the recovery process where we are right now and how residents can seek assistance.
Dennis CAVANAUGH.
He's a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in North Little Rock.
And we also have in our studio Juan Ayala, who is the deputy director of external affairs with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA.
And by Skype, we have Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr. And I appreciate all three of you taking time to be here with me today.
And Dennis, I want to start with you because I want to just start with the path of the tornado where it started.
What happened on last Friday?
Sure.
So the tornado started in West Little Rock and then continued northeast, move through Cammack Village, crossed the Arkansas River into north Little Rock, Sherwood into Jacksonville, and then it remained on the ground for 30.
Just about 32 miles before it came to a before it dissipated or came to a stop just southeast of Cabot.
I noticed the width of the tornado was 600 yards wide.
That is substantial fuel, especially to pass through a metro area like this.
Yeah, it really is.
It was it was a quite large tornado.
It was the strongest tornado.
We've had in central Arkansas and in about ten years.
And yeah, it was, you know, 600 yards wide.
That's six football fields.
It cut a path of devastation through some very heavily populated areas, unfortunately.
And we're looking at where if we want to see that that path again, it started just it looks like to the west of Interstate 630.
Have you determined where it actually first hit the ground?
Well, we had an initial point based on some aerial imagery and some satellite imagery that we had taken.
However, we are taking a look at it again today because we've gotten some social media feedback that the path may have.
The path may have started about two miles southwest of where we currently have the path.
So we do have a team that's going to go out there and look at that today.
And they're also going to take a look at some some damage that was reported in Jefferson County that we haven't had a chance to look at yet.
I do live in Little Rock, full disclosure.
And so seeing kind of like that general area where the there's a roller Schnall funeral home and then it moved over into the Cowley Apartments that area it seemed to get worse as it as it barreled on.
Is that true for for a tornado like this?
Yes.
Yeah.
Unfortunately, as a tornado continues, as it damages things, it picks up that debris and it continues to carry it as it continues on.
Once that tornado gets debris loaded, you've got now you're not just dealing with the very strong winds, which do a lot of damage themselves, but it's so strong winds with the debris.
And so everything else down downstream or downwind gets impacted by the debris moving at high speeds in addition to the winds themselves.
So it does make the damage significantly worse.
You know, we've talked and I've heard so many people say how did were more people not hurt?
How did we not lose more people?
Thank God we didn't.
But what do you attribute that to?
You know, this was in the middle of the day watching the coverage.
You could actually see with the technology we have you could see the tornado coming by video.
I mean, is that what you credit these lives saved?
Yes, I think I think there were multiple factors.
I do think the fact that people could see the tornado and we had quite a bit of live coverage of the tornado.
I think that played a role in people accepting that this event was real and that they had to take it seriously.
I do also think that the advanced warning and letting people know 15 to 20 minutes before the tornado developed that, you know, that a tornado was on its way into Little Rock.
I think that gave people a heads up.
I think it gave schools a chance to shelter.
And I think all of that together played a role in getting at least a favorable outcome where we didn't have more fatalities and injuries.
Dennis CAVANAUGH, we're going to continue our conversation with you as well as everyone here.
But I want to move to our mayor, Frank Scott Junior.
Mayor Scott, this this is my hometown, too.
I share a love for our city like you do.
Where were you when this tornado hit?
And when did you know to take cover?
I was actually it's an interesting story.
30 minutes prior to it hitting, I was doing a traffic sight site visit, then immediately went to city hall and then took cover with a number of our city Hall employees in our basement.
And as soon as it was completed, I headed straight to our incident command center, which we created and coordinated with Emanuel Baptist Church to allow for their city center to be the incident command center.
And then within 48 hours, the city center became the Family Assistance Center for all tornado victims, as well as volunteer opportunities.
And so it's just unreal to see it happen, to be in the midst of it.
But as you shared, it is by the grace of God that no lives were lost.
And it is so true depiction of faith and love and seeing the entire city, the region and the state unite alongside each other as we are now focused on the recovery.
And we will not only recover, but we will rebuild back stronger and better than ever here in Little Rock.
And I know in the entire state I want to ask, you've obviously been all over the city.
You've seen what this has done to us, to our people.
And what are some of the stories that stick out to you or scenes, I guess, if you will, images that that that are kind of staying with you and driving you to work through this?
Well, I can tell you one on one, there's several stories of resilience, stories of resoluteness in the body that we will recover.
But some things that stick out to me is immediately go into fire station number nine.
And seeing how it was damaged and knowing that in the eye of the tornado, the men and women of Little Rock Fire Department, Jake, the fire station that we're now not only to cover, but also had their mind with the less than 60 seconds, the focus on getting residents who were outside or near to take cover with them in fire station number nine.
Secondly, the is right down the street, Miss Erica Gold and Mr. Golden, who were literally at their home and then left to go pick up their child and to only come back to nothing but still have the pride that they will rebuild their home and that they'll come back stronger, better than ever.
And then finally, as this as we travel around, whether it's, you know, seeing the the how it ravaged this western portion of Little Rock from rolling funeral home to California's apartments, that literally looks like a war zone, as well as Kingwood and things of that nature that we have a long road ahead, but we're going to act with deliberate haste and we're going to come back stronger and better than ever.
Mayor Scott, I appreciate your words.
And we're going to move to Juan Ayala, the deputy director of external affairs with FEMA.
So tell us, because people watching may have likely been affected by this.
How do you apply for assistance and who qualifies?
Don, thank you so much for the opportunity to share with your viewers how they can apply for FEMA assistance and some next steps they need to be taking.
So the initial step you take actually is to apply or to speak to your insurance provider.
And so that's very important.
If you have insurance, doesn't mean you can't receive FEMA assistance.
You may be underinsured for the kinds of damages you sustained in this storm, but the beginning of the process for those who have insurance is to file a claim with their insurance, because as part of the FEMA application process, we'll need to see the insurance documentation because by law, FEMA cannot duplicate insurance for those who do not have insurance.
And really, at once, you have your insurance information.
There are three different ways you can apply for FEMA assistance.
You can go online to disaster assistance, dot gov.
That's available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and provide us your information there.
You can call one 800 6213362.
That's available from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week.
You can call in and apply for assistance there, or you can download the FEMA app and apply for assistance through the app.
All right.
Anyone who was hit qualifies.
You have to live in either across Lonoke or Pulaski counties.
Those are the three declared counties.
And yes, if you sustain damages as a result of the storms or tornadoes, you can apply for assistance.
Talk about fraud one, if you will.
You know, unfortunately, we have to address that, that that not great people come out when there's disaster.
Well, in disasters, what you're going to see is the best of people and sometimes the worst.
So we've seen examples across the state of people helping people, neighbor helping neighbor, stranger helping stranger to try to recover from what's happened as a result of these storms.
But throughout the country, you're going to see folks who try to take advantage of the situation.
There are people in particular, older Americans, people who are more isolated in rural communities and people who may try to come in and claim that they are FEMA contractors or that they're there for FEMA services and try to charge a fee.
So FEMA does not charge any fees for our services.
Everything is free that FEMA provides.
So that's a key indicator.
We're also going to have photo IDs indicating that they are FEMA personnel.
So there may be situations where people are out there counterfeit ID.
So that can happen out there as well.
But one of the first things you're going to get is FEMA does not charge a fee to inspect your home.
There are no FEMA approved contractors and there are no FEMA contractors.
So those are things to watch out.
Good to know and good to be able to identify in these neighborhoods as you all are out there.
I do want to talk to Dennis briefly.
We haven't spoken about when Arkansas this was sort of toward the end of the tornado before it went away.
Sure.
Yeah.
When also had devastated the community there, the Little Rock tornado and that thunderstorm dissipated.
A new thunderstorm actually developed over the east side of Little Rock that moved northeast and it ended up producing the wind tornado, unfortunately.
And when that tornado.
It wasn't obvious that it was producing debris on radar until it got right into the community of wind.
And that's when we saw a very large debris signature on radar.
And we knew very quickly that something really awful had happened and wind as a result.
Mayor Scott, we have just a brief 30 seconds left.
Can you just give a few words to your people tonight if they're watching?
I just want to share with the people of Little Rock that how grateful we are for each and every residents with that there are safe and sound that we are working each and every day to remove the debris.
We are asking that all debris go to the reservoir park.
Secondly, that we will be having our contractor up and running next week as it relates to all debris locations across the entire city.
Right now, we're working around the clock with our Little Rock public Works team.
We're calling in additional resources to ensure that we get everything cleaned up as quickly as possible.
This is not something that's going to happen in a few days.
It's definitely going to be a long term recovery, But we're going to operate with deliberate haste as we continue to move forward and keep the people first here in the city of Little Rock.
I couldn't be more proud or more proud of that than anyone as it relates to our first responders, our police department, fire department, public works department, parks department, SEMA, all the seamless communication between state, federal and local partners as we're working together to keep Little Rock in Arkansas first.
Mayor, thank you.
Again.
We finished the sprint and now it's on to the marathon.
We've got, again, just 15 seconds.
Final words to you, Wan and Dennis.
I just want to thank our partners at the city and our partners at Adam, the state Division of Emergency Management.
They're really running the show.
FEMA's here to support the state and local officials.
Thank you.
Yeah, we just want to thank the Arkansas Integrated warning team, everybody that helped get a message out during this event.
I really do think it helped save lives.
All right.
Thank you all for being here with us.
We'll be right back.
And welcome back to Arkansas Week.
I'm Don Scott.
Thanks for joining us.
And former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson says he is running for the Republican nomination for president of the United States.
He served as governor from 2015 through this past January.
Before that, he served in Congress and then led the Drug Enforcement Administration, as well as Homeland Security after the 911 attacks.
Mr. Hutchinson joins us from Bentonville right now.
Thank you so much for being here.
It's so good to see you.
Well, thanks, Don.
It's great to be with you.
And is exciting to think about what's ahead.
And I hope that's a good thing for Arkansas.
Well, I want to ask you, what went into making this decision?
I know it's something that you had long thought about, but you finally pulled the trigger.
Well, I saw the need in our country, from my standpoint, the Biden policies are taking us the wrong direction.
Weak on energy.
Weak internationally.
The border security is an issue.
The fentanyl crisis.
I think with my background, my experience, and balancing budget in Arkansas, I can serve our country in a great way.
Obviously, any decision like this is accompanied by prayer and and discussions and a lot of thought.
But I'm excited about this opportunity.
I believe it's important for the country as I've said.
We need leaders in America that can appeal to the best of America and not to our worst instincts.
And that's what I would hope to do.
You know, we all know former President Trump is also vying to return to the White House.
Of course, many events unfolded this week related to him.
And you have publicly called for him to withdraw from this race.
And why do you feel he shouldn't get yet another term?
Well, obviously, there's a presumption of innocence.
He's going to continue.
And ultimately this is going to be decided at the ballot box.
But from a national perspective, this is a real distraction and takes away from the office of the presidency that we seek.
But in terms of I think if you just take away the current investigation and indictment in New York, the investigation of election tampering in Georgia, you take away the investigation on the classified documents and mishandling of those.
Take all of those away.
Then there should be a fundamental question, who's going to lead our country?
And I believe that we should go a different direction than Donald Trump from a Republican standpoint.
He lost to Joe Biden in 2020.
We did not do well in 2022 under his guidance.
And so I don't think we ought to be set to lose in 2024.
We need to look at alternatives, a consistent conservative, but someone that can win and bring independents and suburban voters to the voting booth in November.
And that's how you win.
You know, you'd have a tough challenge ahead of you, sir.
Many Republicans maintain that steadfast support for Mr. Trump, despite, you know, what's happening right now, and there's internal division within the party.
And how how do you think you can bring people together?
Well, it's tough and clearly he's got a bump after he was indicted in New York, is fundraising went up.
He went up in the poll numbers.
We'll see whether that's temporary or not.
But there's two options.
One is you just coronate him and say, you know, he's going to be our nominee and he's going to go against Joe Biden.
If you don't like that, you get in there and fight.
And that's what I'm doing and believing in a better future for our country.
And so what I do is engage in retail politics.
I've been to Iowa numerous times.
I'll be going back there, obviously.
And that's where you make your case face to face.
You shake their hands, you appeal for their vote.
You tell them your vision for America.
And I think that ultimately makes a difference.
And that's how you expand your voting base and that's how you win.
Go on.
State by state just like that.
You know, you're in Bentonville.
We've we've seen just destruction here in terms of tornadoes here in central Arkansas.
But one key theme that, you know, me being here I continue to hear is people have been so helpful.
People have come together.
They have really rallied together in this tragedy and in this horrific situation.
And, gosh, how we wish that there was more of this.
Why can't we keep this?
Can't we keep this spirit together?
You know, you really get a sense that people do crave coming together and not such division and such fight.
And you're absolutely right.
And I'm so proud of Arkansas.
And we got hit hard.
The communities come together, families help their neighbors.
This is Arkansas, and it's really America.
And I believe that is still in America.
And even though we have politics that is so divisive, you know, there are encouraging points when they can reach bipartisan agreement on something.
But it's too and far between.
And it all starts with leadership.
You have to have leadership that listens.
And people in Arkansas know how I governed, how I was conservative.
But also I listen and we tried to work together.
And I think that is very important for our nation's future.
And I think that's leaders have to help bring us together.
We can do that.
We just have to listen to one another and appeal to our best instincts and not our worst.
What are the key issues that you do plan to campaign specifically on?
Well, first of all, in on April 26, I'll have my kickoff announcement in Bentonville on the square.
And I hope we have a great crowd for that.
But then I'm going to outline some specific proposals.
But right now, it's critical that we get a handle on our economy.
The high spending at the federal level encouraged inflation, and inflation caused the interest rates to go up.
So the average family got a double whammy, which was higher interest rates and higher cost of their goods.
We've got to stop the fentanyl coming across the border and secure our border.
I have a quite a bit of experi ence in that field as head of the DEA and I work working in homeland Security.
We've got to produce energy and have a pro-growth energy policy, and then we've got to push back on Washington on how they're pushing a leftist social agenda.
I think that is important for our country when you look at how they're encouraging businesses to invest because of somebody's company social policy versus the return.
So those are just a couple of things that I'm working on.
Obviously, our relationship and our deteriorating relationship with China and the threats from them and Russia is a serious issue that we'll be talking about as well.
How how are you building support at this stage of the game again?
You mentioned a formal announcement later this month on the square in Bentonville.
But right now, what are you doing to get your name out there outside of Arkansas and truly build that that key support that you need?
Well, we're doing a great deal of media nationally, but also traveling to South Carolina, Iowa, I'll be in Indiana.
I'll be in Kentucky this coming month.
But also we're just kicking it off.
And so Arkansas is very important in this equation.
I need support here.
And soon you'll see the website EISA 2024 dot com.
And so that's where people can go and they can help us.
We can build support.
And obviously a lot of it is the financial side that I'm working with people from Texas to California to build the support we need.
But Arkansas lays the foundation, and I'm counting on people here.
I want to ask you, first of all, your most proud moments as Arkansas governor, and that's going to be followed with your least proud moments.
But please start with what you're most proud of that you're going to carry with you.
Well, there's a lot I mean, obviously, the cutting, the taxes.
My computer science initiative was critically important for our state creating jobs, but probably the thing that I'm very proud of is that we came together during a pandemic, which no one expected, but we kept our businesses from shutting down.
We made sure that our schools went back open.
We ranked so high and in-classroom instruction during the pandemic.
So I think we did well during that time.
And I'm proud of how we conducted ourselves and helped Arkansas and how our medical community came together.
That's probably the biggest challenge that we faced.
And I think we we led well.
And if you look at some some areas where you think you can improve and maybe take some of that knowledge with you as well, where would you turn and where would you look?
Well, he's probably too soon to second guess a whole lot of things.
But obviously, you know, we transform government, we increase the efficiencies of government, save the taxpayers dollars.
But I think working with the legislature is something that we always have to constantly work on and improve.
And maybe there are some things that I could have done better during that eight years.
But I think at the end we accomplish so much together.
So even though we caused a little friction, I think our results were really great for Arkansas.
Definitely.
We'll be watching all the eyes of Arkansas will be on you as you enter into this presidential race.
Former Governor Asa Hutchinson, thank you for being with us.
I sure do appreciate you and happy Easter weekend to you and your family at Easter to you as well, Don.
Thank you.
This concludes our program this Easter weekend.
We so appreciate you being with us again.
I'm Don Scott.
Thanks again.
Support for Arkansas Week provided by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, The Arkansas Times and KUAR, AR FM 89.
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