Craighead County, AR – (JonesboroRightNow.com) — April 3, 2025 — With tornado damage affecting several towns across Craighead County and Northeast Arkansas, crews from several agencies are showing up to help.
Cities affected in Craighead County included Bay, Lake City, Monette, Cash and Bono.
Craighead County Sheriff Marty Boyd said on Thursday that, as devastating as the storms were for the families that were affected, the county dodged a big bullet with the tornadoes.
“We’ve covered a lot. Bay received some damage, but most of their damage was utilities, powerlines, poles, and things like that at. Lake City and Monette both had residential homes that were destroyed or demolished, and, luckily, we only had five injuries from it, and they were all minor no fatalities, so we were very fortunate,” Boyd said.
Boyd also stressed that, if you don’t have to be traveling through Lake City, please try to avoid the area to let the utility companies and first responders get their jobs done as quickly as possible and get power restored to the community.
Lake City Mayor Cameron Tate said the city is under a boil order until further notice due to pressure loss, however, water is available to the citizens of Lake City at the Lake City High School cafeteria. As far as outside help, Tate said that they have been contacted by several places.
“I know the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, and we’ve had several agencies coming in bringing water, snacks and food,” Tate said. “[Jonesboro] Mayor Copenhaver and his chief of police and SWAT team came down. I’ve had crews from Craighead County and the Craighead County Road Department. It’s been overwhelming the amount of help we’ve received.”
Craighead County Roads Superintendent John James said their crews were out helping wherever they are needed. Crews were deployed in Lake City and Monette.
“We’re just clearing roads to get traffic in and out,” he said. “To be honest, I think we’ve done all we can do right now until the insurance companies do their assessments and stuff on the damage, and then we’ll just go where we need it after that.”
Jonesboro Fire Chief Martin Hamrick said JFD sent a few trucks and over 12 personnel to Lake City to assist.
“The Lake City Fire Department and their fire chief had a good handle on what was going on and gave us a good set of guidelines for when our crews arrived to be able to assist,” Hamrick said. “They had most of the initial searches done before we arrived, and we were able to help them with secondary searches just to make sure and verify that there wasn’t anybody still trapped or accounted for. We were done and back in Jonesboro by 11 o’clock.”
Jonesboro Police Chief Rick Elliott said JPD tried to help Lake City where it could.
“In preparedness, the whole department is prepared and ready for whatever happens,” Elliott said. “I always have my SWAT team on standby to deploy to an area that maybe stricken as long as Jonesboro was not like we have done in the past with Trumann, Harrisburg, Monette, and Wynne.”
With Lake City already having got a lot of people coming in to help, Elliott said he did not have to take his entire SWAT team.
“I brought the captain of the SWAT team and the medical officers from the team with me, which included Dr. Shane Speights,” he said. “At that point they had completed the rescues down there and were gearing up for the secondary search just to make sure.”
Monette Mayor Bob Blankenship said on Thursday morning that they were also receiving help from Craighead County road crews, as well as the Arkansas State Police and several other agencies, such as Helena Chemical, which had sent a crew and equipment over.
“We’ve got all the male teachers at the [Buffalo Island Central] Junior High and Senior High Schools out working this morning. There’s 10 of those guys and the rest are pretty much volunteers at this time,” Blankenship said. “Plus, I have had calls from the governor’s office, calls from the attorney general’s office, calls from senators, a call from Rep. Rick Crawford’s office offering assistance and the Arkansas Municipal League offering assistance. So, a lot of people.”
Seven injuries had been reported in Craighead County due to the severe storm system moving through Arkansas with no reported fatalities at that time, according to a press release from the Arkansas Division of Emergency Management (ADEM) issued Thursday afternoon. Currently, 22 counties have reported damage to the ADEM.
Most counties are still assessing the full extent of the damage, but preliminary reports indicated impacts to homes, trees, power lines, and roadways due to wind gusts, hail, tornadoes, and flash flooding.
In a press release from Black Hills Energy in Fayetteville on Thursday morning, Black Hills Energy technicians are responding to reports of April 2 tornado damage in Monette and Lake City as well.
“Technicians began overnight assessing damages, surveying for leaks and shutting off natural gas service when necessary for the safety of customers and the public,” it said. “Technicians have mitigated leaks and are making repairs to nearly 25 customer homes impacted by last night’s storms.”
When it is safe to do so, customers are urged to inspect their natural gas meters for storm damage. If it appears floodwater may enter your home or business, or may reach your natural gas meter, call Black Hills Energy immediately at 888-890-5554.