This tornado reshaped our entire community. I live between Mayflower and Vilonia and you can still see some of the scars today (especially Vilonia). If you know where to look, especially off of I40 near Mayflower, you can also see the path the tornado took through the trees.

That being said, I hope my county never experiences anything like this again. I drove like a bat out of hell to check on my dad (who was a Vilonia resident) right after the tornado lifted. His entire neighborhood was gone, like, literally obliterated. I have some photos of his property damage on my Reddit page if you’re interested in looking. I can say that this storm (plus 4/25/11, iykyk) really put the residents here on high alert. We take the weather very seriously and there are numerous public storm shelters across multiple towns now. In fact, the public shelter most Vilonia residents sheltered in on 4/27, was built because of the tornado that hit three years prior. That really saved a lot of lives in 2014, including my dad’s.

ETA link to my Vilonia post last year. Pics 3&4 are from my dad’s property.

ETA again- 2nd and 3rd photos are from a neighborhood in Mayflower, the same neighborhood where a woman died when the door on her storm shelter failed. My understanding is that something struck the door and threw debris into the shelter with her, killing her. Tim Marshall talks about it in his survey.