Remembering the April 3rd 2008 Sherwood Tornado

Today is the 3 year anniversary of the April 3rd, 2008 EF2 tornado that struck parts of the city of Sherwood. This was just one of several tornadoes that occurred that night. I was in Winston-Salem NC and was tracking the severe weather on radar when I noticed rotation developing near Burns Park in NLR. I called my wife who had just returned from my daughter's basketball practice in WLR and told her to watch this storm. About that time a tornado warning was issued and as my wife was taking cover with my daughter I could hear debris hitting the house. She was telling me the house was shaking and then the phone went dead. It was 20 minutes before I could contact her and she informed me everyone was safe but the house was damaged. I could hear sirens in the background as emergency responders we coming into the area. I was thankful that she was not hurt and I told her I would be there in the morning.

I took the first flight back and when I got home I was amazed at the damage that was done. The tornado went right through the middle of the neighborhood. Most of the damage was on the north and west side of the tornado and homes that were higher in elevation took most of the hit. My house sits about 100ft lower than those at the top of the hill. It suffered roof and tree damage and I lost my entire fence but escaped the brunt of the tornado's fury. Houses at the top of the hill had the roofs taken off. I was amazed that my deck was still standing and believe it or not a pair of Channel 7 Daybreak flip-flops didn't even move off the deck.

In talking to witnesses...it appeared the funnel wasn't at ground level near my house but was as you got closer to the top of the hill. The subdivision is in a little valley. The storm continued on through the neighborhood then down the hill and traveled NE towards Gravel Ridge.

Below is the track of the tornado from start to finish (supplied from the Little Rock NWS).

Track started in NLR and ended near Gravel Ridge

Track crosses right over my house (left side of cul de sac). Most damage was on the west and north side.

NWS surveyed the area and determined the tornado was an EF2 storm.

Here are some pictures taken the day after the tornado hit. If I had been there during the storm you can bet I would have video on here to show you the tornado coming in.

The tornado did damage at the NLR airport and the Sherwood Baseball Fields before hitting our neighborhood. It came close to the NWS office at the airport (they had to take cover).

It took us a while but we all pulled together and put the pieces back together. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I love living in Arkansas because of the people. We had so much help from people we didn't even know that came in and helped us clean up and for that I will always be grateful. This could have been much worse but because the residents of Hidden Creek heard the warnings and took cover, no one was hurt.