Governor Asa Hutchinson's Weekly Address

This week, I declared Washington County a disaster area in the wake of an EF3 tornado that damaged more than 350 homes and businesses and demolished the gym at George Elementary in Springdale.The process that led to the declaration officially began at 5:34 a.m. on March 30th when the director of the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management notified me a tornado had touched down about 4 a.m.In the weeks since then, leaders of local and state emergency agencies have joined investigators from FEMA to inspect homes and structures in order to estimate the dollar amount of damage.The tornado stayed on the ground for eight minutes and cut a strip through Washington County that was as wide as the length of nearly four football fields.Fewer than ten people were injured, and we were blessed that no one died in this storm.Within hours of the storm, volunteers from Springdale and nearby communities, members of church-based disaster-relief teams, and representatives from nonprofit agencies appeared to help the county d