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The recent fundraiser for Baxter County tornado victims has shattered expectations, raising over $70,000, Mountain Home Mayor Hillrey Adams said on Monday.
“We’re going to actually bust, as of today, we’re going to break the $70,000 barrier,” Adams said. “That’s a great day.”
The fundraiser, held on Friday, consisted of a smoked chicken lunch and a pork steak dinner with an auction. Both events saw overwhelming community support.
Adams reported that all 1,000 chicken lunches sold out. The evening event nearly matched that success, with some 400 pork steak dinners being sold before the night’s auction, which sold items such as power equipment, chain saws, coolers, fishing trips and a trailer from Platinum Trailer Group.
The mayor praised the widespread community effort that made the event successful.
“This is a great event that was organized and put on by a lot of good people. Not only in Mountain Home and Baxter County but we had help with that Hogzilla Grill all the way from Cape Girardeau, Missouri, all the way down to Melbourne to Townsend Spice,” he said.
Local support was particularly strong, Adams noted. “The people that live in Mountain Home and Baxter County really supported this event, by buying that chicken, buying those pork steaks, and buying everything we sold at that auction.”
With funds raised, Adams said his attention will now turn to the distribution of funds. Applications for assistance will be available starting Wednesday at the Food Bank of North Central Arkansas. Applicants must be Baxter County residents directly impacted by the tornado.
“Jeff and I are meeting sometime tomorrow, and we’re going get a little bit more information gathered about that application process,” Adams said. A group will be formed to screen applications, with the goal of distributing funds by mid to late next week.
While the applications will become available this week, Adams said they’re still finalizing details of the application process.
“We’ve got to decide if we want to give everybody two weeks to get an application in and then we’ll start, or if we just want to start as they come in,” Adams said.
The fundraiser’s success comes as Mountain Home and Baxter County continue to recover from the May 26 tornado that caused significant damage in Briarcliff and Salesville. The EF3 tornado, which reached wind speeds of up to 147 mph, was nearly a mile wide at one point and traveled 36.5 miles through multiple counties.
Baxter County OEM Director David Stults previously reported that 47 properties in the county suffered major damage from the storm, with 21 completely destroyed. The tornado also resulted in one confirmed fatality, Mrs. Patti Sontag, and knocked out power for 52,000 residents.
The storm’s impact was particularly severe on local infrastructure, with 350 distribution poles and 20 transmission poles destroyed.
The Observer will provide updates on the application process and fund distribution as more information becomes available.
