Craighead and Poinsett Counties have been declared as state disaster areas as a result of a powerful windstorm that pounded the region June fifth. The Sun newspaper reports Governor Mike Beebe made the declaration yesterday, which also includes damage that was caused by another storm system that hit the area two days later. The combined storms resulted in one death in Jonesboro, as well as many trees that were knocked over due to the storms. Craighead County director of emergency management David Moore says damage assessments in Craighead County alone are at least one and a half million dollars, and that number could climb as cleanup continues. Poinsett County Judge Charles Nix says much of the damage that occurred took place in Trumann, where crews have spent at least 70,000 dollars in cleaning up debris. Damage assessments are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Johnathan Reaves is the News Director for KASU Public Radio. As part of an Air Force Family, he moved to Arkansas from Minot, North Dakota in 1986. He was first bitten by the radio bug after he graduated from Gosnell High School in 1992. While working on his undergraduate degree, he worked at KOSE, a small 1,000 watt AM commercial station in Osceola, Arkansas. Upon graduation from Arkansas State University in 1996 with a degree in Radio-Television Broadcast News, he decided that he wanted to stay in radio news. He moved to Stuttgart, Arkansas and worked for East Arkansas Broadcasters as news director and was there for 16 years.