Tornado Sweeps Part 3/4 - Victims

Mark Lankford says Wednesday night's storm in Bentonville came on fast.
"When it started raining heavy, the winds immediately went from bad to wow."

Those winds tore through Mark Lankford's Bentonville neighborhood -- giving him and his family a tale they'll not soon forget. Mark tells me, "They (his family) looked out the window and saw the tree coming down...we all just headed for cover...I heard the wind hit the house and came in time to see the roof cave in a little bit. That's when my wife started screaming."

Luckily no-one in the Lankford home suffered any injuries -- but their story -- eerily similar to that of a family that survived through a tornado that touched down near Bentonville on March 12th 2006. Living mere miles from one another -- almost three years to the day the Lankford family experienced the same fear and relief -- felt by the Harrel family in 2006.

The Harrel family's home was virtually destroyed by that twister. Bentley Harrel says, the only thing to do was start from scratch. Bentley says, "We basically had walls. The roof was gone. Walls were down on the inside, so only thing we could do was bulldoze and rebuild. That's the only thing we could do."

The Harrels did rebuild, including the add on of a storm shelter in the backyard. It's not yet known what Mark Langford will have to do to get his home back in shape after Wednesday's sever weather event sent a large tree crashing down on the roof, but he too tells us -- he's not going anywhere. He'll simply start from the beginning and hope for the best.

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