Papers uniting tornado-tossed items, owners

Girl's photo roused interest

By Kenneth Heard

The discovery in Viola of a photograph of a girl killed during the Feb. 5 tornado in Atkins is the catalyst for a group of north Arkansas newspapers’ attempt to reunite storm victims with their possessions.

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Areawide News, a company that owns newspapers in Salem and Thayer, Mo., has created an Internet Web site that features pictures of items found scattered by the violent storm that hit Atkins, Clinton, Gassville, Mountain View, Izard County and Highland.

Other newspapers in Mountain View, Mountain Home, Batesville and Atkins are serving either as collection points or by touting the Web site to their readers.

“Some people may not have anything now,” said Janie Flynn, publisher of The News in Salem, 10 miles from Viola in Fulton County. “They may want a photograph.”

For more information see today's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Subscribers can read the story here on ArkansasOnline.