An Arkansas nursing home that was destroyed by a powerful tornado is close to reopening and says it is once again ready to provide a caring and welcoming environment for its residents and staff.
Monette Manor Nursing Home in Monette, AR, was hit by a level EF4 tornado in December 2021 that leveled the facility. It resulted in the death of one resident and injuries to dozens more.
Staff were hailed in the national media as heroes for their efforts that night to shield residents during the storm and immediately moving into triage-mode the moment the storm passed. McKnight’s Long-Term Care News later honored Barbara Richards, LPN, as a 2022 Woman of Distinction Spirit Award winner. Richards and her colleagues, seeing a funnel cloud approach, relocated residents to safer locations and padded them with pillows, their bodies, anything they could.
Despite their efforts to save lives, there was no hope that the staff could have saved the building, parts of which were leveled.
“There was no doubt it was completely, completely destroyed, and we would have to rebuild,” Monette Manor Co-owner Rick Sampson told McKnight’s on a Newsmakers podcast marking the one-year anniversary of the storm.
The rebuild aims to make the facility better than ever.
Monette Manor was originally constructed in 1975. The new facility has scheduled an open house for Aug. 8 and plans to start admitting residents the following week. It will feature wider hallways, larger rooms, an open-style dining room and a day room, according to local news outlet KARK News4.
There also will be a larger therapy department and a beauty salon. The news station reported that the facility will pay tribute to the night of Dec. 10, 2021, with a cedar pavilion in a courtyard with a plaque containing the names of the staff and residents who were there when the storm hit.
Many staff members are eager to come back to come back, according to responses made on the center’s Facebook page, which has chronicled the rebuilding.“We are particularly thankful to the courageous staff who were onsite at Monette Manor during the storm,” Rachel Bunch, the head of the Arkansas Health Care Association, said in the days following the tornado. “The staff’s actions were truly heroic.”
