By Lakyra Banks

    ROGERS, Arkansas (KHBS) -- One year after a devastating tornado swept through Benton County, many families are still recovering. The Bingaman family in Rogers found a unique way to remember the night they survived.

“It was my sister's idea,” Leanna Bingaman said. “When she did it for herself, she included some pictures. So I gave her some more of ours. And then she did one for us.”

The family created a photo book, filled with photos of their destroyed property and the damage from the May 26 tornado. It was created by Bingaman's sister, Terry Bland.

“It’s the sort of thing that you kind of want to remember in a sort of a weird way,” Bingaman said.

The EF-3 tornado that hit on May 26, 2024, left behind a trail of damage across the region. For the Bingamans, the storm ripped through their wooded property.

“When we stepped outside, it looked like we were in a giant green fishbowl because we lost 16 trees,” Bingaman said. “We had three-plus acres, and most of the big trees are gone. It took eight hours just to get my car out from under the carport, so we couldn’t even get out of the house.”

Despite the damage, the family said they are lucky.

“You can replace stuff. You can’t replace people,” Bingaman said. “We were a lot better off than a lot of people. We lost almost everything around our house, but our house was just damaged. It wasn’t so bad like some houses were.”

As the anniversary of the storm approaches, the Bingaman's reflected on how it’s changed them. They said storms make them more anxious.

“It’s just different. It really is. We’re jumpy here about storms,” Bingaman said.

For them, the photo book is a keepsake to share with future generations.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime, hopefully once-in-a-lifetime, type event that we can leave our children and our grandchildren,” she said.

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