Kasten SearlesWhen the EF3 tornado hit Pulaski County on a Friday afternoon one year ago, Kasten Searles and her husband, Michael Norton — both educators — weren’t at home. Each was at school teaching when the text messages and weather alerts began rolling in, dread growing as the storm headed straight for their home on Buttermilk Road in West Little Rock’s Sturbridge neighborhood. Over the months that followed, the pair would watch as their former home succumbed to the elements. Rain drenched the house’s exposed interior, too little of the roof remaining to cover in tarp. Birds moved in. Searles and Norton stayed with her parents at first, then at a rental house. They sold the Sturbridge house and will shortly move into a new one.
Now, Searles — an illustrator, the head of the art department at Arkansas Tech University and the artist behind our cover illustration this month — is creating a graphic memoir about the experience, including depictions of the devastation as she saw it that day. It’s too early for a release date or title, but Searles gave us a sneak peek at some of what the graphic novel documents. See it in full in the March magazine issue of the Arkansas Times.
Kasten Searles
Kasten Searles
