Storm shelters in Paragould and Greene County

Paragould has taken two direct tornado hits in less than a year, both in the middle of the night. If you live in town or out in Greene County and you've been thinking about a shelter, here's what the National Weather Service recorded, what your lot means for the type of shelter, and what we could and couldn't confirm about permits and public shelters. Paragould is in Greene County, so it isn't on Craighead County's public shelter list.

Two Paragould tornadoes in ten months

May 26, 2024, 11:00 p.m. An EF2 with peak winds estimated at 120 mph touched down about 3 miles west of Paragould along County Road 735 and lifted 7 minutes later about a mile south of town, a path of 3.56 miles and up to 200 yards wide. NWS Memphis found one home with its entire roof gone and outbuildings destroyed, with the last damage just west of Highway 49. Twenty minutes later a second tornado, an EF1, formed 6 miles south-southeast of Paragould and crossed into Craighead County. Nobody was killed or hurt in either (NWS Memphis survey).

March 15, 2025, 12:16 a.m. A stronger EF2, 125 mph, came up from northern Craighead County near Walcott and ran 13.95 miles to 2 miles east of Paragould by 12:34 a.m. It intensified just before Pruetts Chapel Road and tore into the Club View Estates and The Enclave neighborhoods. The survey notes that a few homes in Club View Estates were hit by a tornado for the second time in 10 months. Four people were injured (NWS Memphis survey). Greene County was one of the counties in the state's request for a federal disaster declaration that spring (Encyclopedia of Arkansas).

The lesson in both: these came after dark, with families asleep, and each was on the ground for minutes. A shelter you can reach from the bedroom in under a minute, like an in-garage unit or a safe room inside the house, is what makes a midnight warning survivable.

Older storms in Greene County

• March 28, 2020. The storm that produced the Jonesboro EF3 went on through Brookland and passed just east of Paragould (NWS Little Rock). The EF3 itself ended in Craighead County, but the same afternoon NWS logged a separate EF1 in Greene County, about 6 to 9 miles east of Paragould (NWS Little Rock 2020 list).
• March 1, 1997. A tornado passed through the center of Marmaduke with F3 damage and killed one person; its parent storm lifted about 18 miles northeast of Paragould after a 75-mile path (Encyclopedia of Arkansas).

On the ridge or in the bottoms? Choosing the type

Paragould sits atop Crowley's Ridge (Encyclopedia of Arkansas). The rest of Greene County is a different story: the encyclopedia describes the ridge as hemmed in by swampland on three sides, with the St. Francis River bottoms to the north and east and the Cache and Black River lowlands to the west (Greene County entry). That split decides a lot:

• Higher, well-drained lots in town are where an in-ground yard shelter or a below-floor garage unit makes the most sense. See underground and in-garage storm shelters.
• Bottomland and anywhere water stands after a rain. FEMA advises against putting a safe room below ground in a Special Flood Hazard Area and names naturally high groundwater as a reason to go above ground (FEMA P-320). Out toward the river lowlands, an above-ground safe room anchored to a proper slab is usually the safer bet.
• Not sure where your lot falls? Look your address up on FEMA's flood map. Inside city limits, the City Inspector also serves as Paragould's floodplain administrator.

Permits in Paragould

Paragould's City Inspector (301 W. Court St., 870-239-7513) issues the permits for residential construction, which the city's permits page says includes new construction, additions and remodels. The city has adopted the 2021 Arkansas Fire Prevention Code volumes, including the residential volume. What we couldn't find, as of October 21, 2026: any storm shelter or safe room line, or a fee schedule, on the city's website. That's different from Jonesboro, which lists a $50 storm shelter permit (see storm shelter cost). So before work starts, have your installer confirm with the inspector's office what's required for your address, especially for a garage slab cut or anything in a flood zone. Outside city limits, ask the county.

Public shelters in Greene County

Craighead County publishes an official list of 28 public shelters. We looked for the Greene County equivalent on October 21, 2026 and didn't find one: the county's emergency management page on greenecounty.arkansas.gov was offline, and the City of Paragould's site lists no public storm shelters. Some news sites publish shelter lists, but we only repeat official ones. If you rely on a public shelter, call the county courthouse at (870) 239-6300 before storm season and ask what opens, and when. That uncertainty is one more reason many Paragould families want a shelter of their own.

Once it's in

FEMA recommends registering the exact location of your shelter's entrance with local officials once it's built, so emergency crews can find you and dig you out if debris blocks the door (FEMA P-320). Ask the inspector's office or the county where Paragould and Greene County keep that record. Then make sure everyone in the house knows the plan for a warning at 2 a.m., not just 2 p.m.