Jonesboro, Ark., came through a devastating tornado without any deaths, partly because businesses were closed and people were sheltered at home from the coronavirus.

By Rick Rojas and Vanessa Swales

ATLANTA — Some in Jonesboro, Ark., saw a miracle on Saturday after a tornado roared through town. It tore through businesses already closed by the coronavirus and neighborhoods where people had already been told to social distance by hunkering down at home. Not a soul died.

Now comes the really hard part: rebuilding and moving on together while officials still urge residents to stay apart.

The tornado gashed a scar of devastation that stretched on for more than four miles, scraping through the heart of the city’s commercial district, destroying hangars at the municipal airport and pulverizing homes in several subdivisions.

But the morning after the tornado had passed, many acknowledged that the measures that had been put in place to thwart the coronavirus had saved lives in an unintended way. The J.C. Penney and Barnes & Noble stores that typically bustle on weekends were closed. And so were restaurants, which would have been preparing for the early dinner crowd when the tornado hit just after 5 p.m.

“Actually, that’s the blessing,” Bishop Adrian Rodgers, the pastor of Fullness of Joy Ministries, said on Sunday from his empty church, where he has been broadcasting his sermons to a congregation watching on Facebook.

Marvin Day, the judge for Craighead County, of which Jonesboro is the seat, added: “Truthfully, we are feeling very blessed and grateful. Our human tragedies could have been a lot worse.” The authorities said 22 people were injured, but only two were hospitalized. Neither had life-threatening injuries.

Still, the tornado on its own would have created considerable hardship for a community, which now must rebuild. But it struck at an already difficult moment, as officials were contending with the coronavirus outbreak that had infected six people in Craighead County and caused many residents to lose their jobs or have their working hours reduced.

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