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A large tornado tore through southeastern Missouri before dawn on Wednesday, killing at least five people and causing widespread damage as a wide swath of the Midwest and South remained on alert for further storms that could produce twisters and hail.
Wednesday’s severe weather was the third of a series of major storms in the past two weeks that have spawned dozens of tornadoes, mainly in the South and Midwest, killing at least 63 people. Just last weekend, confirmed or suspected tornadoes in at least eight states destroyed neighborhoods in vast areas of the country.
The Missouri tornado touched down around 3:30 local time Wednesday and moved through the rural area of Bollinger County, about 80 kilometers south of St. Louis, said Sgt. Clark Parrott of the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
Trees were uprooted and houses were piles of debris. One of the buildings was turned on its side. Drone footage shows emergency crews looking at the wreckage with flashlights.
More than 20 agencies are part of the search for survivors and victims, with the damage so bad that sometimes they are forced to use chainsaws to cut back trees and brush to reach their homes, Parrott said.
“The damage is pretty widespread. It’s just heartbreaking to see it,” Parrott said.
‘Sad, sad to see’
The twister caused significant damage in and around the small rural communities of Glen Allen and Grassy, Bollinger County Sheriff Casey A. Graham said in a Facebook post. A hunting area separates the two communities.
At least five people were killed, Graham wrote, noting that he was withholding the names of the dead to ensure their families could be notified first.
Charles Collier, 61, said he saw the coroner’s van drive by with a light on in Glen Allen, where he owns a storage facility.
“It’s really sad and sad — to know there’s a body in there,” said Collier, who was not relieved to see the facility allowed. “I’m just numb, thinking about all these other people, what they’re going to do.”
Tornado on the ground 15 minutes
Josh Wells said that the tornado ripped half of the roof off the Glen Allen home and pushed it against the bedroom wall. It happened that he had run away earlier with his son to his sister’s house because it had a basement.
“We all ran down and around the wall and my brother-in-law was down for a few seconds before we heard the sound of the wind and debris crashing around us,” he said.
When the sister’s house was taken into custody, the area smelled of gas because the propane unit was broken.
Justin Gibbs, a US National Weather Service meteorologist in Paducah, Ky., said the tornado stayed on the ground for about 15 minutes, traveling about 24-32 kilometers.
People are still missing
A weather service team was headed to Bollinger County to gather details about the tornado, but Gibbs said it was clear “it’s big. It’s a significant tornado.”
He noted that tornadoes are especially dangerous when they touch down at night or early in the morning, as they did.
“It’s definitely a nightmare from a danger standpoint,” Gibbs said. “It’s bad anytime, but it’s especially bad at 3:30 in the morning.”
Larry Welker, Bollinger County’s public administrator, said the twister crossed Route 34 into Glen Allen, a village of slightly more than 100 people, and that he had not been able to directly inspect the damage because law enforcement limited access to the area. .
“I got a report that it was really bad,” he said. He described it as a rural area, where most of the residents farm, cut wood or work in construction.
“There were some trailers out there, and I knew there were still people missing,” Welker said.
Missouri U.S. Sens. Eric Schmitt and Josh Hawley, meanwhile, said they are in contact with local leaders and ready to help. Schmitt also warned Missourians in a statement to remain vigilant “as more severe weather is on the horizon.”
Storms moving through the Midwest and South on Wednesday threatened some areas still reeling from a deadly bout of bad weather last weekend. The U.S. Hurricane Prediction Center said up to 40 million people in an area that includes major cities including Chicago, Indianapolis, Detroit and Memphis, Tenn., are at risk from the storm later Wednesday.
In central Illinois, authorities said one person was sick and about 300 homes were without power after a tornado ripped through Fulton County on Tuesday evening. Chris Helle, who directs the county’s Emergency Services Disaster Agency, said one of the injured was critically injured.
Helle said the damage was near the town of Bryant, about 200 miles (325 kilometers) southwest of Chicago. The fire department and other first responders are still assessing the damage there, but Helle said many homes have been damaged. He praised the people for heeding the danger and fleeing.
Officials said another tornado touched down Tuesday morning in the western Illinois community of Colona. Local news reports indicated wind damage to several businesses there.
Winds of up to 145 km/h and baseball-sized hail also wreaked havoc in the Quad Cities area of Iowa and Illinois.
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