Gusty winds topple trees, displace ducks in Lawson
LAWSON, Mo. — Thursday morning storms cracked trees and took down some outside structures in Holt and outside Lawson, Missouri. People living in the areas said it has been their windiest Spring in quite some time.
And the worst hit areas are the rural spots where you might see a home every quarter mile or so. Still, FOX4 saw damage encroaching on those sparse buildings.
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A fallen pin oak limb scratched the side porch of a remote home on the Ray County side of Lawson, with surrounding wooded areas also showing damaged tree-tops from strong winds.
A metal building closer to town had its roof and siding ripped off.
“It’s pretty windy out here, yeah,” Peyton Hunter, who lives in the area, said. “It was just strong but I was sleeping. All we lost was some ducks. Their duck house flew away.”
“So you have ducks that you’re missing now? Or just the house?” FOX4’s Jacob Kittilstad asked.
“I don’t know where the ducks are. I’m sure they’re with the other ducks in the bigger coop. But the big coop stayed,” Hunter said.
“I heard the wind,” Llewyn Lewis, another neighbor, said. “I live in a mobile home and I heard the wind when it went over. And I told my wife, I says – and I could hear tin banging together – and, like I say, I looked out and had furniture all over my yard. Nothing came in from the neighbors cause I could use some new furniture.”
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A FOX4 viewer sent in video from Holt, Missouri -to the West – showing more of the destructive power of the morning storms, throwing metal siding and uprooting a giant tree.
In Lawson, the windy weather is wearing on some neighbors.
“It’s probably the worst I’ve ever seen it. I don’t know what the miles per hour was – they said we was supposed to get 60 mile per hour gusts on my weather radio,” Lewis said.
“And I tell you what, when it comes on, it means business. They don’t make those weather radios just to sit there and listen to,” Lewis said.
“Had a picnic last Sunday is when it was. And it was a great day. Nobody lost their Styrofoam plates or anything like that.”
So far the National Weather Service says any damage was caused by straight-line winds, with no tornadoes reported as of our early broadcasts on Thursday evening.
