Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas and Oklahoma assess damage following severe storms and tornados
KSNF/KODE — Powerful storms and even tornados battered the Four States late Monday night. In our coverage area, many viewers reported outages and even heavy damage to their homes.
See our local coverage of the aftermath below:
Missouri
Carthage
The National Weather Service confirmed the path of destruction left behind in Carthage was due to an EF-1 tornado.
In their storm survey, NWS said Carthage’s tornado reached a maximum width of 100 yards and crossed a little over 2 miles leaving behind uprooted trees and damaged roofs.
It began and ended just west of Carthage, lasting all of a minute. No one was injured.
First responders received 911 calls of people being trapped inside homes or trees falling in their paths. Carthage Fire Chief Ryan Huntley said damage was seen in the Morgan Heights area, the parks, and the golf course.
Huntley said that includes garage doors missing, trees torn from the root, and trees falling on top of houses and cars.
The Carthage Fire Department began its preparation around 8:30 p.m. Monday with conference calls and making sure storm shelters were ready to go.
Morgan Heights residents Dean Shelbey and his family left their storm shelter to find their front yard covered in uprooted trees.
“Parks have been destroyed. Our Parks Department buildings, they had big trees land on them. Our golf course, we’ve got numerous trees down there. So it’s hard to say, it came in West and it just, devastated things in its path,” said Huntley.
“You’re wondering is it gonna hit the house, are we gonna be okay, and all the different stuff. And then we come back out and then all of a sudden, you’re like oh, I know what happened now, right, you just see everything. Yeah, it’s sad to see cause, it’s just such a mess,” said Shelbey.
Shelbey said he’s thankful to his neighbors and the people of the community for helping to remove the trees.
Huntley said Carthage Schools were closed Tuesday due to trees blocking bus routes.
Trees also covered the path to the Carthage Public Library leading to its closing for the day according to a Facebook post.
Joplin
Widespread damage was reported in Joplin after an EF-1 tornado swept through its southeastern side (below map).
The Joplin Fire Department pointed to 81 locations generally starting around 32nd St. and Main St. Liberty reports losing 50 power poles, and at one point, faced outages as high as 17,000 customers.
Damage assessments continue as authorities try to get a better grasp of the impact.
On the south side of Joplin, many people spent their day clearing debris from last night’s storms.
Several large tree branches fell in yards and on the road in the Riverside Drive area of Joplin, near Shoal Creek. Strong winds are believed to be the cause of the damage.
Those storms also knocked down power lines and snapped utility poles along Riverside Drive. No injuries have been reported in this area.
Duquesne
The City of Duquesne is still working to get the lights back on after last night’s tornado.
Firefighters with the “Duenweg Volunteer Fire Department” tell us they were in Duquesne late last night, through the early parts of this morning — helping other local area fire departments with what they are calling one of the hardest spots hit last night.
Several power lines are down – including this one on East 13th Street.
With storms in the forecast for tomorrow — Duenweg Deputy Fire Chief, Kevin Theilen, is advising residents to continue to stay weather aware.
“I think that is very important, to listen to the weather report and don’t get aggravated if something doesn’t happen when they are calling for it, but take five minutes out of your day to go to a storm shelter or go to the inner closet and take some refuge and be careful,” said Kevin Theilen, Duenweg Deputy Fire Chief.
Duquesne officials are still working to get the majority of residents back online.
They say they can expect an update on the resources available to them tomorrow.
Kansas
Chetopa
One Chetopa family is lucky to be alive after a large tree smashed the house they were in – along with two cars.
A mother, her four kids, and a family friend were in this house in Chetopa when the storm passed over the property, snapping the tree onto the house.
“It weighs several tons, it’s about six foot straight through it and so oak is one of the heaviest woods there is, so it came down you know with that wind force, if they had been in any other part of the house we would be planning funerals,” said Luke Wethey, brother to storm victim.
Wethey said his sister sustained a broken foot but no one else was hurt.
Just a few miles to the east of Chetopa, a family rode out the same storm in their basement.
Michelle Williams and her family got to their basement before Mother Nature took aim at their property. She says the storm came up in an instant. It also destroyed one barn and damaged another one.
“I heard it coming and we got down in the cellar in just a few minutes and it was done, it was over, we could hear stuff hitting the house. We got up and looked and one barn was completely gone and the other one was halfway gone, but our horses are fine, we’re fine and we thank the Lord for watching over us,” said Williams.
In addition to doing a number on their property, Williams said it also left them without power. She adds the help and support of her friends and neighbors in getting everything picked up was overwhelming.
Crestline
The owner of Hutto Grain and Livestock in Crestline reports a fourth of its main office’s roof is now gone.
That facility is on 69 Highway, just south of old Kansas-96.
Computers have received water damage, as well as furniture inside the building.
He also believes the storm heavily damaged one of the company’s fertilizer buildings about a mile south, and a large barn 5-10 miles southwest of the main office.
“Well, we’ll try to get clean-up done this week. Kind of get to where things look better by the end of the week. And, then it will be 6 months before everything’s rebuilt. We’re going to do some temporary patches on some things like the roof here, and then it will be late summer before we’re back to normal,” said John Hutto, Hutto Grain & Livestock Owner.
Oklahoma
Welch
In Craig County, Oklahoma emergency management reports tree and roof damage from last night’s storms.
Damage has also been reported to the roof of the gymnasium at the Welch school. School officials in Welch called off classes Tuesday.
Towards Barnsdall, a tornado ripped through Osage County – killing at least one person. Search and rescue plus cleanup efforts continue there.
