AUTO HAIL REPAIR NEWS

Ozarkers confront debris; 2 deaths from tornadoes

Missouri residents cleaning up after potentially historic tornadic outbreaks.

Wes Johnson and Amos Bridges
News-Leader


Dozens of Missouri residents picked through the ruins of their homes and businesses Tuesday following a night of tornadoes that killed two people.

Chain saws growled as residents cleared away hundreds of toppled trees and broken limbs.

"Finally, yesterday I had just finished the cleanup from last year's ice storm," said Larry Stephens, who lives north of Strafford. "It took a year. One day later it's worse than before."

A tornado snapped and toppled at least two dozen fully grown oaks in his yard.

The National Weather Service in Springfield said five confirmed tornadoes touched down in southwest Missouri.

That number could double after weather investigators finish their review of more potential tornado tracks.

NWS meteorologist John Gagan called the outbreak "quite possibly the biggest tornado outbreak in January in Missouri history.

"It wasn't just in the Ozarks," he said. "It stretched from Oklahoma all the way to Wisconsin. There even was an EF-3 reported in the Chicago area. This is very, very unusual for January."

In Missouri, five waves of storms tore through the southern part of the state.

The storm event was capped by a massive windstorm at 3 a.m. that pushed through the area at 70 mph.

It was preceded by an EF-1 tornado that touched down in the heart of Springfield, collapsing part of the Harry Cooper Supply warehouse and damaging several more buildings.

The tornado, packing 100 mph winds, lifted just east of the Glenstone/Chestnut intersection, toppling the tall Krispy Kreme sign as it went.

An EF-3 tornado with winds of 150 mph destroyed the rural Strafford home of Rachel Lawson, 85.

She died from a critical head injury.

The same storm hit near Marshfield, killing Nancy Green, 53, when she went back into her mobile home to rescue a pet.

At least 35 people were sent to area hospitals, including two with critical injuries.

Springfield City Utilities crews worked to restore power to about 10,000 customers who lost electricity from downed power lines and flying debris.

By late Tuesday CU had cut that number to about 2,000 customers. CU provides electricity to about 106,000 customers.

Jenny Edwards, spokeswoman for Greene County, said 20 homes in Springfield had minor to moderate damage.

She said three homes were destroyed in Republic, 14 had major damage and 33 had minor damage.

Near Strafford, at least two tornadoes destroyed 11 homes, caused major damage to four and minor damage to 10, Edwards said.

"Several dozen homes were significantly damaged or destroyed," near Marshfield, according to Deana Fishel, spokeswoman for the Webster County Emergency Management Office.

She didn't yet have a final tally of the destruction late Tuesday.

She said search crews Tuesday afternoon were still going door to door looking for injured people and tallying the damage.

In Christian County, at least six homes were severely damaged, with more reports of damage coming in from rural areas, according to Emergency management Director Phil Amtower.

In Barry County, a tornado hit a mobile home park, destroying 19. Three homes also were significantly damaged, according to Emergency Management Director David Compton.

Compton said he watched the tornado from his office as it moved across the south side of Monett.

Monett took the hit from the very first storm about 5:30 p.m.

The county sounded eight or nine tornado warnings during the length of the storm, he said.

According to Compton, the tornado touched down about 1/2-mile west of BB and Missouri 37.

"We were lucky because it took a relatively narrow path and it wasn't on the ground very long. It could have been worse," he said.

As it was, the tornado hit Midway Mobile Home park and destroyed the 19 mobile homes and one house there.

No one was injured. Compton said three or four families lived there.

Terror in Strafford

Residents in the Strafford area on Tuesday recalled moments of terror as they hid in basement storm shelters and closets as the twister hit.

Brian Brooks drove up from Arkansas to see his cousin, Brett Sodden, the principal of Strafford High School.

Hearing reports of hail, Brooks moved his 1994 Chevy Tahoe into Sodden's garage.

As the tornado hit, Brooks and several relatives headed into the home's concrete storm shelter.

"It came so quick," he recalled. "I was hanging onto the doorknob for dear life because it was trying to suck that door right out of there."

After the tornado passed, they noticed an unusual odor.

"When you first walked out the door you could smell the cedar trees that had snapped," he said. "I knew it was bad."

Sodden's home was ripped apart. Rain water still poured through the ceilings and floors nearly 18 hours after the twister hit.

And Brooks' Chevy Tahoe? It was crushed when the garage gave way.

"It don't have a bit of hail damage," he observed, wryly.

The storm was similarly fickle on Village Lane, off Missouri 38 northwest of Marshfield.

"It's funny how it takes some stuff and leaves others," said Will Fuller, whose home suffered significant damage in the storm.

A house to the south of Fuller's was destroyed, as was one across the street to the east where Fuller and his wife, Brenda, sheltered with other neighbors in a basement.

"We were watching the Dopler radar on TV about 6 p.m. and saw it coming our way," he said. "We came out the front door and we could hear the tornado coming ... it chased us across the street."

The tornado ripped the roof from the house and sent splinters of wood and other debris through the basement ceiling, but no one was hurt, Will Fuller said.

"It's an unbelievable sound, and then the house coming down around you," he said. "We're lucky everybody is safe. Houses can be fixed."

With help from their sons and other friends, the Fullers covered their damaged roof and broken windows Tuesday morning.

"It's all trashed," he said. "The house is all full of water and projectiles from next door ... But about all of our clothes are dry. We've just got to pack them up and take them with us."

Inside and out, signs of the storm's random nature were everywhere.

Glass from shattered windows covered still-made beds. In one room, the couple's wedding picture had been ripped from the wall and was nowhere to be found.

"It's got our names on it, so maybe someone will find it and we'll get it back," Brenda Fuller said.

In the same room, her husband pointed to a small angel statue that stood untouched near the broken window. "It makes you wonder how it didn't get sucked right out."

Some of the worst damage in the county occurred northeast of Marshfield, near the 107 mile marker where Sampson Road crosses Interstate 44.

About two miles northeast of the crossing, the tornado that killed Green demolished a farmhouse and destroyed several other mobile homes in the park where she lived.

Neighbors Tony and Fran Wells and their teenage son weathered the storm in the ditch, after driving to a nearby culvert to take shelter.

"We thought it had passed ... (but) as soon as we started to drive home, the wind and rain started coming in sideways," Tony Wells said.

The family bailed out of their car into ditches on either side of the road — the culvert was only 20 feet away but invisible in the darkness, he said.

"We just rode it out in the ditch," he said. "I just held onto my son and tree limbs were falling on us."

Their home, unlike Green's or their landlord's, was largely intact. But it wasn't until they returned Tuesday morning — after staying the night at a shelter in Marshfield — that they realized it had been pushed four feet off its concrete pad.

West of the interstate, neighbors on Quail Creek Road woke early to help salvage anything of value from the space where Brian and Tiffany Harrington's home once stood.

Tiffany Harrington and her teenage son were home when the tornado struck about 7 p.m., said neighbor Brandon Speakes.

"They came running over and they said their house was gone," Speakes said. "I thought maybe they were just in shock, but then the lightning would flash and all you'd see was debris and flat land."

The house was wiped clean off its foundation. Paul Speakes, Brandon's father, said he didn't know how the Harringtons survived. Tiffany Harrington was taken to the hospital with several cracked ribs and a head laceration, he said, but her son was mostly unharmed.

Neighbors on Tuesday took time away from patching their own homes to pick clothing from the debris and launder it for the Harringtons.

"We got up at 7 a.m. trying to save as much as we could," Paul Speakes said, shaking his head and gesturing toward his own home across the street, largely undamaged.

"I still cannot believe how lucky I am."