Large Missouri tornado causes widespread destruction, kills at least four

St. Louis:  A huge tornado ripped through southern Missouri before dawn Wednesday, leaving widespread devastation and killing at least four people as a big section of the Midwest and South waited for further storms that might produce more twisters and hail. In Illinois, a twister also caused injuries.

According to Sgt. Clark Parrott of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the Missouri tornado made landfall at roughly 3:30 a.m. and travelled through a rural region of Bollinger County, which is located about 50 miles (80 kilometres) south of St. Louis.

According to Parrott, personnel from more than 20 agencies were on the site cleaning debris in search of anyone else who may have been killed or injured.

“The damage is pretty widespread. It’s just heartbreaking to see it,” Parrott said.

The patrol released an overhead photograph of the devastation, which revealed uprooted trees as well as damaged and destroyed dwellings. Drone imagery revealed that some had degraded into heaps of trash and splinters. A short portion between a road and a creek looked to be particularly heavily damaged, with rescue personnel gazing through the wreckage with flashlights.

Parrott said that crews had to use chainsaws to cut back trees and brush to reach some of the homes.

“It’s going to be a slow process but for now it’s an active search and rescue,” Parrott said.

Justin Gibbs, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Paducah, Kentucky, said the tornado remained on the ground for roughly 15 minutes, travelling an estimated 15-20 miles (24-32 kilometres).

A weather service team was headed to Bollinger County to gather details about the tornado, but Gibbs said it was clear “It was big. It was a significant tornado.”

He noted that tornadoes are especially dangerous when they touch down late at night or early in the morning, as this one did.

“It’s definitely a nightmare from a warning 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 travelled along route 34 into Glen Allen, a village of slightly more than 100 people, and that he hasn’t been able to inspect the damage firsthand because law enforcement was restricting access to the area.

“I’m getting reports that it was pretty bad,” he said. He described it as a rural area, where residents mostly farmed, cut timber or worked construction jobs.

“There was several trailers there, and I understand that there is still people missing,” Welker said.

Gov. Mike Parson said he would join emergency personnel on the ground to assess the damage and determine what resources are needed.

Storms sweeping across the Midwest and South on Wednesday pose a threat to places still hurting from a terrible storm last weekend. The Storm Prediction Center warned that storms could affect up to 40 million people in a region that includes major cities such as Chicago, Indianapolis, Detroit, and Memphis, Tennessee, later Wednesday. The biggest threat looked to be to a region ranging from southern Michigan through Tennessee and Kentucky as of late morning.

Fierce storms that started last Friday and continued through the weekend spawned deadly tornadoes in 11 states as the system plodded through Arkansas and into the South, Midwest and Northeast.

Schools in Little Rock, Arkansas, cancelled Wednesday classes because the storms were expected to move through the area during the morning rush, KFVS-TV reported.

Authorities in central Illinois reported that a tornado slammed Fulton County on Tuesday evening, injuring five people and knocking out electricity to over 300 residences. One of those injured was in serious condition, according to Chris Helle, director of the county’s Emergency Services Disaster Agency.

Helle said the damage was centred around the town of Bryant, approximately 200 miles (322 km) southwest of Chicago. Fire agencies and other first responders were still assessing the damage, but Helle stated that multiple homes had been damaged. He praised people for paying attention to warnings and seeking shelter.

Another tornado touched down Tuesday morning in the western Illinois village of Colona, according to officials. According to local news sources, some establishments in the area suffered wind damage.

Winds of up to 90 mph (145 kph) and baseball-sized hail also caused damage in the Quad Cities area of Iowa and Illinois.

The National Weather Service also received reports of semitrailers that had been tipped over by winds in Lee County, about 95 miles (153 km) west of Chicago.

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