Storms dump four inches on Cape Girardeau area

Jim Edmundson closes a gate to prevent traffic from crossing through high water Tuesday night on Howell Street. (Elizabeth Dodd) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

Jackson and the southern part of Cape Girardeau bore the brunt of the three bouts of thunderstorms that hit Cape Girardeau County Tuesday night, causing power outages, flash flooding and numerous fallen trees and power lines.

Early estimates of the rainfall were nearly four inches by 8 p.m., but exact totals were not available due to a lightning strike that damaged the weather-measuring equipment at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport, meteorologist Robin Smith said.

Jackson lost power at about 6 p.m., according to Jackson power plant operator Pat Lema, and both the Jackson Police Department and Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department were relying on generators.

By 9:40 p.m. Tuesday, Lema said, crews had managed to restore power to some Jackson customers, but there were still numerous outages scattered throughout the city.

Lightning damaged satellite equipment atop the Cape Girardeau County Emergency Operations Center, leaving emergency personnel using their BlackBerrys to monitor the storms, said emergency management director Richard Knaup.

Motorists on Broadway drive through storm water Tuesday night. (Elizabeth Dodd) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

Scattered power outages over the county, affecting Jackson, Delta and Dutchtown the most, and flash flooding in Cape Girardeau city limits were the biggest concerns with the storms, Knaup said.

Broadway was closed between Caruthers and Clark avenues due to flash flooding. The pond at Capaha Park overflowed during the storms, likely due to being clogged with debris, said Tim Gramling, Cape Girardeau Public Works director.

Gramling said the city didn't experience any problems that weren't to be expected with the amount of rain falling over the course of a few hours.

At 6 p.m., a trained spotter measured 1.2 inches of rain that had fallen within 15 minutes, according to the National Weather Service.

As of 9:10 p.m. Tuesday, AmerenUE reported 2,773 Cape Girardeau County customers without power, down from more than 5,000 earlier in the evening.

The Swift Water Rescue Team was activated in case it was needed but didn't respond to any calls, though Cape Girardeau authorities assisted a handful of people whose vehicles were stranded in the high water.

No injuries were reported, Knaup said.

Numerous trees and power lines fell during the storms, blocking roadways and damaging houses, said Cape Girardeau Fire Department battalion chief Brad Dillow.

Around 6 p.m., the National Weather Service had reports of a tree that had fallen on a pickup truck and another that had fallen on a mobile home.

A tornado warning was issued for Bollinger County early in the evening, but there were no reports from spotters of anything touching down, Smith said.

The southwest corner of the county near Gipsy, Mo., was of concern for a short while during the tornado warning, which was lifted at 8:30 p.m., said Bollinger County emergency management director Jim Bollinger.

The rest of the county mostly experienced heavy rains, Bollinger said.

To the south, Scott County did not experience any flooding, and though the storms knocked down some power lines and tree limbs, there was no major damage, said Scott County emergency management director Joel Evans.

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