Ike remnants injure three in Butler County, Mo.

BUTLER COUNTY, Mo. -- Three Butler County residents were injured when remnants of Hurricane Ike swept across Southeast Missouri early Sunday, knocking down trees and limbs onto houses, vehicles and power lines. Some area residents are still without power and many churches canceled worship services.

Gary Ward, who lives between Route AA and the Black River west of Broseley, was in his bed when a huge oak tree fell on the southeast corner of his house at 7 a.m. Sunday. Big limbs ripped open a hole in the roof, causing piles of loose insulation, sheet rock and boards to fall onto his bed.

"I heard a crash," said Ward's wife, Kelly, who was in the living room with two grandsons. Then she heard Gary choking and saw him covered with insulation as he came out of the bedroom. The gray insulation covered the bed and the white carpeting.

"We opened the front door to get him some air," Kelly said. Gary had insulation in his mouth and was trying to get it out.

"I was gagging," Gary said. "I thought I was choking to death." A 2x4 board also hit Ward in the head.

Kelly took her husband, who is a Vietnam veteran, to the John J. Pershing VA Medical Center. He was treated and released.

The Wards were awakened by the high winds earlier Sunday. He moved his Ford Lightning collector's truck from the back yard into a building. Then he went back to bed and dozed off about 10 minutes before the tree fell.

"Our biggest oak tree fell where the truck had been," Gary said.

Kelly's 1994 Ford Lightning collector's truck was parked on the east side of the house. It was damaged by tree branches.

The impact and weight of the big tree also caused large cracks in the brick wall and in the concrete foundation of the house.

Pinned in trailer

Butler County firefighters extricated a man and woman in their early 20s from their smashed mobile home along County Road 557 east of the Poplar Bluff Municipal Airport at 7:10 a.m. Sunday. Their names were not available.

"A very large tree fell across the corner of the house trailer. They were pinned in their bed," Butler County Fire Chief Bob Fredwell said. "The side of the trailer collapsed on top of them. We could talk to him, but all we could see was the top of his head."

Firefighters had to cut the tree limbs before they could extricate the pair. The extrication took about 30 minutes. Butler County Highway Department workers assisted.

The woman was transported by ambulance to Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center for treatment of injuries. The man had some minor abrasions, but refused treatment, according to Fredwell.

Wind gust 61 mph

As Hurricane Ike passed through the area, the National Weather Service at Paducah, Ky. reported sustained winds of 41 mph and gusts of 61 mph at the Poplar Bluff Municipal Airport. The NWS reported trees down in Neelyville and Poplar Bluff.

Poplar Bluff cleanup

Poplar Bluff Street Department crews kept busy throughout Sunday morning, removing trees and branches from numerous streets.

"It will take us a week to 10 days to get everything cleaned up," said Street Department Supt. Tom Tippen, who asked residents to be patient.

Tippen said residents may take limbs and yard debris to the city disposal area southeast of Twin Towers.

"It will be open continuously 24 hours a day through Sunday, Sept. 21," Tippen said.

Damage in Poplar Bluff

A big oak tree fell at the Tim Davis residence in the 800 block of Kinzer Street. It fell on top of a boat that was on a trailer, another trailer and his son's 1994 Mazda. The car was extensively damaged.

Frances Summers of Bernie was looking out the front window of her sister's house at 1307 Winnie St. when she saw a big maple tree fall.

"It hit the corner of my roof and fell between my house and the neighbor's house," said Helen Colter. "I planted that tree when I moved here 36 years ago. We are thankful it didn't come through the house," Summers said.

A big limb damaged the corner of a porch roof at the Mike Cronin residence at 906 Kendall St. and put a small dent in the hood of a 2002 Taurus owned by his daughter, Tiffany Kelley.

An uprooted tree in the 1600 block of North Main Street damaged the porch roof at the Richard Johnson residence.

A huge tree damaged the roof and knocked off the electric service to a rental house on Cedar Street owned by Keith Persons.

A big limb also fell on a pickup truck at 1316 Peggy Lane.

Power outage

Municipal Utilities General Manager Bill Bach reported a tree knocked out breakers on the east side at 6:15 a.m., causing 4,000 residents to lose electricity.

"Our crews had the breakers back in service in two hours," Bach said.

Trees also knocked down power lines throughout the city. MU crews had restored power to 250 customers by 11:18 a.m.

He also reported six primary poles were broken. They have been replaced, but two small poles serving residences still need to be replaced.

Crews continued to work throughout the afternoon and evening. The number of remaining outages was reduced from 120 to 35.

"These are homes where the electrical service was ripped off and will have to be replaced by the homeowners before service can be restored," Bach said.

Trees also blocked county and state roads throughout Butler County. Workers with chain saws from the Missouri Department of Transportation and the Butler County Highway Department kept very busy Sunday removing the trees and limbs.

"We probably had 60 trees across roads throughout the county," said highway department Supt. Bill Taylor. "We had 15 workers and finished up at 2 p.m."

MoDOT crews tackled a large 100-year-old tree that blocked Route M west of Poplar Bluff.