More storms blow through Thursday evening

Another round of storms blew through Southeast Missouri on Thursday evening.

By 8 p.m., reports still were being collected, but for the most part, the damage seemed minimal.

Thomas Beardslee, the director of Scott County's Emergency Management Agency, said the county was reporting some power outages, but he hadn't heard of anything major.

Tornado sirens sounded about 6:30 p.m. in Scott and Cape Girardeau counties, but no sightings of funnel clouds had been reported.

Meteorologists with the National Weather Service in Paducah, Kentucky, said there still could be a few isolated storms Thursday evening, with the chance of storms sitting at 20 percent throughout the day today.

After completing a damage survey Thursday afternoon, the National Weather Service confirmed a tornado touched down Wednesday night in Alexander County, Illinois, and Scott County.

Earlier Thursday, the service had been unsure whether the damage was caused by straight-line winds or a tornado, but because of the spiral pattern of some of the damage, NWS meteorologist Sean Poulos said they were able to determine an EF1 tornado touched down in the Thebes, Illinois, and Kelso, Missouri area.

Poulos said unofficially, they believe winds reached speeds up to 90 miles per hour.

Trey Hardy, the deputy director of Scott County's Emergency Management Agency said there were reports of fallen trees, two destroyed sheds, two RVs that had fallen onto their sides and multiple reports of siding and shingle damage to houses.

He said looking at a map of Scott County, he could see a slight pattern of the storm moving southwest to northeast through the county.

At 8:50 p.m. Wednesday, online storm reports from the National Weather Service said 60-mile-per-hour winds were reported, as well as dime-sized hail and a 100-yard path of trees and tree limbs that had fallen in Thebes.

No injuries were reported from the storm Wednesday.

In Cape Girardeau County, Scott Bechtold, the highway administrator, said the storm only lightly affected his county.

"We've not seen any dramatic damage -- some washes on gravel roads, a little slower draining in the south part of the county where it's flater, a few of the roads are underwater, but they're draining slowly," Bechtold said.

Several county roads were reported to have standing water on them, but all were draining quickly, Cape Girardeau County emergency coordinator Dick Knaup said.

The NWS storm reports also indicated a number of downed tree limbs in the area.

Tornado sirens in Cape Girardeau and Scott counties went off during the storm, but they seemed delayed.

Knaup said Cape Girardeau County followed protocol, and the sheriff's department ultimately pulled the alarm.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency safe room in Scott City was unlocked for residents, but a little later than needed.

Mayor Tim Porch of Scott City said the tornado warning was issued only a few minutes before the storm came through Wednesday evening.

"The protocol is for Scott City police to open the building when a tornado warning is issued, and fire personnel will also respond," Porch said in an email. "The room will remain available and open as long as a tornado warning is in effect."

Since the FEMA safe room is new to the city, they still are working on the best method to inform people and keep everyone safe during bad weather.

Porch said next week, the city hopefully is going to meet with the school to discuss and improve the protocol for opening and manning the safe room when needed.

smaue@semissourian.com

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