More than 10,000 without electricity after Sunday afternoon storm

A thunderstorm moved through Butler and surrounding counties Sunday afternoon, damaging homes and leaving behind downed trees, blocked roadways and power outages.

No injuries were reported, but an estimated 12,000 Ozark Border Electric Cooperative members were without power after the storm.

The thunderstorm caused "straight-line wind damage, a lot of it," according to the National Weather Service in Paducah, Kentucky. There were no reports any tornadic activity.

The storm hit Van Buren in Carter County, Missouri, at about 12:45 p.m.

"It looked like a hurricane, sheets of rain and wind," said Gary Sullivan, a dispatcher with the Carter County Sheriff's Department. "It wasn't a noisy storm. There wasn't any thunder and lightning, just wind and rain."

The "main cell," according to Carter County Sheriff Rick Stephens, lasted about 45 minutes, with "heavy, heavy rain (and) heavy, heavy wind."

In its aftermath were a lot of downed trees countywide and power outages.

Power was out in Fremont and Van Buren, with power lines down in Ellsinore, Sullivan said.

"We had a few people trapped with trees down on M Highway," said Stephens, who indicated motorists were stranded on the road between fallen trees.

People, Sullivan said, also were trapped by trees at Watercress Park in Van Buren.

As the storm moved into Butler and Wayne counties, the high winds caused downed trees.

The roof was "completely blown off of a house in Neelyville, 1 mile south of Highway 142 on (Highway) 67," said Craig Meador with the Poplar Bluff Severe Weather Response Team.

A tree, Meador said, also fell on a home at 117 W. Center St., trapping its resident(s) inside.

Poplar Bluff fire Capt. Jeff Hale said firefighters found a tree had fallen on the home, "pushing the roof and tree itself down on top of a bed where a girl was laying.

"We cut the roof out from underneath the tree, (then) cut a hole for the girl to crawl out of."

The girl, who was believed to be a teenager, was taken by ambulance for treatment, but "I don't believe she was injured," Hale said.

The Center Street home was one of four firefighters responded to regarding trees having fallen on houses, Hale said.

Missouri State Highway Patrol troopers were on the scene of multiple trees down over the road after the "strong line of storms move through Wayne and Butler County" Sunday afternoon, said Sgt. Clark Parrott, Troop E's public information officer.

In Ripley County, Meadow said, there were reports of lots of trees down and some scattered power outages.

"We've got roughly a third of our system off, about 12,000 are off right now," said David Schremp, Ozark Border's general manager.

The AT&T phone system in the area, according to Schremp, has been overloaded, making it "hard for our members to get a hold of us."

Schremp said he had employees standing by to answer the phones, but no calls were coming through.

In the City of Poplar Bluff, Municipal Utilities general manager Bill Bach said the first outages were reported at 1:37 p.m.

The outages, Bach said, were scattered in town.

In Stoddard County, Sheriff Carl Hefner said, they had a "few trees down, a few power lines down" countywide.

"I don't know of any buildings that are down right now," Hefner said just before 4 p.m.

Myers said another system is possible today.

In Ripley County, Sheriff Mike Barton said, there were a few trees down around the county in the areas of routes E and CC, as well as a couple on the Ripley Lake Road, on Route C at Route JJ, and at the end of Route M.

Barton said he was unaware of any reports of major damage.