Storm downs trees, knocks out power

THUNDERSTORM NOT SEVERE

By Scott Moyers ~ Southeast Missourian

The wind and rain never reached severe-weather levels, but Wednesday's early-morning thunderstorm was powerful enough to knock out power to thousands of Cape Girardeau homes and prompt more than 75 calls for help to remove trees and limbs from streets and yards.

Police say the storm knocked down at least 17 trees, damaging two vehicles and sending a limb through a 66-year-old woman's roof. Police said they received no reports of injuries.

The National Weather Service in Paducah, Ky., which monitors the Cape Girardeau area, said the conditions did not warrant being called a severe thunderstorm. Winds were clocked at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport as high as 36 mph and Weather Service meteorologist Greg Meffert said they reached higher than that in other parts of the county.

In order for winds from a thunderstorm to be classified as severe, they must reach a speed of 57.5 mph or greater.

A little more than 2-1/2 inches of rain fell Tuesday night and Wednesday, he said.

But the storm was only part of the problem. Meffert said the rain over the past few weeks has left the soil moist, making trees easier to uproot.

"It wasn't severe weather," he said. "What happened was more the result of unfortunate wetness, everything's just very saturated. It didn't take much to knock over those trees."

John Kiefer, who lives at 337 N. Middle, had a tree fall on his pickup truck.

"The storm woke me up about 1:30, and I turned on the Weather Channel," Kiefer said. "At 10 after 2, I heard a loud crash. My wife told me, 'Don't look outside.'"

The truck suffered just a few dents.

There was more damage to the home of Neva Kay Ross, 66, who was in bed at 2:15 a.m. listening to the wind and rain before a tree limb stabbed through her roof.

"I heard a crash and woosh, and I rolled over off my bed and onto the floor," said Ross, who lives alone in the house she bought in 1965.

She heard water pouring into her dark bedroom. When she got up and turned on the light, she saw the limb poking out of the ceiling.

"It was very frightening," she said. "God must have been watching over me."

With flood warnings in effect across Missouri Wednesday, Meffert said Friday promised a respite from rain.

"But that respite looks to be brief," he said. "There's another chance of thundershowers coming in for the weekend. It could get quite interesting. It doesn't look good right now."

Closing the gates

Andy Juden, head of the Main Street Levee District, said the additional rain forecast for north of Southeast Missouri is expected to push the Mississippi River high enough to warrant closing the flood gates. On Wednesday, the river reached 33 feet and it is expected to reach 44 feet by Monday. The flood gates are closed when the river reaches about 39 feet.

Juden said the Themis Street gate was scheduled to close at 8 a.m. today. The Broadway gate will close sometime Friday, he said.

Cape Girardeau Public Works director Doug Leslie said that 70 city employees from the stormwater and street maintenance crews were out Wednesday, starting with 20 workers at 2 a.m. and then 50 more when the day shift started.

While the main streets were cleared of debris by early morning, Leslie said it would likely take a couple of days before all of the downed trees and limbs could be removed from yards and side streets.

The concentration of work took place north of Broadway and east of Perry Avenue, where he said the damage was substantial.

"We had more than we could handle for a while," he said. "Some of them got the limbs out of the streets and came back and cleaned up later."

He said public works fielded more than 75 calls by noon on Wednesday from residents wanting assistance cleaning up limbs and trees.

The downed trees also fell into power lines, knocking out power for 6,500 people at one time during the night, said Doug Groesbeck, Ameren UE's district manager. But by noon, power had been restored to all but 300 Cape Girardeau residents.

Most of those went without power until about 4 a.m., Groesbeck said.

smoyers@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137