STORM: HEAVY WINDS DELIVER BLOW TO EAST CAPE

EAST CAPE GIRARDEAU, Ill. -Strong winds and heavy rains the night before left members of this Illinois community cleaning up extensive tree and limb damage Thursday.

There was minor damage to gutters and roofs on several homes in the village. Part of the roof was blown off a church building, but none of the four people inside at the time were injured.

The storm hit about 6:45 p.m. Wednesday, taking with it a part of the new roof of the Word of Life Fellowship Church on Route 146 in East Cape Girardeau.

The church's pastor, the Rev. Bruce Masterson, said those inside were so mesmerized by the approaching storm they forgot to take cover.

"Instead of getting down on the floor, they just stood there, watching the storm as it came across the (Mississippi) river," he said. "Before they realized it, the storm was there."

Masterson said when the storm hit, cars parked in the parking lot in front of the church "were dancing up and down" from the impact of the strong wind.

The wind lifted up the northwest edge of the roof on the one-story, steel building, blowing parts of it onto the parking lot and onto Route 146. Witnesses said some of the roofing material struck a car on the highway, but the vehicle was not damaged.

A worker cleaning up debris at the church Thursday morning said an older roof that was under the new covering remained on the building, but some rain did get inside. Damage was limited to wet ceiling tile and carpeting.

"Church services have been canceled for this Sunday," Masterson said.

Mary Ambercrombie of 59 Eastwood realized something was wrong when she crossed the Mississippi River bridge and could not see any street lights.

"When I turned onto my street and got closer, I could see red lights flashing," she said. "When I pulled into the driveway, they were having a limb party in my back yard."

"They" were the McClure-East Cape Girardeau Fire Department and repairmen from the Southern Illinois Electric Cooperative who were trying to remove downed tree limbs from Ambercrombie's electric service line. She said power in parts of the village was off for about six hours.

Ambercrombie said the strong wind blew out the tops of three of her soft maple trees on the west side of the house.

"The tree limbs damaged the gutter and pulled my electric service away from the house when they fell on the line. But they missed the TV antenna and my barbecue pit," she said.

Down the street, at the Lannie Martin residence at 52 Eastwood, a large limb fell onto the roof causing minor damage to the gutter. Another large limb on a soft maple tree fell on a metal storage shed damaging the roof.

At many other homes in the village, smaller tree limbs were blown down, but there was no structural damage.

In East Cape Terrace, the wind lifted and twisted the support beams of a wooden carport, causing it to lean against the vacant house.

The wind also blew down sections of several billboards along the highway between East Cape and the bridge.

Although some residents thought it was a small tornado, an examination of the tree limbs and roof debris from the church building indicated straight-line thunderstorm winds from the west-northwest caused the damage.

The path of the storm appeared to come across the river from Cape Girardeau, but there were no reports of wind damage in the city.

However, lighting did strike Cape Girardeau police headquarters. Capt. Steve Strong said the bolt traveled down a metal exhaust pipe into the basement where it blew up a heavy duty battery used to start the emergency power generator.

Strong said the generator was not damaged. "We replaced the dam~aged battery with a spare, and fired up the generator for about 10-15 minutes to make sure everything was OK, then shut it down," he said.

The National Weather Service said last night's storm was part of wider area of heavy thunderstorms that rumbled over Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois. A severe thunderstorm watch was in effect until midnight for most of the area.

The weather service said trees and power lines were blown down in Carbondale at about 5:14 p.m. A short time later, 1-inch to two-inch hail was reported at New Burnside in Johnson County.

The storms developed along a stationary front that stretched across the bi-state area. More thunderstorms are forecast today and Saturday.