Storm rumbles through Bootheel

VANDUSER, Mo. -- Harold Graviett has seen a lot of rain and thunder and he weathered the tornado of 1986 but Wednesday's storm was unlike any other, he said.

Graviett, the Vanduser mayor, said in the few minutes the storm blew through his community, it caused several thousands dollars in damage.

"It kind of caught us off guard," Graviett said about the storm about 3:30 p.m.

Thursday in Vanduser, northwest of Sikeston, Mo.,

"the winds were swirling, like tornado winds rather than straight winds," he said estimating the winds reached about 80 to 100 miles an hour.

During the 10 to 15 minutes the storm lasted several large trees were uprooted. Two cars and several houses were damaged by falling trees and limbs, the mayor indicated.

Telephone service was out for several hours for the community's 200 residents. Also power was not restored to Vanduser until after midnight.

"It really came through quick. It was here and gone in ten minutes," said Graviett. "This was a very unusual storm for this time of year."

Stoddard County

In Dexter, clouds swirled and skies turned dark as winds whipped leaves and limbs when Stoddard County was hit by storms Wednesday afternoon.

The line of severe weather hit the area at around 4 p.m. Wednesday, blowing through the area and leaving downed power lines, trees and limbs down and some pea-size hail in its wake.

Dexter Police Chief Ken Rinehart said Thursday that no major damage was reported in the city from the storm that reached 55 miles an hour.

"There was nothing but some limbs which the street crews picked up and the power outages," Rinehart said. He added there were several reports of pea-size hail pelting the area.

More than 500 Dexter residents in the area near Missouri Southern Healthcare, formerly Dexter Memorial Hospital, were without power for 30 to 45 minutes. Scott Blankenship of AmerenUE reported that customers were in what the utility company calls the "hospital circuit."

"There were approximately 500 customers out on that circuit without power," Blankenship said. The area includes Business Highway 60 and North One Mile Road.

"The storm blew in here fast," Blankenship noted. "We were extremely lucky. But we withstood the blow."

Blankenship reported two utility poles went down just north of the Tyson plant. Power to the residents in that area was restored at 10 p.m. Wednesday.

At Essex

In addition to the 500 customers in Dexter, Blankenship said there were almost 300 utility customers in the Essex, Mo., area without power due to the storm. The same crews that worked to restore power in Dexter went east to Essex to restore power in that area.

"In fact, all our people are still out," Blankenship said Thursday morning. The Dexter crews were in the Senath-Hornersville area in Dunklin County helping to clean up that area from storms.

The high winds that whipped through the area also caused some gasoline pumps at BJ's Quick Shop on Highway 25 to tilt. Workers at the store noticed the pumps about to fall over, and customers quickly moved vehicles. Late Wednesday afternoon the pumps were propped upright by two large pieces of equipment.

County director of emergency services Bill Pippins said minor damage was sustained in Stoddard County. A tree went down over Route J near Bloomfield, Mo., but wasn't in the road long.

At the Mingo Wildlife Refuge near Puxico, Mo., Pippins said four people attempted to get in a vehicle near the boardwalk area and a tree came down and landed flush on two of them and glanced off the other two people.

The two who were pinned were able to be removed and were transported by Stoddard County Ambulance to Missouri Southern Healthcare in Dexter. Pippins did not the extent of their injuries.

"We may have experienced a micro-burst in my neighborhood," Pippins said. The micro-burst damaged roofs on five or six houses in the Northwest Oaks Subdivision of Dexter. It was mostly minor damage with shingles stripped off rooftops.