Survivors relate experiences from Tuesday's tornado

Dog travels from kennel to courthouse lawn

Early Wednesday morning, Larry Stone stood looking at the concrete pad where his dog training business in Jackson used to be.

Normally a jovial character, Stone surveyed the damage.

"It's all gone," he said, solemnly.

But his biggest worry wasn't of the business that used to be.

It was of a white, fluffy Australian Shepherd named Pea that was unaccounted for. It was the only dog in the building when the tornado hit Tuesday night.

Stone and Bobbi Mize, the K-9 training manager, looked all over for Pea, but couldn't find him.

"I would get on my knees and kiss the ground if we could find that dog," she said, while collecting savable items and placing them on the concrete pad.

Neither Mize nor Stone had to kiss the ground.

Some time in late morning, county employees found Pea roaming the courthouse lawn.

"He didn't have a scratch on him," Stone said.

Jackson man races twister to reach home

With each stroke of lightning, Mike Turbeville could see the tornado.

Traveling home from Patton, Mo., he first picked up sight of the twister at Millersville and with each flash, he grew more concerned about his home in Jackson.

He topped the hill just outside of Jackson and saw lights going off one by one as if the town was being passed over by a death angel.

As he drove closer, he worried about his home. He followed the tornado's destruction to his doorstep. The twister ripped a hole in the side of his brick house on Adams Street, the wind ransacking the contents upstairs. The tornado dumped a street sign in the back seat of a relative's car that was parked on the street.

His dog Spanky, chained to a trash bin, was found 15 feet away from his normal spot.

Antique store's total inventory water logged

"It's a total loss," said Garry Seabaugh, owner of Seabaugh Woodworking and G&G Storage.

"We have insurance on the buildings, but not on the contents," he said, shaking his head as he looked over the piles of antiques and hand-made furniture.

As family and friends carried out merchandise from inside the store showroom, most of the $80,000 worth of inventory was found to be water logged. Most of the custom furniture work will have to be refinished and some of the antiques belonging to customers may be ruined, he said.

"The wife told me we ought to just clean it up and go work for somebody else," Seabaugh said. "But we're gonna try and see if we can make it."

When the tornado hit, Seabaugh had just gotten home but had intended to go back to the shop to turn off a computer. His daughter persuaded him to stay.

"If it wouldn't have been for her, I'd have been right here," he said. "I just got lucky is all I can say. The good Lord was looking out for me."

Businesswoman worries over damages

Not even her sunglasses could not hide the worry in Rita Leimer's eyes Wednesday morning as she saw the contents of her customer's storage units laying about in large, wet piles.

An entire row of Mill Warehouse storage units was ripped up by the tornado, leaving behind the contents.

"The building? It's all over the city of Jackson," Leimer said, waving her arm.

Jutting out of the top of one pile was the blue star field of an American flag on its pole.

"It's kind of strange how it ended up like that," she said. "It reminds me of the one the firefighters put up in New York."

Leimer also owns a handful of other nearby buildings and businesses, including Kasten Building Supply, which sustained heavy roof and wall damage. Some of the plywood inside might be salvageable, but it is too soon to tell, she said.

At her Cross Creek Antiques store, the damage was much the same.

"The roof peeled, the windows are blown out and it's water damaged," she said. "We may have to tear it down because it's such a big roof. But we just have to take it as it comes."

Bakery owner marvels at support from community

Tornadoes are selective in their destruction, as evidenced by what was once Meyer's Bakery. Inside what remains of the four walls sits a refrigerated case holding about a dozen cakes -- untouched by the winds and debris.

But owner Brian Meyer marveled more at the amount of support he's been given by the community.

"People have been calling and leaving me messages on my machine since last night," he said. "Neighbors we don't even know are showing up to help."

Another local bakery is buying his remaining cooking ingredients, he said. Meyer spent the morning helped by several staff, family and friends, loading buckets of cake filling and icing and large bags of flour and sugar onto a flat bed trailer.

Having bought the business two years ago, he isn't sure what the future holds, but the building has been a local bake spot for about 15 years and he wants to carry on for the customers.

"We don't know at this point," he said.

-- Bob Miller and Mike Wells

Southeast Missourian