Tornado strikes New Hamburg briefly; no injuries

NEW HAMBURG, Mo. -- The weather in Southeast Missouri turned unseasonably violent on Tuesday, leading to tornado warnings for Cape Girardeau, Scott and Bollinger counties in Missouri and Alexander county in Illinois.

In New Hamburg, a tornado briefly touched down sometime between 5:15 and 5:20 p.m.

According to the Scott County Sheriff's Department, the twister uprooted trees and caused structural damage to several businesses, but there were no injuries.

The department said that there was no damage outside of New Hamburg, except for debris on the roads.

Leslie Sappington was working at Schindler's Tavern in New Hamburg when the storm struck. She said she and some other people were standing outside when someone yelled there was a tornado, at which point they quickly went to the back storage room for shelter.

"We never heard a really loud noise, but our ears were popping," Sappington said.

The storm brought some structural damage to the tavern, but nothing major and not as bad as the damage at other businesses, she said.

"The good thing about a small town is that everybody is out helping people get things fixed up," Sappington said.

At Kern's grocery store, the roof that had been damaged as a result of the tornado was already in the process of being fixed Tuesday night thanks to help from friends and family, said store owner Luella Kern.

"There was a lot of damage in town. It's been crazy," Kern said. "Around town there's been a lot of houses with windows blown out and trees down."

She said a local bed and breakfast, Tranquil Lake, lost a silo and a barn in the storm.

Like Sappington, Kern was at work when the twister touched down.

"It just came so fast," Kern said.

kalfisi@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182