Deadly tornado hits Glenallen, Missouri in the middle of the night
A sad scene this morning as daylight breaks over Bollinger County, Missouri. Reportedly a tornado touched down late last night near the town of Glenallen which sits about 200 miles east of Springfield.
The tornado brought with it plenty of destruction and several deaths. Missouri Governor Mike Parson posted on his Facebook page, “Overnight, parts of Missouri experienced damaging severe storms, and we’ve received reports of a tornado in Bollinger County. At this time, fatalities have been confirmed and others have been injured…We appreciate the work of our first responders and the many neighbors who reached out to help their neighbors, and our prayers are with the loved ones of those who were killed during the storms.”
The exact number of deaths and injuries has not yet been confirmed as rescue efforts are still underway.
Sgt. Clark Parrott of the Missouri State Highway Patrol said “The damage is pretty widespread. It’s just heartbreaking to see it.”
He noted a search and rescue operation involving multiple agencies was underway and that crews had to use chainsaws to cutback trees and brush to reach some homes.
The patrol posted an overhead photo of the damage that showed uprooted trees and homes that had been reduced to rubble.
Justin Gibbs, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Paducah, Kentucky, said the tornado touched down at around 3:30 a.m. and remained on the ground for roughly 15 minutes, traveling an estimated 15-20 miles (24-32 kilometers).
A weather service team was headed to Bollinger County to gather details about the tornado, but Gibbs said it’s clear “it was big. It was a significant tornado.”
He noted that tornadoes are especially dangerous when they touch down late at night or early in the morning, as this one did.
“It’s definitely a nightmare from a warning standpoint,” Gibbs said. “It’s bad anytime, but it’s especially bad at 3:30 in the morning.”
The storms moving through the Midwest and South threaten some areas still reeling from a deadly bout of bad weather last weekend. The Storm Prediction Center said up to 40 million people in an area that includes major cities including Chicago, Indianapolis, Detroit and Memphis, Tennessee, were at risk from the storms later Wednesday. As of late Wednesday morning, the greatest threat appeared to be to an area stretching from lower Michigan into Tennessee and Kentucky.
Fierce storms that started last Friday and continued through the weekend spawned deadly tornadoes in 11 states as the system plodded through Arkansas and into the South, Midwest and Northeast.
Schools in Little Rock, Arkansas, canceled Wednesday classes because the storms were expected to move through the area during the morning rush.
At least two tornadoes were confirmed Tuesday in Illinois as storms targeted the state and eastern Iowa and southwest Wisconsin before nightfall.
The National Weather Service issued tornado warnings in Iowa and Illinois on Tuesday evening and said a confirmed twister was spotted southwest of Chicago near Bryant, Illinois. Officials said another tornado touched down Tuesday morning in the western Illinois community of Colona. Local news reports showed wind damage to some businesses there.
Earlier Tuesday, strong thunderstorms swept through the Quad Cities area of Iowa and Illinois, with winds up to 90 mph (145 kph) and baseball-sized hail. No injuries were reported, but trees were downed and some businesses were damaged in Moline, Illinois.
