Predawn Missouri tornado kills at least 5, sows destruction

Debris covers the ground as homes are damaged after severe weather in Glen Allen, Mo., on Wednesday, April 5, 2023. A large tornado tore through southeastern Missouri before dawn on Wednesday, killing several people and causing widespread destruction.  (Courtesy of Josh Wells via AP)
Debris covers the ground as homes are damaged after severe weather in Glen Allen, Mo., on Wednesday, April 5, 2023. A large tornado tore through southeastern Missouri before dawn on Wednesday, killing several people and causing widespread destruction. (Courtesy of Josh Wells via AP)

By JIM SALTER and SCOTT McFETRIDGE

Associated Press

GLEN ALLEN, Mo. (AP) -- A large tornado tore through southeastern Missouri before dawn on Wednesday, killing at least five people and causing widespread destruction as a broad swath of the Midwest and South kept a wary eye out for further storms that could spawn additional twisters and hail.

Wednesday's severe weather was the third in a series of massive storms over the last two weeks that have spawned dozens of tornadoes, mainly in the South and Midwest, killing at least 63 people. Just last weekend, confirmed or suspected tornadoes in at least eight states laid waste to neighborhoods across a broad swath of the country.

The Missouri tornado touched down around 3:30 a.m. Wednesday and moved through a rural area of Bollinger County, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of St. Louis, said Sgt. Clark Parrott of the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

Trees were uprooted and homes turned into piles of splinters. One building was flipped on its side. Drone footage showed emergency crews peering into the wreckage with flashlights.

More than 20 agencies were part of the search for survivors and victims, with the damage so bad that they sometimes were forced to use chainsaws to cut back trees and brush to reach homes, Parrott said.

"The damage is pretty widespread. It's just heartbreaking to see it," Parrott said.

The twister caused significant destruction in and around the small rural communities of Glen Allen and Grassy, Bollinger County Sheriff Casey A. Graham said in a Facebook post. A hunting area separates the two communities.

Justin Gibbs, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Paducah, Kentucky, said the tornado 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."

Larry Welker, Bollinger County's public administrator, said the twister traveled along route 34 into Glen Allen, a village of slightly more than 100 people, and that he hasn't been able to inspect the damage firsthand because law enforcement were restricting access to the area.

The storms moving through the Midwest and South on Wednesday threaten some areas still reeling from the 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.

Schools in Little Rock, Arkansas, canceled Wednesday classes because the storms were expected to move through the area during the morning rush, KFVS-TV reported.

In central Illinois, authorities said five people were hurt and about 300 homes were without power due to a tornado that struck in Fulton County on Tuesday evening.

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.

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