Deadly storms slam area

May 11, 2008 12:38 am

— From staff reports
news@joplinglobe.com
A tornado that ripped late Saturday afternoon through Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri is being blamed for at least five deaths in Picher, Okla., and at least six deaths in Newton County in Missouri.
Another fatality was being blamed on what might have been straight-line winds in Jasper County, four miles east of Carthage.
The National Weather Service at Tulsa, Okla., was reporting that at least five people were killed in Picher. Other sources were citing larger numbers, but that could not be confirmed.
The NWS office at Springfield was reporting that at least three people were killed in the Racine area in northwestern Newton County, but the sheriff said there were six deaths in his county.
Approximately 95 people were being treated Saturday night in the emergency rooms at St. John’s Regional Medical Center and Freeman Hospital West in Joplin. Both hospitals had initiated their disaster-response plans. St. John’s sent a mobile ER to Newton County.
A spokeswoman for Freeman West said the injured were coming from Granby, an area north of Neosho, Picher, and an area near Highway 43 and Iris Road in Newton County.
Spokeswomen for both hospitals said patients were arriving at the hospitals via private vehicles, ambulances and helicopters as late as 10 p.m. Saturday. The tornado struck Picher about 6 p.m.
Picher, Okla.
Eric Johnson, city attorney for Picher, said a disaster command post had been set up at the Picher Fire Department and that 15 light stands had been brought to the town to begin a house-to-a- house search for survivors who might still be trapped in the rubble.
Johnson said that emergency responders were descending on the town from across the region.
Johnson said up to 200 houses were damaged or destroyed at Picher.
A shelter for those displaced by the tornado was activated at 9 p.m. at the First Christian Church in Miami, Okla.
Ottawa County Sheriff Terry Durborow said about nightfall there were some deaths, but he didn’t know how many or if the number would rise during the night.
“It’s tragic,” Durborow said. “It’s terrible.”
The area south and east of downtown Picher was a scene of devastation, with countless homes destroyed. Leaves, limbs and bark was stripped off trees in the area where the tornado struck. Downed power lines littered the highway.
Durborow said a search-and-rescue effort was being formed to find those who may be trapped under debris. Police officers from Baxter Springs, Kan., as they drove by, were told of a man who may be inside a mangled mobile home. The Baxter Springs police informed local authorities.
Ambulances from many locations lined the road around a command post waiting to take away the injured. A medical helicopter also periodically took injured from the scene.
A shelter for storm victims was being set up at Southeast Baptist Church in Commerce and other shelters were being established, Durborow said.
Newton County
At least six residents of northern Newton County were killed and others were injured when a tornado with winds of at least 80 mph swept through the area, according to Sheriff Ken Copeland.
Search-and-rescue efforts were continuing late Saturday, and emergency command posts had been set up, along with shelters for people whose homes were damaged or destroyed, according to Copeland.
“We’ve got people working search and rescue and some working security; the Missouri State Highway Patrol is helping us with that,” he said. “We’ll have 50 Missouri National Guard troops coming in early tomorrow.”
He said Gov. Matt Blunt had contacted local officials and offered “any and all help,” and that Gary Roark, county emergency management coordinator, was in communications with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
He said the shelters were at Calvary Baptist Church in Neosho, First Baptist Church at Diamond and the Granby Fire Department.
Copeland said the main emergency command post was at the National Guard Armory in Neosho, with other posts at Highway 43 and Route BB, at the fire station in Granby and a mobile center in Newtonia.
The deaths were reported where the tornado apparently touched down in an area of Iris Road and Route BB, according to Bill Davis, with the National Weather Service in Springfield.
Davis said it appeared the tornado started in the area of Chetopa, Kan., then hit Picher, then crossed the state line east of Baxter Springs before bearing down on the Iris Road and BB area northeast of Seneca. The storm then traveled to Granby, hit Newtonia, hit an area in Monett and dissipated in the area of Purdy.
“By that time, it was a severe thunderstorm, but up to then, it was tornadic, with winds of at least 80 to 100 miles an hour,” he said.
He said damage “was in a wide path with a lot of houses destroyed and damaged.
He said another death, was reported after a tree fell on a mobile home east of Carthage, but that was due to high winds.
Copeland said the storm “absolutely leveled many homes,” overturned cars and felled trees in that area of northern Newton County.
He said the path of the storm, from Iris Road and BB to Granby, may have been as much as a mile wide in some areas.
He said Newton County ambulance personnel had set up a triage center in the area and in some cases, emergency crews were using pickup trucks to bring out injured. He said several injured also were taken out by helicopter.
Copeland said emergency crews had trouble getting in and out of the area because of people who had come to see the damage. He said roads crowded by sightseers also made it difficult for utility crews trying to get into the area to restore power.
“If it’s people coming to check on relatives I can understand,” he said. “But other people just coming down to look are making it hard for emergency crews to get in, and we’re having to use people for traffic control when we need to be out helping the victims.”
Steve Piltz, with the National Weather Service in Tulsa, Okla., said from tracking the storm on radar “it may have been one large tornado.”
“Preliminary reports make it look like it was very likely the same tornado on the ground for as much as 50 miles,” he said.
He said there had been reports “that the entire south end of Picher was flattened.” He said there had been reports of first responders freeing people trapped in rubble and of a several injured.
Nicole McGavock, NWS meteorologist in Tulsa, said later that Picher emergency management officials were reporting five fatalities and 20 blocks of structures in the community “heavily damaged.”
Mark Rakes, with New-Mac Electric Co., said the storm caused “massive damage” that will result in extended power outages.
“It hit us hard in Fairview, Newtonia, Granby and Neosho and power’s going to be down for a while, “ he said. “We’ve scrambled people; we’ve got crews coming in from all over. But (the storm) destroyed a lot of heavy line in some areas, and there are areas where power poles are down for miles.”
About 14,000 customers of Empire District Electric Co. were left without power as a result of the storm, according to Amy Bass, a corporate spokeswoman.
Carol Stark, editor of the Globe, was driving on Bethel Road near Iris Road around 6 p.m. when debris from a tornado started flying around her SUV.
“A trailer house right across from us exploded,” she said from the scene. “The sheet metal hit my vehicle, and the storm picked up the Expedition and blew us into a ditch.
“It lasted maybe two or three minutes, and blew out all the windows. We’re OK, but we’re all cut up from the glass.”
Stark said that trees were uprooted all over the scene, and she witnessed one woman lying naked in a ditch who was being attended to by emergency personnel.
Patsy Edwards said that she and her son had pulled their vehicle to a stop on Iris Road when the storm hit them.
“It got really dark and was raining so hard and we couldn’t see anything,” said Edwards, who lives nearby on Eland Road. “My son and I are fine, but my car is totaled. The windows were all broke out and there’s a big, old tree limb on it.”
Contacting the Globe via e-mail, Julie Blackburn — who lives on the south side of Joplin — described the path of destruction she witnessed while traveling on Route NN near Neosho.
“The trees that are left standing are completely stripped of leaves, smaller limbs and bark,” Blackburn wrote. “There are houses completely demolished. The highway patrol has every road leading into Seneca and Neosho blocked.
“The path of destruction runs for miles. There is debris as far as they eye can see. The power poles are either down or leaning, fences are destroyed and cattle are escaping onto roadways.”
Bill Lynch, of Newton County, stood outside what was left of his home Saturday night, taking stock of his devastated surroundings.
“There used to be a church right here, a beautiful one,” he said, pointing out what had been the Seventh-Day Adventist Church at the Granby exit of Missouri highways 59 and 60. “They were there this morning,” he said of congregation members. Now, the church is a pile of rubble.
Then he turned. “My airplane’s over here in a tree,” he said.
The plane is a Piper Tri-Pacer 150-horsepower, four-seater that weighs 1,120 pounds. It had been housed in his metal hangar. But now, it rested 70 yards away, upside down in a tree, it’s nose touching the ground.
In that hangar he also had a John Deere tractor, a 1966 Chevelle and a hot-air balloon in a trailer, all destroyed.
Lynch said he heard storm sirens at his home at 18286 Highway 60, right before the storm hit, and he was thinking he should get to his basement.
“Actually, I was going to go out to my truck and get this flashlight, but I heard this roaring and I didn’t go out there,” he said. Instead, he headed for his basement.
The storm uprooted a huge oak tree in his yard and smashed it into his house. The walls are standing, but the roof is caved in and the windows blown out. The garage is destroyed.
He said he talked to his neighbors, but hasn’t heard of any casualties in his neighborhood.
The town of Granby was without power, sustained extensive damage but nobody was reported hurt as of Saturday night.
Nearby in Newtonia, though, people may not have been so lucky.
Seth Jones, 17, and Shyla Stribling, 16, had been in a house on North Main Street in Granby when the storm hit.
There was so much hail and rain, “You couldn’t even see out the windows,” Jones said.
“It was white, plain white,” Stribling said. They said they saw hail stones up to the size of oranges or small grapefruits. They put one in their freezer.
At Granby, it appears that the storm veered southeast, hitting Newtonia.
Rescue workers weren’t allowing reporters into the small town Saturday night, but earlier Jones and Stribling had driven out past Granby High School and into Newtonia, where there were eight or nine ambulances.
“There were people getting pulled out from under houses,” Jones said.
Barry County
Purdy was in the dark Saturday night, apparently with no telephone service.
The Barry County Sheriff’s Department would not give any details of the storm damage, but a witness, Ty Goetz, of Monett, said he saw damage in north Purdy as he went to check on relatives in the area.
“On the north side of Purdy, there’s a lot of house damage and trees down,” Goetz said.
He said sheriff’s deputies and other rescue workers were searching for injured or people in need of help, he said.
Goetz said the damage appeared to be along the area bordering Missouri Highway 37 East.
“There’s no electricity in Purdy and I don’t think the phones are working,” Goetz said.
Globe staff writers Susan Redden, Debby Woodin, Jeff Lehr, Wally Kennedy and Roger McKinney contributed to this report.

Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.