A tornado tore through the southwest town of Ava this morning, damaging buildings, even the school, but apparently going through the town without injuring anyone. The tornado touched down in the central business district of the town of 3,000. It damaged an estimated 20 business. A strip mall has been extensively damaged.
Joe Corum with Missourinet affiliate KKOZ has surveyed the damaged, acknowledges it’s extensive, but not as bad as the region has seen in the past. He says he would term the damage "modest" compared with the tornadoes that hit Pierce City and Stockton nearly five years ago, in May of 2003. KKOZ was knocked off the air for a time and had to come back on emergency power.
Corum says the biggest problem now is clearing the area of sightseers, who are getting in the way of clean-up.
Download/listen Joe Colrum, KKOZ reports (:40 MP3)
