(Missourinet Springfield television partner KOLR-10 and our Lebanon affiliate KBNN contributed to this story)
Monday afternoon’s severe weather across southern Missouri prompted numerous severe thunderstorm warnings from the National Weather Service (NWS) in Springfield, and has left several thousand residents without power in southwest Missouri’s Laclede County.
There are no reports of serious injuries, at this time.
Missourinet Springfield television partner KOLR-10 reports Laclede Electric Cooperative (LEC) has about 6,000 members without power. LEC says those members should be prepared for a 24 to 48-hour outage.
Missourinet Lebanon affiliate KBNN reports Monday’s severe weather caused damage at the Floyd Jones Airport in Lebanon (May 4, 2020 photo courtesy of KBNN Radio website)
Laclede Electric Cooperative says there is extensive damage to its power infrastructure in the Lebanon area, including multiple broken poles and transmission lines. There are also numerous reports of trees falling on power lines.
National Weather Service Springfield meteorologist Michael Albano tells Missourinet the NWS’ Springfield office has already issued a combined total of 54 severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings today. 52 of them were severe thunderstorm warnings, and the tornado warnings were in the Goodman area and in the Barton/Cedar/Vernon county area.
Mr. Albano tells Missourinet the greatest damage appears to be in Laclede County, from apparent straight-line winds.
The strong winds blew several tractor trailers over on heavily-traveled I-44 in Laclede County, near the Durham Company in Lebanon. Truckers from across the nation use that route every week, delivering goods.
KOLR-10 showed video of the semis. It appears that one blew over on eastbound I-44, while the other blew over on westbound I-44.
Missourinet Lebanon affiliate KBNN reports there is also damage at Lebanon’s Floyd Jones Airport.
KOLR-10 also reports severe storms have destroyed the roof at Mansfield High School in southern Missouri’s Wright County.
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