Residents are trying to pick up after a tornado leveled homes, took down power lines, lifted furniture and uprooted trees in Clinton County.
A tornado touched down Monday night between 7:15 and 7:46 p.m. The National Weather Service has determined the strength of the tornado as an EF-2 with the peak wind at 132 miles per hour. The tornado traveled from Smithville to Lathrop, a path of 18.7 miles. Julie Adolphson, Meteorologist in charge with the NWS of Pleasant Hill said a team was deployed Tuesday morning to assess the damage.
“Our path looks like just south of Trimble and moving towards the northeast, south of Plattsburg, and just on the southern edge of Lathrop and towards the northeast of Lathrop where it looks like that’s where it ended near Missouri 110,” Adolphson said. “I have to go through and compare the reports we received from spotters along with the survey team.”
No fatalities were reported. Adolphson said the strongest part of the tornado appears to have hit the areas of southwest McComas Ln. and southwest State Highway J.
Matt and Adrian Gaines said they were home at the time the tornado hit in the area of southwest State Highway J.
“It was one of the worst experiences of my whole life,” Adrian said. “I’m learning from first-hand experience the suffering and the pain of losing everything. But I have great gratitude, and I’d say the humility of being alive, and my partner being alive and our dog being alive. The material things are gone but the things that can never be replaced are here.”
Matt said he was standing on the front porch of their home watching the lightning when he heard a roar.
“I knew it was bad. I grabbed my partner and we went into the basement,” Matt said.
“It sounds like a train at first,”Adrian said. “Five minutes before our house blew away we went down to the basement.”
Their home was demolished. Matt said their gun safe fell in front of them in the basement and he believes it saved their lives by creating a barrier.
Rick Bashor, acting Public Information Officer for Clinton County Emergency Management Response said during the storm officials received a report of two people with minor injuries that were transported by ambulance to a hospital for treatment. Bashor said two other people also received minor injuries from the storm and were transported by private vehicle for treatment.
In addition to debris and damage to buildings, Bashor said there was also a large power outage in the Lathrop and Plattsburg area.
“Emergency management has been in contact with the power companies and they’re trying to restore it as soon as possible,” Bashor said. “The earliest they’re saying is midday today into tomorrow before they can get power back.”
The Red Cross of Northwest Missouri deployed volunteers Tuesday morning to assist Clinton County residents in the clean up. Karla Long, Red Cross Emergency Services Dir. said preliminary information they received indicated between 25 to 50 homes were impacted during the storm.
“We’ve got trash bags, and boxes, snacks, water, shovels, rakes, gloves and we’ll be going into the affected area and if anybody needs any of that product we just distribute it out free of charge for them to be able to start that clean-up process,” Long said. “Those teams will be going out and will be reporting back to us later today what we’re actually seeing in the field.”