Local women among 12 dead after storms rampage across Missouri

JEFFERSON COUNTY — At least 12 people were killed across Missouri in a tornado outbreak overnight, including one fatality in Jefferson County and one in St. Louis County. The storm system damaged homes and businesses throughout the St. Louis region.

Six deaths were reported in Wayne County, three in Ozark County and one in Butler County in the state’s southern region, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

A 51-year-old St. Charles woman died when she lost control after driving through a large pool of standing water in Jefferson County shortly before midnight Saturday. The car veered off the left side of the road and struck a concrete median before returning to the roadway and getting hit by another vehicle. The woman was declared dead at the scene and has not been identified.

In St. Louis County, a woman was electrocuted just after midnight Saturday after she came in contact with power lines in her backyard in the 3000 block of Wintergreen in the Old Jamestown area of North County. The woman, who died at the scene, has not been identified.

In Butler County, Coroner Jim Akers said a person was killed early Saturday after a tornado ripped apart a home.

“It was unrecognizable to be a home. Just a debris field,” Akers said, describing the scene that confronted rescuers when they arrived. “The floor was upside down. We were walking on walls.”

Rescuers managed to save a woman in the home, Akers said.

The National Weather Service said initial reports indicate up to 19 tornadoes of varying strengths touched down across the state.

“It’s going to take us days to sift through the information,” said Fred Glass, a NWS meteorologist. “There’s a lot we don’t know at this point.”

Glass said one single “supercell” thunderstorm plowed from the Villa Ridge area to West Alton, likely producing at least two tornadoes along that track and possibly more.

Barreling through at over 60 mph, the storm was too fast for its rain to trigger flash flooding, Glass said. Still, it delivered some significant rainfall in places: 1.8 inches of rain near Fairview Heights and 2.7 inches near Greenville, Illinois.

The Greenville area also recorded the largest local hailstone from the storm, with a diameter of 2.25 inches, Glass said. Meanwhile, places closer to St. Louis also saw “quite a bit of large hail,” he added, with the weather service receiving reports of hail ranging from 1-inch to golf ball-sized, including in south St. Louis County and Jefferson County.

Emergency responders worked through the night as storms blew through the St. Louis area, knocking out power, sparking brushfires and scattering debris.

Jefferson County was a regional focal point for storm damage.

“More than dozens” of local homes and businesses were damaged around Arnold, said Sgt. Andy Gadberry of the Missouri Highway Patrol, who was working in the area Saturday morning.

“There’s a lot of damage,” he said. “A lot of roofs missing.”

Businesses along Jeffco Boulevard in Arnold were shuttered Saturday after sustaining storm damage, including Walgreens, NAPA Auto Parts and a Salvation Army thrift store. Fox Senior High School, Fox Middle School and Fox Elementary, which share a campus, were centered in the hard-hit area, but appeared mostly unscathed.

The school alarms went off Friday night, said neighbors Jeff and Marlena Hayes, who live on Lonedell Road. The wind sheared the roof off one side of their home. At the house next door, windows were blown out. Jeff Hayes’ mother lives in the home behind theirs; her chimney was torn loose.

The couple said they were grateful everyone in their family was safe.

“It’s nothing we can control,” Jeff Hayes said as he cleared pieces of insulation from the yard.

Norman and Myrna Lamar, who live near St. David Catholic Church in Arnold, were cleaning out their leaky garage on Emil Drive early Saturday. Pieces of their siding were flapping loose in the breeze. A toppled evergreen had pulled down power lines and blocked the entrance to their street. A mangled trampoline sat in the front of a neighbor’s yard, blown there from two houses down.

“It came pretty good here,” Norman Lamar said.

St. Louis County received reports of minor storm-related injuries and extensive damage, according to County Executive Sam Page.

Crews were still assessing the impact, but believe the neighborhoods hit hardest were in Black Jack, Bridgeton and Florissant, county officials said Saturday morning at a press conference.

Page declared a state of emergency in the county and said early surveys indicate the damage is the most extensive since the Good Friday tornado in April 2011.

The Wolff family home on Scotch Drive in Bridgeton was one of several slammed by both storms 14 years apart.

Adriana Wolff, her husband and two children, ages 5 and 11, felt the house shaking from their spot in the basement Friday night. When they went upstairs, the roof was mostly gone. The carport collapsed, windows shattered and a fresh crack snaked through the foundation. A Barbie playhouse, a recent birthday gift, was tossed into the backyard.

“Materials come and go, but I’m glad we’re all OK,” Wolff said.

In Bridgeton, homes in the area of Avery Lane and Benedetta Drive saw “extensive damage,” police said, and access to the neighborhood was closed.

The winds were so strong they broke off a chunk of a chandelier inside the home of Deondre Wilkins near Benedetta and Lockport drives. A “bone-cracking” sound turned out to be a 30-foot tree that fell in the side yard.

“You could feel it,” Wilkins said.

Wilkins’ mother-in-law, Lisa Lee, who owns the home, said she got an estimate last week on cutting down vulnerable trees in the yard, including the one that narrowly missed a gas line when it fell.

“God just laid that tree down right there,” Lee said.

Dozens of people were looking over and cleaning up the damage Saturday in the neighborhood near the Bridgeton Recreation Center. A small box truck was tipped over, roof shingles were torn off and multiple trees were uprooted.

Organizers canceled the St. Patrick’s Day parade and festival in Florissant, citing extensive damage to the Duchesne Home Association fairgrounds. The roof of the nearby Old St. Ferdinand Shrine also sustained damage, they said. They urged residents to “help your neighbors in this time of need,” instead of celebrating the holiday.

A tree limb damaged the roof of Hendel’s restaurant, located in a historic building in Old Town Florissant.

“A lot of our houses and subdivisions have been hit also,” Mayor Tim Lowery told KSDK (Channel 5) early Saturday. “Tonight’s been, I’ll say, a very horrible night here in the city of Florissant.”

Residents were encouraged to call 211 to report non-life-threatening damage from the storm, said Michele Ryan, director of St. Louis County Office of Emergency Management.

County officials say they are trying to clear roads as quickly as possible. They have also received reports of motorists driving around downed power lines, which is extremely dangerous, Ryan said.

“It’s not worth the five minutes you’re going to save,” she said.

While MetroLink was running on schedule, MetroBus and Metro Call-A-Ride customers were asked to allow extra time, because drivers may need to reroute around areas with downed limbs, power lines and other obstructions. MetroBus routes in the Maryland Heights/Westport area and part of North County were among those affected, Metro Transit said in a release early Saturday. The 94 Page westbound was not able to serve Page between Lindbergh and Ball Road.

The storms caused widespread power outages. While crews were able to restore service to more than 50,000 customers, about 99,000 customers were still without power at 4 p.m. Saturday, including 81,000 in Missouri and 18,000 in Illinois, according to Ameren outage maps.

The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office reported that Villa Ridge and Gray Summit appeared to have taken the brunt of the storm, which caused heavy damage at the Purina Farms campus.

All staff and animals are safe, according to Purina Farms. The visitor center, pet center, barn and Incredible Dog Arena suffered significant damage, and the campus is closed indefinitely.

One damaged building on the Purina Farms campus housed some adoptable pets, including a puppy and cat from the Franklin County Humane Society. That prompted a rescue mission by a humane society manager, around 11 p.m. Friday.

“She was shocked at the level of damage that the facilities sustained and very thankful that our animals were not hurt,” said Morgan White, a front desk staff member at the humane society.

White added that the puppy, named Rufio, and the cat, named Weaver, were safely and happily back at the humane society on Saturday. The shelter had also taken in two dogs that were reportedly found in a “destroyed house” in Villa Ridge, she said.

Tornado damage dealt the community a roughly “5-mile hit,” said Jim Casey, chief of the Boles Fire Protection District that covers the area. About 10 people reported minor injuries after a tornado hit a gas station in Villa Ridge.

Billboards were in tatters, stoplights were out, and destroyed rooftops, vehicles and windblown debris littered the area.

Casey said tallies of damage were still in the works, but estimated that at least 125 residences and about 50 businesses were damaged just around Villa Ridge — a figure that he said could grow substantially higher as more assessments are done.

In St. Louis, effects of the storm were “minimal,” said Conner Kerrigan, a spokesperson for Mayor Tishaura O. Jones, in a morning press release. The downtown St. Patrick’s Day Parade and run proceeded as planned.

The storm system that ripped across Missouri continued east on Saturday. The National Weather Service issued multiple tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings for areas in Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, Illinois, Indiana and Texas.

Robert Cohen, Sarah Gassen, Bryce Gray, Austin Huguelet, Katie Kull and Colleen Schrappen of the Post-Dispatch, and The Associated Press, contributed to this report.