NEW YORK: At least five persons died in a devastating tornado that hit southeastern Missouri, ripping off home roofs, destroying power lines, and splintering trees in Bollinger County.
The rescue teams promptly reacted and searched through the destroyed homes and other places that will take a long time to recover from such devastation, Missouri Governor Mike Parson said.
While the Missouri State Highway Patrol superintendent Eric Olson said that 5 people were also wounded and 87 structures were damaged, twelve of those buildings collapsed due to the tornado, Reuters reported on Thursday.
Images circulating on social media show houses badly damaged with no roofs, trees drowned, electricity wires and debris covering the road in the village after the tornado in Missouri.
After surveying the devastated areas by the tornado, state Patrol Highway Sergeant Clark Parrott said that it’s just heartbreaking to see people’s homes without roofs and devastated.
National Weather Service said the tornado came into the area at about 3:30 am. It added that one of over a dozen twisters seen in the Midwest overnight.
About the Marble Hill tornado, a forty-five-year-old resident Chris Huffman said he ran to his basement with his wife and two daughters after hearing tornado sirens and the power went out.
He said that outside were dark clouds, pitch black, high winds and rain, as well as bursts of lightning.
Government to help in rebuilding homes
Governor Parson said that the state would help people who lost their homes even though few sparsely populated communities would not have sustained enough damage to be eligible for disaster relief.
The dangerous disaster occurred just after destructive tornadoes hit parts of the South and Midwest, claiming the lives of at least thirty-two people. A week earlier, dangerous tornadoes also turned the Mississippi Delta town of Rolling Fork upside down, perishing 26 people.
