Storms sweep across Ozarks, knock out power from Springfield to West Plains

One library was closed for awhile, as well as the Greene County Judicial Courts Facility.

June 11, 2012|by Chad Plein, KY3 News | news@ky3.com

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Strong storms that moved through the Ozarks on Monday morning caused minor damage throughout the area. Emergency managers in Greene County reported scattered power lines and trees down, with winds gusting up to 68 mph. Surrounding counties had similar reports as the storm tracked eastward.

City Utilities of Springfield sent an update on Twitter to let the public know its crews are working on restoring power in its service area. About 8:30 p.m., CU reported 100 customers had no power, down from a high of 8,000 outages (out of about 110,000 meters) in the morning. Customers with outages should call CU at 1-888-863-9001.

Webster Electric Co-op reported scattered outages in the Elkland, Marshfield, Northview and Rogersville areas.

As the storm moved eastward, more power outages were reported around West Plains and other areas of south central Missouri. Howell-Oregon Electric Cooperative reported outages in a widespread area, including around Dora, Vanzant, Caulfield, West Plains, Willow Springs, Mountain View, Thayer, Eminence and Winona. As of 4 p. m. Monday, HOEC knew of 1,843 members without power.

“It was beautiful when I got here at 5 this morning,” said Robert Baer, general manager of Famous Dave’s barbecue restaurant, 4406 S. Campbell Ave.

It didn’t take long for things to change.

“It's funny. I said, ‘The power's going to go out,’ before it even did,” said Baer.

For Baer, that jinx statement lasted for almost four hours -- straight through the lunch hour.

“It is what it is and you've got to roll with the punches,” he said.

“The wind causes a lot of problems,” said Mark Viguet, a spokesman for City Utilities.

Most of the darkness was thanks to trees and tree limbs falling onto power lines.

“We had widespread outages that started to multiply,” said Viguet.

In Springfield, the major area of damage seemed to be contained to the downtown area. Tree damage reports were received from areas of North Main Avenue and surrounding areas.

Late morning, the Greene County presiding circuit judge closed the Judicial Courts Building for the rest of the day because of power outages that affected the building's computer and security systems. The Historic Courthouse housing other county offices remained open.

Court Administrator Jerry Moyer said people who had court appearances scheduled should check with their attorneys to see when their cases were rescheduled, or check Casenet.

Emergency managers are also reporting flooded streets in Marshfield, with standing water visible at several businesses and homes.

Hail ranging in diameter from dime- to quarter-size fell across the Ozarks as well.

The power outages affected KY3 Inc. It knocked the KY3 stations (KY3, KSPR, the Ozarks CW) off the air for awhile. Later, when the stations were back on the air, viewers on Mediacom cable had no audio. That problem got fixed about 12:05 p.m.

The Library Center on South Campbell Avenue was closed because of a power outage until early afternoon. All other libraries in Greene County were operating normally.

The storm system also caused the Federal Aviation Administration to divert a flight from Chicago coming into the Springfield-Branson National Airport.

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