Storms kill at least nine in Missouri

ENICK, Mo. - As the winds howled and the tornado sirens blared, friends and family begged Billy and Penny Briscoe to leave their southern Randolph County mobile home. Then the explosion hit. The couple are among at least nine people, including two more in and near the north-central town of Redick, killed by a series of powerful weekend storms that produced tornadoes and damaging hail across Missouri. Nearly 12 hours after the funnel cloud touched down, signs of devastation were widespread Monday morning. The powerful winds blew out car windows, bent telephone poles sideways, uprooted trees and destroyed several mobile homes. Scraps of metal remained wrapped around tree limbs near an overturned yellow school bus as the Briscoes' neighbors shoveled through the debris in search of photos and other personal items. "Every time there was a storm, he would go into (the nearby town of) Moberly," said Bobby Twyman, a family friend. "This is the first time he stayed." Billy Briscoe, who is disabled, was talking on the phone to his daughter when "the explosion hit," said Twyman. Neighbor Jim Dougherty lost several trailers but rode out the storm with his wife in their home unscathed. "It sounded just like what you hear people say - a freight train coming right across," he said. "The whole thing lasted just 20 seconds." In southwest Missouri, authorities said a 63-year-old man died early Monday of injuries suffered when a tornado hit near Marionville. An undetermined number of injuries were also reported, including at least six in a mobile home park near El Dorado Springs. A Sedalia-area woman, believed to be in her 30s, died Sunday after a tornado struck her trailer home, and Henry County authorities said a man was found dead near his home, which was destroyed. In Pettis County, at least six people were injured and two were missing after the twister struck about 4:10 p.m. and carved a 20-mile path south and east of Sedalia, home to the Missouri State Fair. More than 100 residents were displaced, said Rusty Kahrs, Pettis County presiding commissioner. Names of the dead have not been released. As tornado sirens blared in county after county late Sunday, officials feared it would be sunrise Monday before they knew the extent of the damage. The twister near Sedalia was part of the second wave of tornado-producing supercells that started Sunday morning in Kansas and worked their way across Missouri. Greg Koch, a meteorologist with the weather service in Pleasant Hill, said the first tornado was reported around 8 a.m. in Lawrence, Kan., where it damaged buildings across town, including at the University of Kansas, and knocked the spires off one of the city's oldest churches. That storm moved up through Leavenworth, Kan., then crossed into Missouri, where it caused damage in Ray, Carroll and Randolph counties. Bobby Ritcheson, 23, who lives south of Sedalia, said he watched Sunday afternoon as his neighbor was killed by the tornado. He said he was standing outside his mobile home watching as the storm clouds became more ominous when he noticed a funnel cloud dip down, rise up and come down again. "The wind started picking up and moving closer to us," Ritcheson said. "The trailer next door started wiggling a little bit and I told Jamie to go hide." He said he and his pregnant wife, Jamie, crouched behind his Chevrolet Blazer. He saw his neighbors heading inside of their trailer, and he yelled at them to stay outside. "She went in there," Ritcheson said of the victim. "He tried to pull her out and the trailer came down right on top of her." Ritcheson talked to The Associated Press at a Sedalia hospital, where he had taken his wife because of concerns she might be going into labor. He said he had lived in his trailer for only a few months, and did not know the names of his neighbors. Family members of the victim also were at the hospital, but declined to talk to the AP. Late Saturday, a married couple was killed when a twister hurled their pickup truck beneath a propane tank as they drove along a rural stretch of U.S. 61 in Perry County, about 80 miles south of St. Louis. They were identified as Michael Schaefer, 40, of St. Mary, and Barbara Schaefer, 49, whose address was unknown. Gov. Matt Blunt activated the State Emergency Management Agency to respond to the tornadoes. "We are working to ensure that families and communities affected by this deadly storm have access to resources they need as soon as possible," he said Sunday.

RENICK, Mo. - As the winds howled and the tornado sirens blared, friends and family begged Billy and Penny Briscoe to leave their southern Randolph County mobile home. Then the explosion hit.

The couple are among at least nine people, including two more in and near the north-central town of Redick, killed by a series of powerful weekend storms that produced tornadoes and damaging hail across Missouri.

Nearly 12 hours after the funnel cloud touched down, signs of devastation were widespread Monday morning. The powerful winds blew out car windows, bent telephone poles sideways, uprooted trees and destroyed several mobile homes.

Scraps of metal remained wrapped around tree limbs near an overturned yellow school bus as the Briscoes' neighbors shoveled through the debris in search of photos and other personal items.

"Every time there was a storm, he would go into (the nearby town of) Moberly," said Bobby Twyman, a family friend. "This is the first time he stayed."

Billy Briscoe, who is disabled, was talking on the phone to his daughter when "the explosion hit," said Twyman.

Neighbor Jim Dougherty lost several trailers but rode out the storm with his wife in their home unscathed.

"It sounded just like what you hear people say - a freight train coming right across," he said. "The whole thing lasted just 20 seconds."

In southwest Missouri, authorities said a 63-year-old man died early Monday of injuries suffered when a tornado hit near Marionville. An undetermined number of injuries were also reported, including at least six in a mobile home park near El Dorado Springs.

A Sedalia-area woman, believed to be in her 30s, died Sunday after a tornado struck her trailer home, and Henry County authorities said a man was found dead near his home, which was destroyed.

In Pettis County, at least six people were injured and two were missing after the twister struck about 4:10 p.m. and carved a 20-mile path south and east of Sedalia, home to the Missouri State Fair. More than 100 residents were displaced, said Rusty Kahrs, Pettis County presiding commissioner.

Names of the dead have not been released.

As tornado sirens blared in county after county late Sunday, officials feared it would be sunrise Monday before they knew the extent of the damage.

The twister near Sedalia was part of the second wave of tornado-producing supercells that started Sunday morning in Kansas and worked their way across Missouri.

Greg Koch, a meteorologist with the weather service in Pleasant Hill, said the first tornado was reported around 8 a.m. in Lawrence, Kan., where it damaged buildings across town, including at the University of Kansas, and knocked the spires off one of the city's oldest churches.

That storm moved up through Leavenworth, Kan., then crossed into Missouri, where it caused damage in Ray, Carroll and Randolph counties.

Bobby Ritcheson, 23, who lives south of Sedalia, said he watched Sunday afternoon as his neighbor was killed by the tornado. He said he was standing outside his mobile home watching as the storm clouds became more ominous when he noticed a funnel cloud dip down, rise up and come down again.

"The wind started picking up and moving closer to us," Ritcheson said. "The trailer next door started wiggling a little bit and I told Jamie to go hide."

He said he and his pregnant wife, Jamie, crouched behind his Chevrolet Blazer. He saw his neighbors heading inside of their trailer, and he yelled at them to stay outside.

"She went in there," Ritcheson said of the victim. "He tried to pull her out and the trailer came down right on top of her."

Ritcheson talked to The Associated Press at a Sedalia hospital, where he had taken his wife because of concerns she might be going into labor. He said he had lived in his trailer for only a few months, and did not know the names of his neighbors.

Family members of the victim also were at the hospital, but declined to talk to the AP.

Late Saturday, a married couple was killed when a twister hurled their pickup truck beneath a propane tank as they drove along a rural stretch of U.S. 61 in Perry County, about 80 miles south of St. Louis. They were identified as Michael Schaefer, 40, of St. Mary, and Barbara Schaefer, 49, whose address was unknown.

Gov. Matt Blunt activated the State Emergency Management Agency to respond to the tornadoes.

"We are working to ensure that families and communities affected by this deadly storm have access to resources they need as soon as possible," he said Sunday.

Re: It seems early in the season-is it?

If you click here you will see the history of various tornado seasons.

It's been very quiet the last two years (at least here in Oklahoma) and that's been the unusual story. But you can't sell papers with headline: No Tornadoes For 2005. Hurray.

There are no real seasons for tornadoes, though meterologists will sometimes pin it to specific points in Spring and Fall for generalizations. If you'll click 1999 on the hyperlink provided, you will find tornadoes devasted the areas hit yesterday in a two week period in January. In Oklahoma, I've spotted tornadoes hitting the ground when the weather man is saying its partly cloudy.

Generally speaking, March is usually busy for tornadoes. May is another time as things really heat up in the atmosphere but you still have cold air coming out of the Rockies. July will have the dry lines come through, or the stray supercell travelling east to west that make for interesting storms. Fall is unpredictable. I've seen them as late as December.

We had an interesting time here in Arkansas. My daughter was going home to Tulsa, Ok when the sirens went off in Choteau, Ok.
I was at work on the night shift when we got the radio and tv and computer turned to weater. The tornado was heading straight for us.
We kept up with the info till it crossed the Ok-Ark line then it veered north of us. It hit one of the employee's homes, went east, derailed a KCS train, took down power lines plunging much of the area north of us in the dark, hit another employee's, missed a Supervisor's home, hit near a retired employee's home, tore up Centerton, Ark, missed the WAL-MART hq, (Wal-Mart haters are deeply saddened) tore up a school in Bentonville Ark and hit another employee's home and derailed another train. It then worked it's way into Missouri.
Large hail, LOTS of rain, some injuries but no deaths that I have heard of.
Of all that rain and hail, WE did not get a drop.

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