Weekend storms down trees, knock out power across county
Photo courtesy Bakersfield Volunteer Fire Department A massive tree was toppled in the Bakersfield area during this past weekend’s storms that downed dozens of trees, mostly in the eastern portion of Ozark County.
Photo submitted Kim Davidson of Tecumseh had this giant oak tree toppled by the weekend storms. The behemoth tree took down three other trees when it fell, but missed nearby power lines and a barn. Davidson, who lives on CR 555, said she was glad there were no injuries.
Mother Nature delivered a one-two punch over the weekend, with severe storms striking the area two nights in a row, Saturday and Sunday evening. Then another round of heavy rain moved through areas to the north on Monday night.
The Saturday storm packed the biggest wallop, with winds on the east side of the county estimated at 65-75 miles per hour.
Ozark County Eastern District Commissioner Gary Collins said the county had several trees down, particularly in the Dora, Bakersfield and Caulfield areas.
“This was a pretty bad storm,” Collins said. “We had more trees down across county roads over here than we’ve had in a long time.”
Collins said crews worked well into the night Saturday clearing trees from roads.
Power was out to thousands in the area, as lines were down and transformers blew.
At the height of Saturday’s storm, White River Valley Electric Cooperative said they had 1,400 members without power in their five county service area. Howell-Oregon Electric Cooperative, which serves eastern Ozark County, reported they had more than 1,600 without power in southern Howell and eastern Ozark County Saturday night.
The Bakersfield Volunteer Fire Department reported trees down on Highway 101 and Route O Saturday evening, as well as a tree blocking Smokey Road (CR 551).
Then Sunday came.
In an almost identical looking storm cell to Saturday’s storm, another storm blasted the area after midnight Sunday night into Monday morning.
This time the 70-75 mph winds mostly steered clear of Ozark County, striking more to the west and south.
WRVEC reported Monday they had more than 13,000 of their members without power at the peak of Sunday’s storm, and that at midday Monday there were still more than 9,000 without power, mostly in Taney and Christian counties.
At 11 a.m. Monday, there were 4,302 without power in Taney County and 2,985 without power in Christian County. WRVEC reported no outages Monday in Ozark County.
Ozark County Western District Commissioner Layne Nance said he received a report of trees down in the Thornfield area from Sunday’s round of wind and lightning.
“A lot of people just take care of the trees themselves and we don’t ever know about it,” Nance said.
Nance reminded Ozark Countians that if they have a tree down across a county road, they can call commissioners any time. “We’re pretty much 24/7,” Nance said. “Call us if you have trees down across your county road.”
Call Nance if you live on the west side of the county at 417-683-7755.
If you live in eastern Ozark County, call Collins at 417-989-1442.
“These storms were pretty similar,” Nance said. “They meant business.”
Nance said the power outages, combined with the recent heatwave was rough for many. “There were people out late Saturday driving around because they didn’t have electricity in their homes, and they said it was too hot, so they were in their cars trying to keep cool,” Nance said.
Doug Hawkins, Shelter Insurance Agent in Gainesville, said this has been the most active wind storm pattern he has seen in a long time.
“I’ve had more claims in the last three weeks than I’ve had in the last year,” Hawkins told the Times. He said the damage was very widespread and not concentrated to one area.
“These systems seem to be happening one right after the other,” Hawkins said.
The Theodosia area was hit by a large storm the week before, and many businesses and homeowners are still cleaning up debris from that storm.