Storms rumble through county
May 27, 2004
Minimal damage reported from early morning tornadic activity
By Bill McMillen
Morning Sun News Editor Officials were waiting to exhale on their sigh of
relief as they tried to assess the damage early this morning after a late-night
thunderstorm rumbled through the area, spawning a tornado that caught the
attention of spotters in Neosho, Crawford and Bourbon counties in Kansas and
Barton County in Missouri. The city of Lamar, Mo., was the largest entity
in the path of the storm and, according to city officials, apparently escaped
with minimal damage. ³There was a report of a semi turned upside-down
on (U.S.) Highway 71, and a tree hit a house at Iantha, but that¹s all
I¹ve heard,² said a Lamar city employee shortly after 2 a.m. today.
A dispatcher from the Crawford County Sheriff¹s Department said the department
had no confirmed reports of tornadoes actually touching down in the county,
although there were several weather-spotter reports of funnel clouds ‹ tornadoes
still in the air. The National Weather Service did report ‹ through a trained
weather spotter ‹ a tornado on the ground north of Lamar. The storm produced
high winds, dime-sized hail and heavy rain as it sped through the area from
west to east. In Crawford County, there were reports of sporadic damage ‹
tree limbs toppled, power lines downed, roadways blocked by debris ‹ but
it likely would not be until daybreak that the full affect of the storm could
be witnessed. Power outages were reported along the path of the storm ‹ a
main line carrying power into the Arma area apparently was damaged but crews
were working to restore service less than an hour after the storm passed.
It was a scene all too reminiscent of May 4, 2003, when a tornado touched
down in western Crawford County, near McCune, and stayed on the ground for
the entire width of the county as it moved through edges of Girard, Ringo,
Franklin, Mulberry and into Liberal, Mo. That storm claimed three lives in
Crawford County and was part of a series of violent tornadoes that dotted
the Midwest. This time, the storm tracked in northern Crawford County and,
at least from preliminary reports, was far less lethal. The first report
of tornadic activity in Crawford County came from a weather spotter northeast
of Girard around 1 a.m. today. About five minutes later, another spotter
reported tornadic activity about a mile north of Arma on U.S. 69 Highway.
The storm continued eastward, through Burgess, Mo., just across the state
line and through a portion of Liberal, Mo., before curving a little toward
the southeast and heading toward Lamar and into central Missouri. No additional
information on damage ‹ and possible injuries ‹ was available at 2:30 a.m.
this morning.