Gov. Jay Nixon declared 18 counties to be in a state of emergency Feb. 29, after tornadoes, hail, high winds and heavy rain tore through Missouri, according to a news release.
“I woke up to, and I know people always say this, to the sound of a train coming through,” Kimberling City resident Dee Comeaux said. “By the time, we (my husband and I) got up to my daughter’s bedroom the tornado was already gone. It had already hit the house.”
Kimberling City is in Stone County, one of the impacted counties. The other 17 affected counties include Adair, Barry, Barton, Bollinger, Cape Girardeau, Cedar, Dallas, Daviess, Laclede, Linn, Madison, Phelps, Polk, Pulaski, Scott, Stoddard and Taney.
As of March 12, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has denied Nixon’s request for a federal major disaster declaration, depriving the declared counties of federal funding, according to a more recent news release.
At the state level, the declaration order put out by Nixon means that the State Emergency Operations Center is activated, enabling the state to utilize its resources, including the State Emergency Management Agency and the Missouri State Highway Patrol. The governor also gave the National Guard the authority to assist local authorities and residents with security operations in southwest Missouri.
Comeaux estimated that as a subdivision, her neighborhood collectively has 20 to 25 damaged houses. Comeaux’s house didn’t sustain too much damage, as she described the tornado to have bounced off her house and headed across a nearby lake.
“After the tornado hit, everything was real calm,” Comeaux said. “Everybody was out with their flashlights checking up on everybody else, making sure they were all right.”
Within Comeaux’s subdivision, no one sustained any major injuries. Although Comeaux’s house survived, some of her neighbors’ homes were destroyed, as well as all the homes right behind her sister’s house.
“My son goes to Mizzou but he hasn’t come back and seen (the destruction) yet,” Comeaux said. “I tried to prepare him for it. There are a lot of older people here, and a lot of their houses are gone.”
After the tornado, Comeaux and her husband, Max, walked 2.5 miles to the main road, where the assistant superintendent of the local public school picked them up. As owners of a saw shop, the Comeauxs distributed saws to their neighbors to clean up debris and for repairs.
Comeaux’s 17-year-old daughter helped clean and feed about 200 people who needed shelter or were volunteers.
“We pretty much took care of ourselves,” Comeaux said. “We took care of a big chunk of our own.”
Comeaux said AmeriCorps and the local high school were also a big help in aiding the tornado victims. She said the local policemen and the National Guard helped keep the area secure from looters.
Over in Barry County, storm sirens forewarned residents to take shelter 20 minutes before a tornado hit, said David Compton, Barry County emergency management director. The tornado was 400 yards wide and swept a path of about a mile.
Barry County suffered four injuries and one fatality, Compton said.
He said many of the families would have relied on FEMA to help them with individual assistance.
In Taney County, emergency management assistant director Melissa Duckworth said a tornado swept through three densely populated areas and some rural areas, causing no fatalities but leaving 34 injuries in its wake.
Excluding the city of Branson, Taney County is in need of roughly $85,486.95 for debris removal and emergency protective measures, which includes rebuilding of roads and bridges and clearing of debris. In terms of individual assistance, families have applied for federal grants and have been relying on the Salvation Army, American Red Cross and Ozark Area Community Action Corporation, a local organization. Their donations are coordinated through the Tri-Lakes Church, Duckworth said.
“The volunteer response has been great,” Duckworth said. “The faith-based communities have really handled everything very well.”
Tom Ryan, Barton County’s emergency management director, said the storm sirens went off around 11 p.m. to midnight.
“That’s when a lot of them got scared,” Ryan said. “Joplin started to pop back in their mind. The Joplin tornado was still in their minds and they were saying, ‘This is really happening. We need to take shelter.’”
Ryan emphasized that people must take precautions toward extreme weather by making plans early. He also stressed the importance of checking a weather radio often, as storm sirens are for those who are outside and have no other means of knowing the upcoming weather.