When a supercell thunderstorm rolled through northern Boone County, it seems it had its eye set on Hallsville.
Hallsville, Centralia and Sturgeon all were under a tornado warning around 9:15 p.m. Thursday. The storm had high damaging winds, but the rotation in the storm never developed into a tornado, said National Weather Service meteorologist Melissa Mainhart.
“Across Hallsville we heard reports of trees down, but we did not see evidence for a tornado,” she said. “Supercells rotate, so that was what we were looking at and we were assessing the storm as it was moving through. We had enough confidence that a tornado could be produced from this storm to issue that warning, but no tornado was produced.”
The weather service Thursday night issued its first severe thunderstorm warning for the line of storms across northern Boone County at about 8:58 p.m., said Mainhart said. Roughly 20 minutes later, that first tornado warning was issued.
“That storm tracked through Hallsville and continued southeastward out of Boone County and into Callaway County, where it moved just west and southwest of Kingdom City and moved into Fulton,” she said.
When the Tribune visited all three communities early Friday morning, it appeared Hallsville bore the brunt, with many downed tree limbs throughout streets, including along one where Elizabeth Lackey and Kay Dollinger live.
Lackey said she never heard the warning sirens but did receive an alert on her phone prompting her to go to her home’s basement.
Boone County’s Office of Emergency Management addressed reports about the lack of sirens in Hallsville and Centralia Thursday morning.
“Staff and contracted agents are working to identify and correct any and all issues with the tornado siren systems. The Office of Emergency Management will provide updated information as soon as we determine the potential cause of the issue,” the office said in a news release.
The office also encouraged Boone County residents to sign up and create a profile with Smart911, opting in to receive Boone County weather alerts. It advised residents to also purchase “a NOAA weather radio, and stay weather aware by obtaining the most current forecast from their local weather station.”
Lackey reported power flickered in her house five or six times before going out completely at 9:30 p.m. Thursday. Power was restored to her home about 1 a.m. Friday.
“We kind of had an impromptu block party around 10 p.m. to make sure people were safe,” Lackey said, adding a tree limb that fell across her driveway nearly hit her car. One tree directly next door to her house “is half the size it used to be,” she said, adding that a neighbor was facing house damage from the fallen limbs.
At its peak, nearly 2,500 hundred customers were without power Thursday night, said a Boone County Electric Cooperative representative. As of 10 a.m. Friday there still were about 1,200 customers without power. During the course of the Tribune’s visit to the three communities where tornado warnings were issued, a snapped utility pole was observed along the side of the road on Missouri Highway 22 between Centralia and Sturgeon.
As cleanup began in Hallsville, Dollinger, who lives across from Lackey, was dealing with more than just downed tree limbs in her backyard. One fell and broke a window in her bathroom.
“I would watch weather reports and really would not be scared of tornadoes, but when I heard the window break I thought, ‘OK, I’m scared now,'” she said.
While tree limbs did fall against her house and onto her roof, another damaged her wooden backyard fence. A whole section of her fence also was laid flat on its side, but not by a tree limb, just because of soft ground from the rain and the wind.
Dollinger’s daughter and son-in-law and their children, who live about 3 miles away, dropped by Friday morning to see the damage before they had to leave for work. Dollinger’s son-in-law had plans to drop back by after work to start cutting up what fell with a chainsaw, she said.
The Casey’s gas station in Hallsville was busy Friday morning, with many people likely filling up gas canisters either for generators or chainsaws, Lackey said.
Charles Dunlap covers local government, community stories and other general subjects for the Tribune. You can reach him at cdunlap@columbiatribune.com or @CD_CDT on X, formerly Twitter. Subscribe to support vital local journalism.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Hallsville residents deal with damage after severe thunderstorm
