Meta farmer receives damage from storm

Some Mid-Missouri residents are still picking up the pieces after last night’s storm.

Meta, a town about 30 miles southeast of Jefferson City, is one of the places that got hit the hardest.

Kenny Kolb works for the Cole County Ambulance Service in Jefferson City, but lives on a Meta cattle farm with his son.

Kolb says while he was at work last night he noticed that he had over a dozen missed calls from his son.

“I knew that the storm was imminent and it was projected into this area. So, whenever I called and he answered, he said something-I can’t remember his exact words-‘You may not want to come home and see what’s wrong,'” said Kolb.

And when Kolb got home, he saw the storm had blown the roof off of parts of his machine sheds and even damaged the structure of his pole barn where he keeps his hay bales.

“It’s depressing. But, everyone is safe. Family wise, they were safe. Buildings, you can repair them. Human lives you can’t,” said Kolb.

Kolb tells me, while the damage to the farm buildings is severe, he is happy that his and his son’s homes are still standing.

“The damage is to out buildings, as I call them,” said Kolb.

Kolb says he did contact his insurance company and plans to repair the buildings soon.

He says he believes the farm will be able to operate somewhat normally until there is a permanent fix.