Morgan County residents continue to clean up after weekend tornado

Residents in Morgan County are continuing to clean up after an EF-1 tornado came through the Lake of the Ozarks area over the Memorial Day weekend.

According to the National Weather Service, the tornado hit around 2:30 Saturday afternoon and moved about 90 miles per hour. Most of the damage consisted of fallen and uprooted trees.

“I was really amazed the trees went around homes,” Morgan County Emergency Management director, Rick Bias, said.

Kim Powell and her husband, John, have owned their Sunrise Beach area lake home for five years. She said they had friends staying in the home, visiting the lake with their three young children for the first time when the storm hit.

Looking at the damage from the Powell’s home and a neighboring cemetery that had significant damage, many of the trees fell to the south. Kim said though, two of the trees near her home didn’t follow that pattern, and her friends’ lives were potentially saved because of that.

“For some divine reason, these trees fell this way and missed the house in the back,” she said. “If any of those trees would have followed the pattern of the storm, it would have killed them.”

Kim said she and her husband have been doing the landscaping on the home since they bought it.

“There wasn’t a weed or blade of grass out of place,” she said.

After the storm, she said her home may never look the same, but she’s thankful her friends are OK.

“It’s only stuff,” she said. “And that family is OK. So that’s what counts.”

Bias said immediately following the storm there were about 1,000 residents without power but as of Tuesday afternoon, everyone’s power had been restored.