Warsaw storm damage and why we cut in

You may recall your tv show being interrupted on Wednesday afternoon due to severe weather. Why do we cut in for severe weather? 

The minute we get notification that severe weather is in the area, especially potential tornadoes, we make it our top priority to make residents aware that they need to take shelter. For nearly half an hour, our Stormtrack Weather Team was on air warning residents of Benton and Morgan Counties that a possible tornado was headed their way. It wasn’t until Thursday, however, that pictures of the damage made their way to our newsroom. Stormtrack Forecaster Maddie Est travelled down to Warsaw in Benton County where some of the heaviest damage was to speak with residents and officials about what they saw.

Chief Ron Taddiken of the Osage Fire Protection District told us: “We got the first warning about severe storms and then six minutes later we got the tornado warning for the Cole Camp area which is north of us. 8 minutes later, I got a call from over in Oak Ridge Acres that they had damage over there” The fire chief was one of the first emergency personnel to make it to the damaged areas.

“Well, when I first got there, there were residents cleaning up wood, plywood and lumber, that was lying in the middle of the road that feeds the entrance into Oak Ridge Acres. You could see the debris field from there going down to the northwest through there. So I went down to the east side of it to see if there was any damage over there, and made a loop down to what’s called Oxbow Lane, and got about halfway up there and started seeing boat docks that were flipped over and tore apart and didn’t really see house damage until I got back closer to the cove in there.”

The National Weather Service is still working to determine whether or not this damage was caused by a tornado or straight line winds, but either way, Wednesday’s severe weather left one of our mid-Missouri communities to pick up the pieces.

Storms like this one are why we cut in to your television programs. We were lucky this time that no one was hurt, but that’s not always the case. We can’t stop Mother Nature, but we can warn you when she’s on the way.