Storms early Sunday morning cause damage in Columbia

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Storms hit the Boone County area on Sunday morning and caused damage within the Columbia area.

Severe weather on Sunday morning caused a tree to fall in the middle of the road near the corner of South William and Ross Street. A few residents in the area who saw what happened, reported the damage.

"The winds started to blow super hard and then all of the sudden we saw this lightning strike this tree behind me and then the transformers just all started to blow," said local resident Jake Turley. "There was like a bunch of big fireballs."

Another local resident who saw the tree fall said it was unlike anything he had ever seen before.

"Everything went dark and then I've never heard electricity or seen it like that before flowing through the lines," said resident Sam Betz. "Before we knew it we were back inside, just freaking out."

Betz and Turley said after they saw the incident they reported it and officials came out to the scene.

Crews have cleared the tree and the road is back open.

To stay up to date on power outages in the area follow the Ameren outage map here.

Be sure to download ABC 17's Stormtrack weather app to get the latest weather updates in the area.