Tipton storm damages homes, takes out electricity
TIPTON, Mo. (KMIZ)
Storms ripped through Tipton in the early morning hours Friday leaving residents to wake up to damage.
ABC 17 News crews saw multiple streets lined with damage from overnight storms in Tipton.
Around 7:30 a.m. Ameren Missouri reported 13 outages with 407 customers impacted.
Blenda O'Brien, a Tipton resident who had various tree limbs broken in the storm, said she gathered her family members to clear the debris from her yard. "We started at like eight o'clock this morning. I had to call in recruits," O'Brien said.
While O'Brien said her damage was minor, she also said she has never seen damage like that. "I don't know if it was a tornado. I don't know exactly. Just big wind. I don't know what it was, but it was scary," O'Brien said.
The Moniteau County Sheriff's Department reported downed trees and powerlines in Tipton which damaged homes and cars, according to the National Weather Service.
The NWS reported a structure fire and four utility poles down along Ferguson Avenue. Anna Diggs, who lives on Ferguson Avenue, said her family was woken up by the bad weather. "My husband and I woke up. We heard the rain, or what sounded like was hail hitting the window. Open the curtain, when I shut the curtain, we heard a big crash and the window broke out," Diggs said.
Diggs added that they couldn't do much until daylight but they knew something was wrong. "We just know that when we got up this morning and it was daylight, that you know it looks like you know a war zone pretty much," Diggs said.
As Diggs and her family continued to clean up she said she's happy her family is safe. "I kind of went Facebook live this morning because we have family out of state just kind of showing that we were okay," Diggs said.
Both Diggs and O'Brien got the better end of the storm compared to Steve Graham, who lives across Highway 50 in Tipton at the corner of Ferguson Avenue. The storm caused a tree to fall on a truck he inherited from his father.
Graham said his father died in 2021 and the truck had sentimental value. He said this would the first time he lost a vehicle to storm damage.
