Columbia indefinitely suspends recycling pickup after storms damage recycling plant
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Columbia has indefinitely suspended commercial and residential recycling pickup after the city's recycling plant was damaged during a strong storm Sunday afternoon.
Columbia Utilities spokesman Jason West said this also applies to the public drop-off centers, saying they will be unavailable to the public. Recycling workers have been asked not to report for work on Monday.
The Material Recovery Facility at the Columbia Landfill in the northeast part of the city handles all recycling for the city. The city was already researching options on how to improve or replace the MRF. The building was nearing the end of "its useful life" due to aging equipment.
The National Weather Service will survey damage in Boone County on Monday. First responders kept busy throughout the city on Sunday with fallen trees and power lines. The Columbia Fire Department responded to 30 calls across the city, including five homes and several city-owned structures. No one was reported hurt in any of the calls.
"The majority of the damage appeared to be in the northeastern section of town, including the Creasy Springs and Paris Road areas," a city news release said.
Columbia resident Brad Belcher has lived in a home on Bear Creek drive in Columbia for five years. Belcher said he was standing in the doorway of his home around 5 p.m. Sunday, when he heard a loud burst of wind and saw a tree coming toward his home.
"It's totaled. Like you can see through my house...there's trees in the living room, in the kitchen," Belcher said. "It fell on my truck, too like so you gotta worry about cars, you gotta worry about your home."
Belcher said he, and his two daughters who were in the basement when the tree fell onto the home all made it out safely.
Cara Joos lives next door to Belcher and said she heard a loud noise around the time the tree fell onto the home. Joos said it was hard to tell what was happening when she looked outside due to the heavy rainfall at the time.
She said it was the most she's ever felt in danger during her years of living in Missouri.
"I've lived in this part of the world for a long time, so tornadoes aren't anything new and everybody says it sounds like a train and it was like the closest... It was like a train that was far off but it was really loud," Joos said.
The Columbia Utilities outage map reported more than 2,600 customers without power as of 7:50 p.m. It had reached a peak of nearly 4,000 customers after a strong storm went through the city just before 6 p.m. The Bradford Research Farm in Columbia recorded a 66 mph gust during that storm.
Boone County emergency management authorities reported power lines and trees down, along with flooded roads across the county.
A line of storms earlier in the day caused significant damage in part of Callaway County.
