ST. JOSEPH, Mo. — Strong, straight-line winds ripped through St. Joseph Tuesday evening leaving behind a trail of damage. Much of the aftermath was contained to a narrow path, but the worst of it was in a neighborhood circle drive where the winds turned into a tornado.
“It was noisy. We had a lot of wind, a lot of bangs,” Evan Noynaert said.
Noynaert was relatively unfazed by the storm, but he woke up in the morning to find his neighbor’s house in shambles. That same storm picked up his garbage can over the fence and onto the next street over.
“Yeah I was shocked to see that. I was like were they roofing that? And then I was like no, that's the storm,” Noynaert said. “My wife called right after she left work, and she said you need to go find the garbage can.”
St. Joseph’s Emergency Manager Bill Lamar said the winds started to pick up at the local Dillards. Some of the roofing was blown off, and according to a security guard, there is water damage inside. The winds then shattered the glass entrance to a local church before blowing through this neighborhood and pushing over a power line.
“It was a large pole that got snapped off, and the crews worked overnight and actually replaced that whole pole by morning,” Lamar said.
A nearby cemetery sustained some damage from debris as well. Fiber glass and insulation from homes were stuck in the branches of trees Wednesday morning.
Police and fire department employees have made their rounds Wednesday morning to assess the damage, which Lamar said will mostly fall into the hands of private homeowners. He feels relieved the damage is at a manageable level.
“You see these stories of New Orleans and winters in Iowa where, I mean, these are long path storms and you just feel grateful that this was a concentrated area. Obviously feel bad for the folks that are impacted,” Lamar said.
Bridget Jobes, another resident in the same circle drive with extensive damage, said her family was hiding in the basement when the sirens went off a little after 8 p.m. Her home survived the storm, but the backyard fences fell over.
“I didn’t know what it was at first. It was one of those moments where you think ‘Am I really seeing what I’m seeing right now?’” Jobes said. “Of the six houses that are here, four of them sustained some kind of damage.”
Jobes said residents in St. Joseph prepare for storms like this, but it is still surreal to see it happen first-hand.
“You hear those stories about it, you see the pictures and the videos. But it’s never been that close, so it was terrifying,” Jobes said.
