KIRKSVILLE, Mo. – Violent storms ripped through northeastern Missouri Wednesday night, killing three people.
Kirksville apparently took the hardest hit. Police Detective Sgt. Ron Celian said about 30 to 40 homes were damaged, one was destroyed and an auto dealership sustained significant damage.
Sullivan County Emergency Management director Rick Gardner said a woman was killed Wednesday night when what appeared to be a tornado struck a mobile home east of Milan, Mo.
Two other people died in neighboring Adair County, said communications operator Tammy Babcock of the Missouri State Highway Patrol. She called all three deaths tornado-related.
Lynne Sanders told the Kirksville Daily Express she took shelter in a bathtub while a tornado flipped one of her sheds, destroyed another and sucked up a barn while leaving the horses inside.
"It was just awful, simply awful," she said. "The whole house was just rocking."
Emergency officials closed U.S. Highway 63 because of downed power lines. They also urged people to stay off the roadway so ambulances and other emergency crews could get through.
An emergency operations center was activated shortly after the tornado touched down.
(The Associated Press Contributed To This Report)
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