Storms blow through the county early Wednesday afternoon

St. Francois County was hit with storms Wednesday afternoon and 911 Director and Deputy Emergency Management Coordinator Alan Wells believes much of the damage was from straight-line winds.

“It did a lot of tree damage, with trees down and power lines down,” said Wells. “It was centered toward the southern end of the county and it started around Iron Mountain Lake and went across through Doe Run and part of Farmington.”

Wells added they had some roads blocked and closed due to trees and power lines down. Pimville Road was closed as of 2:30 Wednesday afternoon and he believed it would be closed most of the evening as well because there were a lot of trees and power lines on the road.

“That is from out of Farmington at Pimville Road and Hawk Hollow; Route B also had some closures,” said Wells. “During the storm, Central Dispatch was extremely intense with the reports of power outages, power lines down and trees down. There are a lot of trees, we have trees uprooted in people’s yards and some damage to some homes, roof damages. I haven’t seen anything that is major at this time, but it would be classified as minor or moderate damage. All indications right now is straight-line wind.”

St. Francois County Highway Administrator Wendell Jarvis said Pimville Road saw the worst damage so far with trees down and electric lines down as well.

“Anytime that happens, my guys go out and they wait and watch the road to turn people around,” said Jarvis. “They wait until the electric company gets there to get the lines out of the trees and then we go in and clean up the trees after that.”

Jarvis added the major areas they have trees down are Little Loughboro Road, West Road, Old Vandergriff Road and Hildebrecht Road.

“As far as water damage, I don’t think we have too much,” said Jarvis. “This is just stuff I have had reported to me and then my guys have reported back with what they have seen. They will go to the stuff being reported first and get it out of the way, then they will go back and clean it up later.”

Jarvis said once they get done with the stuff that has been reported, then they will move on and travel the roads to so see how they look.

“Fire departments will also be dispatched for the power lines being down,” said Jarvis. “It just depends on how it was reported. If someone sees a power line down they don’t always know who to call, they could call 911 or the courthouse. Depending on who they call will determine who will be dispatched. Fire departments can be dispatched for electric lines down and that is for the safety of the people so there is an emergency vehicle there to notify the people that there is a danger there.”

Nearly 2,000 residences were still without power at 4:30 p.m., according to Ameren.

Renee Bronaugh is a reporter for the Daily Journal and can be reached at 573-518-3617 or rbronaugh@dailyjournalonline.com