Severe weather strikes rural Vernon County

Damage to an outbuilding in Montevallo from Sunday's tornado, which ripped the roof off of this building as well as pulling some siding away . Vernon County Sheriff Ron Peckman said that some buildings were destroyed in the Bellamy and Sheldon areas as well.

"In the heavens a storm of overwhelming magnitude was forming..."

--Anonymous

Ancient trees were uprooted, windmills blown apart and metal roofs ripped off aluminum outbuildings like they were nothing more than paper, when the 250-yard wide path of tornadic destruction passed through Vernon County on Sunday.

Vernon County Sheriff Ron Peckman and other rescue workers were out and about, "patching people up," he said, in the wake of the storms

Throughout the state, reports say that 10 people lost their lives, but in Vernon County no storm-related deaths were reported, although one woman was hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries.

Locally, the damage occured mainly in Bellamy, Montevallo, Virgil City and unicorporated areas of Cedar County.

"We lost a couple of houses in Montevallo. There was some damage to outbuildings, buildings, equipment and homes." said Peckman. Peckman also said that portions of Cedar County were ravaged by Sunday's tornadic activity as well.

Currently, residents are cleaning up, repairing and moving on as best they can. The apparent tornado and straight line winds proved to be very damaging. The path of destruction was some 250 yards wide and was reportedly between Sheldon and Montevallo in Vernon County and Blackjack in Cedar County. Several trees and rock walls in a park were destroyed.

A resident of Sheldon lost her home and barn. Some livestock were also missing as of yesterday.

According to reports from the Associated Press, storms that passed through Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois and Oklahoma spawned more than 100 reports of tornadoes.

Weather investigators will spend the next two weeks or so evaluating the storms and tallying tornado and wind damage.