Afternoon storm leaves trail of tree damage in Independence
INDEPENDENCE, Mo. (KCTV) - Downed limbs and trees littered lawns Tuesday on a short stretch of Truman Road, about a mile east of Missouri Route 291.
Residents said the storm hit at about 2:40 p.m. Shelby Wilhelm took her phone to a truck bay at the business where she works when she heard the sirens. An ominous cloud crept towards her, then lifted up.
After that, the rain poured down, the wind whipped up, the power went off, and a tree snapped in three different places to landed on a commercial building across the parking lot.
It was a particularly frightening moment for 13-year-old Sophia Winfrey.
“I’m still a little shaky from it,” she said later, “because it’s very nerve-wracking.”
Next door to her, a giant limb fell and pierced the ground with its ragged edge so deeply that it looked like a separate tree that had been unearthed.
A few houses in the other direction, an 80-year-old giant was ripped out by the roots.
Her yard was the only one in the block that didn’t have large tree limbs down, but she saw and heard plenty while taking cover in the basement.
“When I was downstairs, I saw a lot of things ing my window, like tree branches, and I heard a lot of sounds like breaking,” Sophia said. “I’ve never been through anything like this before.”
She was home with her dogs when the sirens and her phone alert sounded. Her mom was at work. She said she grabbed a coat and blanket, got all of the dogs to the basement, then ed them and called her mom, McKayla Winfrey.
McKayla works for a soft drink distributor and was stocking shelves at a grocery store when the sirens went off. Everyone was rushed to walk-in coolers for safety.
“I got locked down before I could manage to escape and get home with her,” McKayla said. “They would not allow us to leave until the storm was completely over, so my mom-heart was absolutely breaking, hearing her cry on the phone and not know what to do. It absolutely terrorized me.”
They stayed on the phone together. McKayla tried to keep Sophia calm. They were both relieved to be back together Tuesday night, despite still being without power. Sophia even thought of the upside to the experience.
“Knowing that it could happen again,” she said, “I’m a lot more prepared for what can happen.”
KCTV5 was not informed of anyone injured in that stretch of the storm.
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