About 1,100 homes and businesses were without power Thursday afternoon as a storm swept through Neosho, damaging roofs, toppling a semi trailer and uprooting trees in spots around the city.
The roof of the Newton County Sheriff’s Department’s evidence barn and storage shed was blown off in the storm. Newton County Sheriff Ken Copeland said all of the evidence stored in the building was secure.
“The integrity of it was maintained and nothing was destroyed,” he said. “We were fortunate there.”
Chief Deputy Chris Jennings said an eight-foot section of the west wall of the evidence building had water cascading down it, causing about half a dozen boxes of stored evidence to become damp.
“They were stored boxes with the case numbers written on them,” he said. “It was stored evidence from past years.”
Copeland and Jerry Carter, Newton County presiding commissioner, said a structural engineer will be at the building today to determine if the building is sound enough to support a new roof.
“We’ve contacted our insurance company,” Carter said. “It could have been worse. I’m thankful for the generators, as we lost power at the jail.”
Part of the roof ended up near College and Morrow streets. The section of the metal roof struck a utility pole, breaking it. Amy Bass, spokeswoman with the Empire District Electric Company, said the pole and a portion of line had to be replaced. As Empire District crews repaired the damage, the Neosho Fire Department blocked College Street to prevent people coming in contact with downed power lines.
About 1,100 customers were affected, Bass said, with power restored to 800 customers by 5:30 p.m. Thursday and the remainder coming back online at about 1 a.m. today. At least two businesses — Uptown Laundromat and Fastrip — were without power until early this morning.
A semi trailer blew over at Howard Johnson’s Enterprises, located at 1301 W. Industrial Drive, while another blew over onto a city-owned wood chipper and a truck at the Neosho Public Works building on College. The light blue Ford truck, owned by public works employee David Carter, was totaled.
Neosho Police Chief David McCracken said damage was otherwise light in the city, with some downed trees and limbs.
“There were some roofs blown off: I know Economic Security had some problems,” McCracken said. “I don’t have a list of them or anything. My neighbor had to have a roofing company come out and tarp his roof last night, while all of the houses around him just had superficial stuff.”
The police department also worked a non-injury traffic accident on U.S. 60 and Lusk Drive during the storm.
The storm damaged the roof at Beck’s Floral on College. Workers could be seen putting plastic sheeting over the damaged roof as heavy rains continued to fall. A portion of the slate roof of the nearby First Community Bank was also damaged, with pieces of slate knocking off the driver’s side mirror of an employee’s truck.
The National Weather Service in Springfield said the storm was a microburst, a strong downward wind that fans out in all directions.
