Palmyra’s Tornadoes – My Firsthand Account of the Storm
On October 2nd, the unthinkable happened. Twin tornadoes made their way through the town, tearing up trees and destroying buildings. No one realized what was happening until the storm had passed, unless they were caught in a tornado’s fury. Within minutes, they were gone and the only thing left was the rain and the thought “What was that noise?” This is my own personal experiences through the disaster.
Leaving work in Hannibal, I started home as sirens began to sound. My trip home would only take about twenty minutes and the route was reasonably flat for Missouri, so I could see anything coming. I made the decision to go on to Palmyra. When I arrived home, the rain was light and the skies didn’t look too threatening. I thought the danger was past and once again the worst had skirted around us. My daughter had gone to my parent’s house a few blocks away before the storm arrived. After a call to her, I decided to go pick her up. The rain came down with a vengeance as I walked out the door, soaking me on the way to the truck. With the windshield wipers going full blast, I started slowly down the street, barely able to see. An unusual sound could be heard above the rain and the engine, but I didn’t know what it was. To be honest, I thought it was a train going through town. Unknown to me, it was probably the tornado that hit the lumber yard four blocks away.
The warning sirens were blaring when I pulled up to my parent’s house. Mom met me at the door along with my sister and niece. My niece’s children were in the basement with my daughter, as her house didn’t have a storm cellar. Together, we waited out the storm. The neighborhood lost power not long before it abated, probably due to lightning. Within thirty minutes, the rain had stopped and the sun was trying to shine.
All was quiet until the sirens started. My sister and I had to run an errand, so we headed for Main Street. We were shocked to see the damage. Linda turned on to Main Street to find the volunteer firemen in full gear in front of the station next to a Hannibal fire truck. City police cars were everywhere, lights and sirens going. Pieces of the roof from the Ben Franklin Store were piled at the side of the street. The flag pole on City Hall was bent at a forty five degree angle, the American flag waving gently in the breeze. We still didn’t know what had happened. There hadn’t been any strong winds with the storm. In fact, it had been mostly rain and lightning. So the damage was a mystery to us.
At the local convenience store, the clerks had little more information. One said they had one big gust of wind that blew the door open and it took both of them to close it again. She did know that one house was on fire and a tree had fallen on another somewhere in town.
As is the nature of humans, our curiosity got the better of us. We drove around town inspecting the damage. The lumber yard on Main Cross Street lost part of it’s roof. Trees were blown over into streets or on houses. Power lines were down. One house had been struck by lightning and caught fire. A manufacturing business at the south end of town had three out of it’s four buildings damaged or destroyed. A van trailer had been thrown on top of another and a local church lost part of it’s roof.
Stories of the incredible power of the tornadoes began to be told by witnesses. One woman and her daughter watched a hard maple tree be pulled out of the ground and sucked into the air to be dropped a moment later. A man had a tree from his yard thrown over his trailer and land on top of his shed. The owner of the destroyed business was in the only undamaged building and didn’t know anything had happened until he walked out to leave. He then found the other three buildings in shambles. A friend was driving down Main Street when the roof of Ben Franklin landed in the street in front of him. He was able to turn and make his way home by a different route. These are just a few of many tales regaling how the twisters had destroyed one thing and not touched another.
After the tornadoes, the city went into action. Friends and neighbors left unscathed helped those with damage clean up debris. By ten o’clock the Red Cross had a command center set up in the fire station to help victims and volunteers. Power was restored to all but perhaps fifty residences within hours. Parishioners and volunteers worked through the night to patch the damage to the church. A group of women took it upon themselves to call and check on shut-ins in town to insure they were safe and unharmed. People pulled together in order to help out those in need as only a small town can.
Today most of the damage has been cleaned up and disposed of. Two days after the tornadoes, which were verified by the National Weather Service, the only obvious evidence of the disaster are the sagging buildings being repaired and the bent flag pole. Here and there you can find a lonely shingle flung to the ground. By the grace of God, there were no fatalities and only minor injuries. Now the town is once again looking ahead and counting it’s blessings.
