Tri-States Spared the Worst of Five-State Storm System Friday
While there were storms that moved through northeast Missouri and western Illinois Friday night and early Saturday morning, our storms were nothing in comparison with the perhaps history-making swath of destruction that made its way through five states.
The closest the worst of the storms got to us was the St. Louis area. The National Weather Services reported an EF-3 tornado touched down in the Defiance, Missouri area about 7:35 p.m. Friday. The storm hit mostly in a rural area, with a handful of homes destroyed and one fatality.
It was about an hour later that another EF-3 storm hit Edwardsville, Illinois, causing major damage to an Amazon warehouse. The Weather Service reported six people have been reported dead so far.
Missouri Governor Mike Parson reported two people killed from tornadoes in the Show-Me State.
The catastrophic damage from Friday's storms came to the south and east, with tornadoes reported in Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky, along with Missouri and Illinois.
There were at least two people reported killed when a nursing home in Monette, in northeast Arkansas was destroyed.
Kentucky seems to have borne the brunt of the destruction. The town of Mayfield, Kentucky (see the gallery pictures) was particularly hard hit. Their governor says their death toll could reach 100.
Weather services officials say that if Friday night's storm path from Arkansas to Kentucky consisted of one tornado, that 240 mile path would surpass the infamous Tri-State tornado of 1925, that covered 219 miles through Missouri, Illinois and Indiana.