Power was out to more than 5,000 area residents Tuesday evening as severe storms moved across Southeast Missouri with wind gusts nearing 60 miles per hour and ping-pong size hail in some locations.
Ozark Border restored electric service to the last of its customers around 7:30 a.m. today, said general manager David Schremp. The majority of outages were near Wappapello Lake, the M Highway area of Poplar Bluff and between Hilliard and Hendrickson, he explained.
"Some of it was due to lightening, and the bulk of it was due to high winds," Schremp said.
A small wave of storms around 7 p.m. caused the majority of damage, with a few additional outages during a larger wave of rain later in the evening, he said.
The National Weather Service received a report of 58 mile per hour winds at 6:57 p.m. the Poplar Bluff airport. Additional reports of trees down were made at 7:15 p.m. and 7:24 p.m. in Butler County.
Jerome Kenner also reported a destroyed pavilion and downed limbs at his home in the 2500 block of High Street.
The majority of Ozark Border repairs were completed by 11 p.m., Schremp said, but a steep hill in the M Highway area slowed down work for the final homes.
"It is very steep, very rough terrain. We had to take a big track machine in there just to access it and get the poles set," he said.
Some temporary repairs were made in the lake to get power back on, Schremp said. Crews will be back today to complete permanent repairs.
A severe thunderstorm warning was issued for Poplar Bluff near 7 p.m., but no tornado watches or warnings.
It came as a storm from south central Missouri progressed rapidly across the area, according to the NWS.
"We had over a dozen observing stations report winds between 45 and 63 mph. Torrential rainfall of 1 to 2 (plus) inches was observed in some areas along with some reports of hail, mostly up to the size of nickels. However, there was a report of ping pong-ball sized hail in Van Buren," the NWS reported.
Emergency management reported the hail in Van Buren at 5:36 p.m., with additional reports of smaller hail following until shortly before 6 p.m.
At 6:05 p.m., trained spotters and Carter County emergency management reported hail greater than one-half inch at Ellsinore.
More hail was reported at Greenville at 6:27 p.m., followed by a report of 50 mile per hour winds at Wappapello at 6:52 p.m.
Several communities in the area began reporting power outages at this time, according to the NWS.
Damage was being reported in Dexter by 7:20 p.m., where a concrete storage shed was heavily damaged on North Park Lane.
Emergency management also reported multiple trees down and blocking Highway 158 some time around 7:30 p.m. The area was two miles east of the junction of U.S. 67 and U.S. 160.