MALDEN, Mo. -- Cleanup efforts are underway in Malden after an EF-2 tornado touched down there Saturday evening cutting a mile-long path along the town's south side.
"For the most part, the streets are open now," said Mayor Denton Kooyman. "We have volunteers, too, going in to help."
The volunteers, he said, are meeting at the Malden Community Center and are being taken into the affected areas by council members, so "they can go street by street" and don't get spread out.
About 75 homes, along with outbuildings and vehicles, were damaged and hundreds of trees were uprooted and splintered when the tornado struck Saturday. Eight people suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
Within a short time Saturday, power was restored to most of the town, and the American Red Cross had set up a shelter at the Community Center.
Eleven families sought shelter there the first night, with only one family staying the past two nights.
"As prepared as we were, we still couldn't do anything about it," explained Kooyman. "We want the people to know the city, we, did all we could" before the storm hit.
Storm spotters, including the mayor, had taken up their positions around Malden as soon as information came in from the National Weather Service regarding the threat.
"The rain hit hard, then died down, hit hard again," said Kooyman, who had "sat out there an hour" in his spot. "We never saw hail."
At one point, Kooyman said, they received word the "rotation had stopped. We were about to give notice that the rotation had stopped" when it hit.
Kooyman estimated the damage was done in "under 30 seconds."
Officials, he said, initially didn't know the tornado had hit until damage reports started coming in.
The storm spotters, Kooyman said, hadn't seen anything as it was "late ... visibility was poor."
The city's storm sirens didn't go off "because we were told it had died down, then we lost power and couldn't set them off," Kooyman explained.
"The whole city lost power," including the police station, Kooyman said. "We lost our communications there."
Kooyman said emergency responders and city workers arrived quickly and assessments started immediately in the area, where many power lines were down among the damaged structures and trees.
"Our Board of Public Works had power up in three hours except for the affected area," said Kooyman.
Volunteers, as well as firefighters and police officers, began showing up from communities around Malden, Kooyman said.
"Initially, we used them to block the disaster area," the mayor said. "Our local people went in to assess the power lines."
Once the situation was assessed and deemed "somewhat safe, our volunteer firefighters went door to door," marking the houses to show they had been checked, Kooyman said.
Ambulances, the mayor said, took four people for treatment, with another four choosing to drive themselves to a hospital.
Two of the injured, he said, were in the same structure and had been "blown apart from each other."
The storm initially hit near Douglass and moved northeast, ending near the Bunnell and Ozark streets area. The Kimball Street area was among the hardest hit areas.
"It came from the southwest; this is where it first hit and went across," explained Malden Fire Chief Charlie Cooper as he drove north along Douglass. "You couldn't come through here (Saturday night). All the trees were removed (from the street), cleaned up (Sunday)," including a massive tree that uprooted and fell across the street.
After the tornado crossed Douglass, Cooper said, its path could been seen across an open field, where a "good size barn' was destroyed and a metal building was left leaning before it moved east across the south end of town.
"We're lucky that is all it (damage) was," Cooper said. "It barely caught the south end of town. A half mile or mile north would have caused a lot more damage."
Mark Winkler with the State Emergency Management Agency said SEMA arrived on Sunday to assess the damage in conjunction with the Malden and Dunklin County EMA directors.
"It was quite a long day; there is still a lot of debris, downed power lines," Winkler said. "We surveyed 75 total residential structures and one business."
Winkler said 11 of the residential structures were destroyed, including six single-family homes and five mobile homes.
Eleven single-family homes, he said, had marginal damage, with another 14 single-family homes and one mobile home having minor damage.
Also effected by the tornado were another 38 single-family homes and one mobile home.
The collected data, he said, will be submitted to SEMA's recovery division for a determination as to whether assistance will be made available to those affected individuals.
The National Weather Service at Memphis, Tenn., according to Winkler, categorized the tornado as an EF-2, with its path being 1.1 mile long and one-eighth of a mile wide at its widest point.
Winds, Winkler said, were estimated at 115 mph.
The affected area, according to Kooyman, was in the city's Ward 2, located east of Business 25.
The tornado, he said, started on the southeast side of Ward 2 and went to the northeast, damaging the homes and business.
In addition to the destroyed homes, Kooyman said, many of remaining one are "very critical."
"They're not livable; people shouldn't be living in them," Kooyman said. "They're unsafe."
Some residents, including those who didn't wanted to leave their belongings, stayed in homes even though they were without electricity, Kooyman said.
"All power has been restored to houses that are safe to have power," said Kooyman, who indicated some houses had their electric ripped off.
Kooyman expects the damage to be greater than SEMA's assessment as it only rated damage to home and businesses.
That doesn't "include power poles, cars, sheds, trailers; they only did houses; there is so much more damage unfortunately," Kooyman.
The city inspector, Kooyman said, will be assessing the homes to see if they are inhabitable.
More may be found unlivable with the "heavy rain coming" tonight, which may cause more damage, Kooyman said.
Crews, he said, worked Saturday night and Sunday to get debris cleared so the buses could run Monday.
"I wanted the schools to open; I wanted the students back to normal" as soon as possible, he said.
Initially, only residents, with a police escort, were allowed into the disaster area, the mayor said.
As utility crews worked to restore power and services Monday, some homeowners and residents began picking up debris, such as glass, as well as cutting up downed trees.
Kooyman said the debris can be piled at the side of the street and city crews will remove it.
Numerous businesses and groups are reaching out to the town to donate food and supplies, and soon the recovery efforts will be in "full force," Kooyman said.
Congressman Jason Smith, he said, was the first to contact him and offer assistance.
Kooyman said Speaker of the House Todd Richardson also reached out, and Gov. Eric Greitens visited the area on Monday afternoon.
"The support from our elected officials has been great, especially from our congressman," Kooyman said.
Among the groups responding to offer assistance was the Southern Baptist Convention Disaster Relief.
"We do cleanup," explained Butch Gamache, the group's state coordinator. "I'm getting orders and getting ready to start (having crews out) cutting trees."
In addition to his work with that group, Gamache is also the shelter/kitchen manger for the Red Cross.
With assistance from area churches, organizations and restaurants, Gamache said, three meals are being served daily.
The shelter, the mayor said, will remain open until next week, and the Red Cross will be in Malden through Saturday.
"We still have one lady, her and her son were here," Kooyman said. "Their house was hit pretty bad. We're trying to find a house for them."