Officials with the National Weather Service say storm damage Thursday in the Dexter area was caused by a wind event, not a tornado.
Friday evening it was announced the wind that derailed a train and turned over a parked semi-truck may have reached speeds of 90 to 100 miles an hour.
Stoddard County Emergency Management Agency Director Kent Polsgrove received the information from the NWS. He toured the area Friday morning with a team from the weather service. Polsgrove said the team spoke to workers with Ameren Missouri, Union Pacific and Busy B Lumber, as well as with Dexter Fire Chief Don Seymore. The team also took photos of the damage and pinpointed areas of damage on a digital map.
It was their opinion, Polsgrove said, that the majority of the damage was the result of straight line winds. They also believed the damage was too wide spread to be a tornado.
The data collected on site was taken back to the Paducah office of the NWS. A full report will be released this weekend.