UPDATED: Downed trees, blocked roads following thunderstorm

A thunderstorm moved through Butler and surrounding counties Sunday afternoon, damaging homes and leaving downed trees and blocked roadways. No injuries were reported.

The storm hit Van Buren in Carter County at about 12:45 p.m.

“It looked like a hurricane, sheets of rain and wind,” said Gary Sullivan, a dispatcher with the Carter County Sheriff’s Department. “It wasn’t a noisy storm. There wasn’t any thunder and lightning, just wind and rain.”

The “main cell,” according to Carter County Sheriff Rick Stephens, lasted about 45 minutes, with “heavy, heavy rain (and) heavy, heavy wind.”

In its aftermath were a lot of downed trees countywide and power outages.

Just after 2 p.m., Stephens said, the power had been out for about 90 minutes.

Power was out in Fremont and Van Buren, with power lines down in Elsinore, Sullivan said.

“We had a few people trapped with trees down on M Highway,” said Stephens, who indicated motorist were stranded on the road between fallen trees.

People, Sullivan said, also were trapped by trees at Watercress Park in Van Buren.

“Right now, they’re trying to get the roads unblocked,” said Sullivan.

As the storm moved into Butler and Wayne counties, the high winds caused downed trees.

“Right now, there are trees down pretty much countywide in different places,” said Butler County Emergency Management Agency Director Robbie Myers. “We’ve had multiple reports of roof damage,” including at Neelyville.

The roof was “completely blown off of a house in Neelyville, one mile south of Highway 142 on (Highway) 67,” said Craig Meador with the Poplar Bluff Severe Weather Response Team.

A tree, Meador, said, also fell on a home at 117 W. Center St., trapping its resident(s) inside.

Poplar Bluff Fire Capt. Jeff Hale said firefighters found a tree had fallen on the home, “pushing the roof and tree itself down on top of a bed where a girl was laying.

“We cut the roof out from underneath the tree, (then) cut a hole for the girl to crawl out of."

The girl, who was believed to be a teenager, was taken by ambulance for treatment, but “I don’t believe she was injured,” Hale said.

The Center Street home was one of four calls firefighters responded to regarding trees having fallen on houses, Hale said.