Gasconade County Republican

In town, several Bradford pear limbs along Second Street were torn off near West Washington Avenue. The old “Doc Brenner” house had the roof to a sun room on the west side peeled off. It went over the house and was strung over the telephone and cable television lines in the alley on the east side of the house.

Joe Celli was home with his family when the storm hit. They went to the basement. He said the storm passed by the time they were settled.

Late Wednesday night as Ameren Missouri linemen were reconnecting a downed service line to his rental home, Celli said the storm made him rethink his religion.

“I was raised in the church. I think it’s time to get back into the church,” he said after meeting his neighbor, Rev. Jackie Asher, who lives next door to him in the United Methodist Church parsonage to the east.

Ameren lineman said outages in town were primarily limited to those two houses. The damaged roof was removed from the communication utility lines late Thursday morning. Several sections of a privacy fence between the parsonage and Cathlee’s Real Estate office in the former church building were also blown down.

Several trees were damaged in the alley running between East Washington and Highway 28 between First and Cuba. At the east end of the alley, a wind gust apparently blew through an open garage door and pushed out a block wall on the north side of the structure.

Spotty damage was reported outside the city limits. Doug Gruenloh’s house on Price Road was damaged when a maple tree fell across the entrance to a mud room. Limbs also damaged a section of roof over the family room.

“I’ll miss the shade,” said Gruenloh noting he is considering removing another older tree nearby.

He was working on a truck in his workshop behind the house when winds picked up and began tossing empty metal fuel tanks around behind the shop. He watched as one bounced around and scuffed down the entire length of a pickup truck, denting the front and rear quarter panels and destroying the driver’s side mirror.

Several large cedar trees were topped by the high wind and were strewn across the road and nearby fields. His neighbor to the west had no visible damage.