A tornado blew through central Missouri on Monday, hitting three small towns northwest of Columbia along Highway 240 in Saline and Howard counties.
A grain silo damaged from Monday’s storm is shown on Tuesday in Slater. The Slater School District canceled in-person classes due to power outages caused by the storm. Power was expected to return Wednesday at the earliest.
The small communities of Slater, Gilliam and Glasgow bore the brunt of the storm. Silos were crushed, power lines toppled, roofs torn apart and trees pulled up from their roots.
Power outages caused most businesses in the communities to close, and the highway linking the three towns has been impassable for almost two days.
In the aftermath, friends, neighbors and work teams assembled to pick up the pieces, clear roads and restore power and water. Here is what was happening in these towns on Tuesday.
Slater (population 1,823)
Recovery efforts were in full swing around Slater on Tuesday morning, as residents, work teams and local business owners worked together to clear buildings that had been damaged.
Trae Jacobson, owner of Slater’s local tree service, said the need was more important than any payment he might receive.
“I haven’t accepted a dime the last two days,” Jacobson said. “I stay busy year round. As affordable as it is, when something like this happens, what comes around goes around. It’ll come back my way.”
Robert Gari uses a saw to remove a fallen tree from his yard on Tuesday in Slater. Various members from the community gathered to help Gari clean his yard of the debris.
Along the town’s southern border, a major grain elevator next to Central Missouri AGRIService was destroyed, demonstrating the serious impact weather events can have on agricultural communities.
“We’re in the heart of planting season right now, and this community in particular is so agricultural-based. It hits home,” Travis McCann said.
As branch president of the Exchange Bank of Missouri in Slater, McCann was stationed outside the bank Tuesday, grilling burgers for anyone who needed food.
City officials said they had never experienced anything like Monday’s storm.
“I’ve been here 36 years and I’ve never dealt with anything this large,” said Assistant City Administrator Russell Griffith.
“We’ve had windstorms that knocked down a couple, three to four poles...We’re sitting here with 15-20 poles down.”
Following severe weather Monday, a telephone pole leans over after being damaged on Tuesday in Slater. Along with property damage, Monday’s severe weather brought power outages across Slater.
The tornado knocked out power across the entire town, and it wasn’t expected to return to Slater until Wednesday afternoon at the earliest.
Gilliam (population 177)
Situated between Slater and Glasgow, Gilliam remained almost entirely closed to travelers on Route 240 Tuesday as work crews continued to repair a major stretch of downed power lines along the highway.
The south side of Gilliam seemed to be hit hardest, with a hog barn severely damaged, as well as several homes. A washing machine was sitting on a concrete slab in one area with no sign of a house.
All five of the town’s southern street accesses were blocked, although drivers could still travel the northern back roads.
Community members say they were completely caught off guard when the storm hit early Monday morning.
“There was no notice,” Joshua Eidson said. “We’ve always had such great notice and everything. Family and everyone have called before, but there was really no notice for this one.”
Although Eidson said power was expected to return to the area within the next 48 hours, the impact of the tornado left more questions than answers.
“My roof’s gone,” he said. “I’ve pretty much probably already lost my house from not having power. I don’t even know if it’ll burn down if it comes back on. I don’t know.”
Glasgow (population 1,079)
The town of Glasgow appeared largely deserted Tuesday afternoon as work crews continued to repair the damage to a number of homes and resurrect power lines that had been torn in half by the storm.
A roof caves in on a house after severe weather Tuesday in Slater. Darryl Kruger, the owner of the house, removed many branches Tuesday morning from the oak tree that fell onto the house. The tornado hit Monday morning, and cleanup efforts continued Tuesday.
Access to Route 240 was nearly impossible, with detours directing traffic around the mess and making travel tedious at best.
Power and water were both expected to be out for another day or two for some people, although the city reported on Facebook that the electric company had begun restoring power.
Residents were told that circuits would be returned online one at a time, so not all customers would have service restored at once.
The lack of utilities caused services and streets throughout the town to remain closed as repairs continued.
Construction workers repair power lines on Tuesday in Slater. Power outages across Saline County are anticipated to last until the end of the week. City officials in slater said they had never experienced anything like the storm on Monday.
At the intersection of First Street and Market Street, workers at City Hall had placed cases of water bottles for members of the community to use throughout the day.
Glasgow schools were closed both Monday and Tuesday, with an estimated timeline for reopening yet to be determined.