A strong thunderstorm this afternoon (July 13) brought down trees and power lines throughout Jefferson County, said Warren Robinson, county director of Emergency Management.
At about 4:30 p.m. after the storm blew through, Robinson said he didn’t know of any injuries, although he had heard that emergency personnel were working to extricate a motorist from a vehicle that was struck by a tree on Hwy. PP in High Ridge.
In addition, he had received reports about damage to six structures, mainly houses, in De Soto and southern Jefferson County.
The top of a tree at Virginia and Central avenues in Festus was taken down in the storm. Homeowner Josh Doyle said he planted the tulip tree when he moved into his house 14 years ago.
“It was the top of the tree that got knocked over. It was hanging in the lower branches. I pulled it out.”
Fortunately, the tree didn’t damage his house.
“It just damaged the tree. We were just lucky it didn’t hit our house,” Doyle said.”
He said he planned to use his chainsaw to cut up the 15 feet or so of the tree and then get rid of it.
As of about 4:30 p.m., about 20 percent of Jefferson County, or 19,661 homes and businesses, were without power.
At that time, Ameren Missouri’s Outage Map showed that 5,808 customers in Fenton were without power; 3,218 in High Ridge; 2,920 in Hillsboro; 1,740 in Festus; 1,366 in De Soto; 1,306 in Crystal City; 1,065 in Imperial; 1,021 in Arnold; 574 in Cedar Hill; 523 in Pevely; 105 in Barnhart; and 15 in Herculaneum. Outages were listed by ZIP codes.