Tornado rips through Missouri town, injuring at least 1: ‘The damage is extensive’
A tornado ripped through a town in Vernon County, Missouri, Wednesday morning, leaving behind a swath of damaged and destroyed homes and businesses.
Damage to the town of Nevada, Missouri, was “substantial,” said Nevada City Manager Gary Edwards. Officials tallied one injury and no deaths a little before noon Wednesday.
“The damage is extensive,” Edwards said. “We’re talking weeks, months, even longer in all this cleanup. It’s going to be a massive job.”
Nevada, which has a population of around 8,000, is about 100 miles south of Kansas City.
Tornado sirens sounded around 7:30 a.m., Edwards said. Fortunately, he said, the tornado “skipped and hopped,” striking pockets of town, and did not stay on the ground. Roofs were torn from buildings, homes and businesses were destroyed and a “massive” swath of trees were downed by the storm, he said.
Evergy reported about 4,800 customers in the area were without power.
“Evergy‘s teams are in Nevada assessing the damage and beginning repairs,” Shane Batchelder, a spokesman for the utility, said in an email. “We will finalize our restoration plan once our team has a full damage assessment. People in the area are urged to watch for downed power lines and to stay at least 30 feet from any downed lines.”
Damage in Nevada, Missouri
Erin Stewart said she was driving into town as the storm hit and at one point thought the heavy winds were going to flip her car.
“It was the sideways rain, debris, the power flashes from the transformers and the lines going across the road,” she said. “It was quick.”
Stewart works at a chiropractic clinic off East Austin Boulevard, a main road through town, and said the business was fortunate to not have significant damage. Other businesses were much worse off, she said.
“We were right in the middle of it, and our office got lucky,” she said. “We have a busted front door, shingles pulled off, we had trees fall behind it but they didn’t land on the building. We got lucky there.”
National Weather Service report
According to a storm report from the National Weather Service, the tornado track was reported from the south through the east side of Nevada and may extend southwest through Moundville, which had more reports of damage.
Multiple semi-trucks were overturned on Interstate 49, the weather service report said.
Officials are working to determine the extent of the storm track and will make an assessment on things like its path and width, said Kelsey Angle, a meteorologist with the weather service’s Springfield office.
“Right now we’re in the process of doing a damage survey and we’ll have more information this evening,” he said.
Further severe weather this week has the potential to complicate cleanup efforts.
“Strong to severe thunderstorms are going to be possible throughout the rest of the week across southwest and south-central and southeast Missouri,” Angle said. “We expect some rounds of strong to severe thunderstorms, and as we go into Friday, Saturday and early Sunday, flooding will be occurring.”
The Star’s Tammy Ljungblad and Kendrick Calfee contributed reporting to this story.
This story was originally published April 2, 2025 at 2:17 PM.
