Storms damage country music resort town, kill 9

Storms damage country music resort town, kill 9

BRANSON, Mo. (AP) - A powerful storm system that produced multiple reports of tornadoes lashed the Midwest early Wednesday, roughing up the country music resort city of Branson and laying waste to small towns in Illinois and Kansas. At least nine people were killed.

An apparent twister rolled through Branson just before 1 a.m. and seemed to hopscotch up the city’s main roadway, ripping roofs off hotels and damaging some of the city’s famed music theaters dangerously close to the start of the heavy tourism season. More than 30 people were reported hurt, mostly with cuts and bruises.

“If it was a week later, it’d be a different story,” said Bill Tirone, assistant general manager for the 530-room Hiltons of Branson and the Branson Convention Center, where windows were shattered and some rooms had furniture sucked away by high winds. Hotel workers were able to get all guests to safety as the storm raged.

John Moore, owner of the damaged Cakes-n-Creams ’50s Diner, said the tornado seemed to target the city’s main strip, moving down the entertainment district, through the convention center, across a lake and into a housing division. He said the tornado appeared to “jump side to side.”

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Storms damage country music resort town, kill 9

First and foremost, I want to send my sympathies to those that have lost their loved ones, homes, property and so forth. Americans WILL band together and work with these folks in an effort to return to some degree of normalcy.

It’s funny how things work in this modern day and time.

Last night I was browsing Facebook and my buddy Art Roth at Second Amendment Task Force posted a notice about the storms that were sweeping across Missouri.

I clicked on my WeatherBug application and brought up radar feeds for that area and then I hit my online scanner link, RadioReference.com and started listening to the feeds from the various counties affected and their associated emergency response services.

It was like having a front row seat to watch Mother Nature as she threw her latest *Bitch Fit*.

In Missouri, one person was killed in a trailer park in the town of Buffalo. Two more fatalities were reported in the Cassville and Puxico areas.

The storms left much of the small eastern Kansas town of Harveyville in rubble. At least three people were critically injured.

And it looks like it may not be over yet!

We haven’t had WINTER here in Texas, it’s a miracle that we haven’t had severe outbreaks here when a cold front, even a moderate cold front comes through.

Tornado season normally starts in March, but it isn’t unusual to see severe storms earlier in the year. Forecasters can seldom assess how serious a season will be because twisters are so unpredictable. This year, two people were killed by separate tornadoes in Alabama in January, and preliminary reports have showed 95 tornadoes struck that month.

Maybe they have tornado season up north … here in Texas, and in most of the Southern states, tornadoes can, and have happened at ANY time of year.

The Bossier City, Louisiana Tornado is a tornado that occurred during the early morning hours of December 3, 1978 in Louisiana. An F4 tornado touched down on the eastern bank of the Red River in Bossier City, Louisiana at approximately 1:50 a.m. CST.

The twister cut a path a .5 miles (0.8 km) wide and nearly 4 miles (6.4 km) long through the heart of Bossier City. Extensive damage was done to the Heart of Bossier Shopping Center, the Airline Drive corridor, the now-defunct Highway 80 entertainment district, and the Meadowview and Swan Lake subdivisions. The only two deaths to occur in Bossier City were two young girls who were killed when a car was thrown through their bedroom wall. SOURCE

I was home, in Shreveport at that time, I was in Down Town Shreveport, just across the Red River from Bossier City, enjoying the night life and imbibing in a few adult beverages when that storm hit.

The weather was VERY warm and humid that night, highly uncharacteristic for December. A cold front was predicted but the severe weather outbreak was NOT expected.

By daylight the next day the weather was FREEZING cold and the damage was truly unbelievable. Bossier City looked like a WAR ZONE.

I was one of the volunteers that responded to calls for help and spent 3 days in Bossier working security in an effort to stop looting. The Louisiana Governor had already issued *SHOOT TO KILL* orders in the event of looting, the National Guard was on scene, unarmed. That was a bit of a shocker. Bossier City was inundated with armed law enforcement and security personnel but the Guard showed up empty handed.

We got pretty lucky that night, there were only 2 deaths, Lisa and Jana Currington, ages 13 and 8, were killed when a car was thrown through the wall of the bedroom they were sleeping in.

I know their parents didn’t feel any *luck*, and I mean no denigration to either of those children, but given the time of night this tornado occurred and the large number of nightclubs in the immediate area, and the fact that about the time the storm hit coincided with closing time, it’s a wonder there weren’t many killed and injured.

Americans will pull together in a time of tragedy and disaster, we will help each other and we WILL survive. That’s what Americans DO!