Storms Damage Country Music Resort Town, Kill 9 | NBC 4i:
BRANSON, Mo. -- 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."
"The theater next to me kind of exploded. It went everywhere. The hotels on the two sides of me lost their roofs. Power lines are down. Windows are blown out," Moore said. "There's major, major destruction. There has to be millions dollars of damage all down the strip."
'via Blog this'
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GJ - We had several tornado warnings. One was having the locked front doors blow open - twice. Another was the Internet going down. That means Precious hid behind the desk and knocked the power cord of the router out of the socket. The third warning was Precious hiding under my feet. We had a few gusts of wind and a little rain - nothing like the night Joplin blew away, about a year ago.
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| Precious hides near the power cords when loud storms arrive, often knocking me off the Internet. Photo by Norma Boeckler |
