Short Bend tornado leaves devastation after severe winds

Emergency responders with Intercounty Electric were also working to restore power now. Dozens of power line poles are down across the valley.

The path of destruction began just after 11 p.m. Wednesday night at the home of Doug Hedrick, just off of Highway 19.

“It sounded like a freight train,” Hedrick says. “It passed through really quick – like someone flipped it on and flipped it off real quick. We had kids at two ends of the house. We went and got them and huddled together. It was so strong, you could feel the air pressure inside the living room when it went by.”

After venturing out of his house, Hedrick found his barn had been knocked off its foundation, and the family’s trampoline was in a tree, among other damage.

From there the winds churned to the home of Gary and Pat Medlock.

“It was a giant roar,” Pat Medlock said breathlessly from her front porch as she surveyed the damage. The ceiling along their home’s porch was collapsed, and insulation appeared to have been sucked out the roof.

Gary Medlock was busy Thursday morning working on County Road 4050 where some of the worst damage occurred. The storm descended into the Meramec River Valley uprooting trees and snapping boughs along the river bottom. Dozens of trees fell across the road, and volunteers worked with county road crews until dawn to clear a path.

The worst damage was sustained to the homes sitting on the river’s northern ridge. A wind blast took the roof off one home and most of the shingles off another. The ruined house’s contents were spread across a half-mile northwest across Highway 19 to the Missouri Department of Conservation’s public access fishing area. Linens, wiring and plywood could be seen scattered in and around the Meramec River.

From there, the path of destruction climbed up the hill overlooking Short Bend, from which point it dissipated. 

“Nobody was hurt, so that’s great, but I feel awful for the folks down there who don’t have a home to stay in now,” says Ralph Shook, whose home overlooks the destruction in the valley below. “You never real realize just how thankful you can be when something like this happens.”