On Thursday, May 14, I was fortunate enough to cover the previous night's tornado damage in Kirksville, Mo., about an hour and a half north of Columbia. And by fortunate I mean it was a very enriching experience to see tornado destruction first hand. You come away with a new perspective on storms like this when you're able to see things close up. Out of the several major natural disaster type storms, tornados are by far the most frightening to me. I think most of it has to do with their unpredictable nature. For example, the tornado in Kirksville destroyed one house, hopped over the church next to it and then came down again to destroy the house on the other side. How can anyone feel safe when something like that is around? Another guy and I made the early morning drive, leaving at 4:30 am, in order to report for KBIA's morning newscast. We arrived at Kirksville's damage site, other places outside of Kirksville had also been hit, around 6 am. It was a very odd scene that early in the morning to be walking around a subdivision that had just been destroyed. The sun was coming up to reveal that several families were most certainly not going to be returning to their homes that day. I thought I'd share some photos that I took during our three hours in Kirksville.
A few houses in the Lakeside Estates subdivision that were destroyed.
Another house in the subdivision.
Jim Robertson's Chevrolet dealership was entirely destroyed. The showroom was gutted and no car in the lot was left undamaged.
Cars were strewn about the lot and thrown into neighboring fields.
