STORM SWEEPS AREA WITH RAIN, STRONG WINDS

A severe thunderstorm dumped up to 3 inches of rain, uprooted trees, scattered limbs and left thousands of people without electricity for some period of time Tuesday.

Wind gusts were clocked up to 55 mph during the storm.

In Southeast Missouri, 11,000 AmerenUE customers lost power. About 7,000 of those were in the Cape Girardeau area.

Some were without electricity for less than hour; others were still waiting for power to be restored late Tuesday.

Erika Scheive had been waiting since 10 p.m. Monday for electricity to be restored at her home at 262 Capaha Trails. At 4 p.m. she wasn't sure when the power would come back on.

"Basically we feel so powerless," she said. "The worst part is not knowing what the problem is or how long it will take to be fixed."

Doug Groesbeck, district manager for AmerenUE, said crews were called to the Cape Girardeau area from Dexter, Charleston and Caruthersville to help with repairs. In addition, private contractors from Perryville and Ste. Genevieve were called in to assist.

Most of the damage was from high winds. Lightning also caused problems. Trees and limbs fell onto power lines. Most of the damage occurred from 3 a.m. to 4 a.m.

By about 9 a.m. the number of customers without power was about 1,500.

Initially crews were repairing circuits that restored power to 1,000 or more customers at a time.

Said Groesbeck: "The tail end of any storm damage involves a lot of single outages, a single line. We have to repair those one at a time, and the process typically takes longer."

As repairs took place Tuesday, a number of customers lost power, some as late as noon.

Groesbeck explained that sometimes the power must be cut off while repairs are made. In other cases damage is delayed. For example, a tree that is leaning against a power line might fall, bringing the lines down with it.

"This is usually the type of storm we get only once a year," Groesbeck said. "Mother Nature has been pretty kind to us over the past couple of years. I guess we were due."

A large tree was uprooted at Robert Penny's home at the corner of Sturdivant and Linden behind May Greene Elementary School.

The tree fell about 3 a.m. The tree narrowly missed Penny's car and house.

"My son lives in the house," said Wilma Skelton. "He heard the thunder and said it felt like the tree might have hit the house. But we were lucky: It didn't hit the house."

That wasn't the only tree uprooted by the storm. Tim Gramling, assistant public works director for Cape Girardeau, said work began as early as 4 a.m. to clear storm debris.

"We had quite a few trees down and lots of limbs. Quite a few streets were blocked," Gramling said. "This is not the worst we've seen, but the damage is quite extensive."

Crews Tuesday worked to get streets cleared. Gramling said cleanup probably will continue the rest of the week.

A few streets that typically flood during rains were flooded. The flood-control projects along Cape LaCroix and Walker creeks apparently did their jobs.

Martha Vandivort of Cape Girardeau County's emergency preparedness office said damage in the county consisted primarily of downed tree limbs and small trees.

"We had no reports of buildings or people harmed," she said. "We had a lot of electrical damage and debris."

Rain gauges north of Cape Girardeau measured 2 1/2 inches.