Powerful storms that swept through the area Saturday knocked out power for thousands of customers around the Lake of the Ozarks.
In the Jefferson City area, as of 5:13 p.m., Ameren Missouri reported that 30 customers west of Holts Summit were without power from an outage that began at 3:40 p.m., due to a tree falling on a line. Two other customers in Holts Summit were out too.
Two customers around Zion Road, toward Route C in Cole County did not have power.
There were other small pockets of customers numbering about a dozen or less without power around the county. They all lost their power from 2:30-3:30 p.m., with the earlier outages happening in the west as storms moved east.
As of 5:25 p.m., outages were much more severe to the south, particularly in Miller County:
- Olean, 14 customers
- In the area of Mary's Home, 77 customers
- In and around Eldon and Aurora Springs, 310 customers
- Around the shores of the Lake of the Ozarks, more than 1,600 customers, in about 30 separate outages
- East of Bagnell, 136 customers
- Around Koeltztown and Argyle in Osage County, 194 customers
In addition to the power outages, the Missouri State High School track and field championships were interrupted for several hours as the wind, rain and lightning sent athletes and spectators racing for cover.
The National Weather Service (NWS) issued a tornado warning Saturday afternoon that included Eldon, Village of Four Seasons, Lake Ozark and Bagnell, based on radar indications.
NWS had also issued a tornado warning Saturday afternoon for southern Cole County, specifically for Wardsville and Taos, based on radar indications.
The News Tribune could not confirm whether any tornado had actually touched down on the ground.
Blair Oaks R-2's Superintendent Jim Jones was not aware of any damage or touchdown.
The News Tribune reached out to Cole County Emergency Management Director Bill Farr and Jefferson City Police Department Captain Doug Shoemaker, but did not immediately receive any news of weather-related incidents or damage.
Shoemaker's Twitter account noted lots of lightning and hard rain in the area.
He specifically warned drivers to slow down and watch out for hydroplaning, which is when a vehicle loses control on a wet road surface.
In a separate email sent to local news outlets, he advised that people "constantly monitor pending storms through several sources" as the situation continued to develop.
Weather resources:
Current weather watches, warnings and advisories for Missouri
Missouri rivers and lakes stages, forecasts
Bagnell Dam and Truman Reservoir stages, releases
Utility resources online:
_
_
_
_
_
Three Rivers Electric Cooperatve
Three Rivers Electric on Facebook
_
Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives (statewide coop updates)