Tornado carves path through central Vernon County on Wednesday

NEVADA, Mo. — A tornado cut a path of destruction through central Vernon County early Wednesday.

Vernon County Sheriff Mike Buehler said it appeared to have touched down near Bronough and Moundville southwest of Nevada on Missouri Highway 43 and traveled northeast through Nevada and continued to just outside of Walker.

Only minor injuries were reported.

“I can’t say enough about all the volunteers and first responders and outside agencies that just converged on us,” Buehler said. “We were able to deploy everyone out and check the well-being and welfare of all the citizens. We’ve done a primary sweep, and we just finished our secondary sweep to make sure all citizens are taken care of. We’re going to be down on power for a while. Evergy has been here, they’ve been great working on the power lines down, so at this point in time we’re trying to get everything put together.”

Buehler said part of Austin Boulevard could remain closed into Thursday as businesses in that area clean up.

The tornado also caused significant damage in Moundville, damaging homes and farms in rural Vernon County. It also derailed train cars and blew a number of vehicles on Interstate 49 off the road.

Mason Garrison moved to Nevada from Michigan in December 2024 to go to school at the Missouri Welding Institute. He was living at the Nevada Oaks Motel with several other students who found themselves in the direct path of the storm.

“I got woken up early in the morning from the alerts on my phone,” Garrison said. “I looked outside, and it didn’t look like much was really happening. Then I got a second alert on my phone. I looked outside, and the wind was starting to pick up a ton and I started to see some sheets of metal flying. I decided I better head to the bathroom because that was the only room without windows, and as soon as I got in there I heard a window break. It took about a minute or a minute and a half to do all this. It just picked everything up and threw it.”

Garrison’s car was moved about 10 feet and was badly damaged by wind and flying debris. He said an air conditioning unit from the roof of a nearby business seems to have hit his car at some point.

His room was littered with broken glass and debris.

“It was definitely something I never expected to be in in my life. Definitely a scary situation, but I thought, ‘Well, God’s there and he’ll determine everyone’s fate,’” Garrison said. “I was pretty accepting about it. I thought I was in the bathroom and I should be all right, but I came out and I was just like, ‘Wow, thank God.’ I went and checked on other people in the neighborhood and fortunately everyone was all right. It was definitely a scary situation to be in.”

Rachelle Wolf, of Nevada, lived in another room at the same hotel with her husband, Cory. Her room lost its roof.

“I heard the sirens very faintly, and I called Cory and let him know,” she said. “I was scared, I grew up scared of storms along with my mom, and she always told us to get in the bathtub. I went and got in the bathtub, but I had nothing to cover myself with. I braced myself in the bathtub, and all I can remember is being covered with stuff. Next thing I know, bam, everything fell on top of me.”

Wolf managed to get out of her bathtub with no injuries.

She said she could tell she lost her job at the Dragon Wok restaurant next door to the Nevada Oaks Motel. That restaurant also lost a big section of its roof.

A new car wash across the street from the motel and restaurant was damaged along with businesses to the east and west for about a block.

Early morning storms also prompted a tornado warning in the Joplin area.

The National Weather Service office in Springfield issued a tornado warning for parts of Jasper and Newton counties in Missouri and Cherokee County, Kansas, just after 8 a.m. for a storm that brought strong winds and heavy rain and storm rotation. Damage was mostly limited to tree limbs in that area.