Blizzards are rare in My Corner of the Ozarks. Sure, we have snow every winter. Maybe an inch or two. And I never thought we were in "tornado alley", but I'm beginning to wonder.
April 2 was a rerun of March 14. We watched TV weather reports of tornadoes coming into Howell County AGAIN!!
According to the National Weather Service on March 4, 13 tornadoes, strong winds, and large hail hit communities across Arkansas, Missouiri, Illinois, and Indiana. There were seven deaths and twelve other injuries. Homes and businesses were scattered across the landscape. One of the hardest hit in My Corner of the Ozarks was the little town of Bakersfield where three lives were lost.
The storms came near West Plains in Howell County (in My Corner of the Ozarks) on March 14. Pictured above is damage to a business south of West Plains. (Photo from Howell County News.)
The April 2 storm track was almost exactly the same. It went south of West Plains and remained southeast of Mountain View heading toward Poplar Bluff and Cape Girardeau. There was one death at Cape.
In March the Missouri Governor requested FEMA damage assessments from Howell, Oregon, Ozark and Wright counties, as well as Bollinger, Butler, Camden, Carter, Franklin, Iron, Jefferson, Laclede, New Madrid, Pemiscot, Perry, Phelps, Pulaski, Reynolds, Ripley, St. Louis, Stoddard, Wayne and Webster counties according to the West Plains Daily Quill.
According to Quill reporting the initial FEMA damage assements in March estimated about 368 houses destroyed across Missouri, plus 356 with major damage and 1,058 with minor damage.
The Howell-Oregon Electric Coop reported more than 400 poles broken or on the ground and 6,300 customers without power. Cousin Lynda in West Plains was out of power for several days.
These two 2025 storms remind me of the May 26, 2024 tornado that hit Mountain View.
Mountain View Police Chief Jamie Perkins reported in the Howell County News, "I recorded three tornadoes that came through town. The biggest was the north of [US Highway] 60, went out Delp Road, towards Y Highway.” Perkins said, and Howell County Sheriff Brent Campbell confirmed, there was only one report of a serious injury. One home “a block outside city limits” was blown off its foundation, seriously injuring the occupant.