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Tornado Just Misses

The A-O Report Offices

As

Twisters Strike Kansas City Suburbs

Gladstone & Liberty Hit

 

Above: aerial view of Kansas City area storm-damaged homes

 

Hundreds of Homes & Businesses Damaged/Destroyed

Above: The Remains of an Arby's Roast Beef restaurant in Independence, MO.

 

But Only Minor Injuries and No Deaths

 

A surprise line of storms rolled across the metropolitan Kansas City region early on Friday morning, the 2nd of May. The National Weather Service issued severe thunderstorm warnings for the entire metropolitan 6 county area but no one was expecting the storms to produce twisters although hurricane-force winds of 60 to 85mph were expected. No tornado warnings were issued with the storm system, but in retrospect the National Weather Service should have issued tornado warnings.

The strong was most destructive in the northern suburbs of Kansas City including the suburbs of Gladstone and Liberty, Missouri. A-O Readers may be interested to learn that Liberty is the home community where The Alpha=Omega Report offices and home of publisher Richard Coombes are located.

A-O Report's publisher stated that: "it's the price one pays for living in the heart of the world's 'tornado alley.' We had a lot of wind blast the house but at 2 am we could see nothing and I heard none of the typical sounds associated with a tornado such as the typical 'freight train' sound. The twister itself missed us by about 2 to 3 miles to our north."

The storm formed what is called a bow-echo line formation which usually only produces strong, straight-line winds and possible micro-bursts, but the early morning storm which hit about 2 am local time included several imbedded tornadoes, three of which touched down in northern Kansas City suburbs including Kansas City proper as well as the suburban cities of Gladstone and Liberty.

The National Weather Service said a EF3 tornado struck around 2 a.m. Friday, cutting a 75-foot-wide swath along a roughly two-mile stretch of north Kansas City near Liberty, Missouri. It was one of 4 tornadoes to rake the area during the storm. Earlier the night before other funnel clouds roared over the Kansas City metropolitan area.

Hundreds of homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed as well as an entire rail tran blown off the railroad tracks. The twister that roared through the suburban town of Liberty just missed the home of The Alpha-Omega Report's news room and the home of publisher Richard Coombes.  Dozens of homes just about three miles from the publisher's home were either obliterated or severely damaged in the storm. The Coombes household sustained no damage but the A-O Newsroom was without utility services for several hours on Friday.

For any one interested in more details about the bizarre line of Hurricane-force storms see the LINK HERE.  More details also at this LINK HERE. TV website featuring damage near the home and offices of A-O Report publisher, Richard Coombes. LINK HERE.  Also - Dramatic TV News VIDEO from News Helicopter of the damaged areas of Liberty and Gladstone. LINK HERE. One TV station has a video clip of the storm's radar returns showing the twister signatures in the radar but that were missed initially by all weather monitos and the NWS. See the LINK HERE.

 

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Above: Aerial view of devastation in Gladstone, MO.

 

Above: Damage near Liberty

 

Above: A train was blown off its tracks. Note the cars in the forefront laying on their side.

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