Killer tornado strikes, causing 3 deaths

Tornadoes brought death and destruction to Daviess County Saturday evening, May 29, 2004. Three people died in the mammoth storm, rated as an F4 storm by the National Weather Service which means winds estimated up to 260 mph were involved. The tornado was, at times, at least a quarter-mile wide — one of eight to 12 tornadoes that touched down in seven counties.

The killer tornado passed over the brick home of Wesley Harms at the junction of Route EE and Highway 6 to follow the county line along 100th Street (also known as Santa Rosa gravel road) northward. Metal barn structures were damaged next to the Harms home and at the next home belonging to John Oaks. Then two houses belonging to Raymond Searcy were destroyed as was the Randy Fraizer residence. All these properties were on the DeKalb side of the boundary road.

Death occurred on the Daviess County side. Five people were in the modular home owned by Pete Bethards when it was lifted from its cement block foundation and demolished as it was blown westward across the road for about 50 yards into DeKalb County.

Mr. Bethards was pronounced dead at the scene, found still shielding his grandchildren amid the debris. Two of his daughters were injured, Melissa Bethards, 24, and Monica Bethards, 26. Both were taken to Liberty Hospital. Monica’s two daughters were also injured, 3-year-old Autumn, and 2-1/2 month old Adriana who was listed in serious condition as late as Monday evening with head injuries. The children are being treated at Children’s Mercy Hospital.

Two deaths occurred when the tornado struck the next residence along the road, an older wooden frame home also without a basement. Six people were at the home of John Stith, hoping to survive the storm. Pronounced dead at the scene on the Daviess County side of the road were his wife Patricia Stith, 60, and Mary Riley, 79. They were found in the field northeast of the home site.

Injured were Christina Sharp, 34, taken to Cameron Regional Medical Center; Christina’s father, John Stith, 59, taken to North Kansas City Hospital; and two children, Derrick Sharp, 7, and Casey Sharp, 5. Both children were taken to Children’s Mercy Hospital and were still listed in serious condition as late as Monday evening.

The fatalities are the first local deaths resulting from a tornado in memory, perhaps the first ever in Daviess County. Likewise, the storm is considered among the biggest, if not the most damaging, in county history.

Thanks to warnings from the National Weather Service, anyone listening to the weather news had about a half hour’s warning before the tornadoes struck.

The storm’s center hovered in the Plattsburg area for quite some time before moving northward. It seemed to pause between Cameron and Osborn before eventually crossing Highway 36, apparently heading directly toward Kidder and Gallatin. Interstate 35 was closed to traffic as a precaution; water and debris sprawling across Highway 36 forced that highway closing.

Kidder and Gallatin easily could have been the first towns victimized by the storm, but the fatal tornado inexplicably turned north to cross Highway 6 and level homes along the Santa Rosa gravel road. It then moved eastward damaging buildings and uprooting trees at old Pattonsburg and Coffey before it eventually dissipated in Mercer County.

The first caller reporting a tornado strike on the Santa Rosa Road was received by the Daviess County Central 911 Dispatch at 10:39 p.m. Responders dealt with numerous patients upon arrival, in varying degrees of injury, amid the total destruction of several residences in the immediate area.

The actual path of destruction went from Osborn in the south end of DeKalb County into Daviess County, continuing along the Daviess-Harrison County line. Approximately 18 to 20 houses were damaged or destroyed in the two counties, with an estimated 30 to 40 vehicles damaged or destroyed.

Numerous area law enforcement, fire and ambulance agencies arrived on the scene to assist in the search and rescue efforts. These included responders from Daviess, DeKalb, Gentry, Clinton, Cameron and the Missouri State Highway Patrol as well as other agencies and still more citizens and neighbors.

Several searches of the area were conducted in an attempt to locate any possible missing victims. After extensive effort, all people known to be at the scene when the tornado hit were accounted for. Six patients were transported to hospitals, two transported by medical helicopter.

The tragedy commanded the attention of national media with television and reporters from the Associated Press and daily newspapers on the scene during the aftermath and cleanup. Twisted trees and debris offered evidence of the storm’s fatal force on location after location.

Many scenes were typical of horrendous tornado destruction so commonly repeated throughout the Midwest’s "Tornado Alley" where storm afflictions annually occur. For instance, a fire fighter from Hamilton, Ralph Blades, describes grass stems blown like darts into the truck of a tree. A Pattonsburg farmer, Delbert Lowrey, rescued a sheep blown feet-first into and thus hanging from a woven wire fence.

Tornado experiences are numerous and varied. Max Conover of Pattonsburg lost three grain bins, recovering two but still searching for the third. There are stories of steel fence posts bent by the winds, and cars tossed more than 100 yards. Large trucks were overturned. Others report trees cleanly tossed into cleared fields despite the additional weight of its roots still gripping a huge dirt bulb.

Some say the tornado was so large that they experienced a pause in the rumbling windstorm, evidence of the storm’s "eye" which lasted several seconds before high rumbling winds returned as the storm finally passed.

Sadness prevailed in the storm’s aftermath. Along the Santa Rosa road while some neighbors looked for lost livestock, others looked for children. Decisions made before the terror of the storm meant life or death. The Randy Frazier family, for instance, took refuge in a friend’s basement. When they returned home early Sunday, they found their home leveled and about 100 people searching their pasture for signs of life. Until their appearance, authorities were worried that the family had perished.

Authorities asked those attending the annual alumni school reunion in Pattonsburg to return inside the building, even locking the doors for safety when the storm raged through. Tombstones at the cemetery north of old Pattonsburg were damaged by fallen tree limbs; winds shifted several tombstones, even sliding one long stone top to expose rainwater collected inside the grave.

Races at Winston Speedway, located less than three miles east of where the tornado claimed lives, were canceled at 2 p.m. due to the threatening weather.