My mother lives in Patton, MO (about 20 miles east of Fredericktown), and the town looked as though a bomb went off in it! I spent Mother's Day helping her clean up her yard. Fortunately, her house remains in tact. One of her T.V. antennas got smashed by a falling tree limb, and another tree limb tore off a section of gutter. My mother and my grandmother were in Jackson, MO shopping for groceries when the storm hit, thank goodness! Speaking of my grandmother, she was not nearly as fortunate as my mother. Two trees fell on my grandmother's house in Sedgewickville, MO (about 10 miles east of Patton), causing extensive damage. Sedgewickville looked just as damaged as Patton. I helped some of my relatives remove those trees from her house this past Saturday. My father, who lives in Millersville, MO (about 10 miles east of Sedgewickville, MO) had several tree branches break off and litter the yard. So, I had a pretty busy weekend. On the local news, the electric company stated that at least 500 electrical poles broke during this nasty storm, and some areas may not have any power for up to a couple weeks. My mother, grandmother, and father all remain without power at this time. I offered to let all of them stay with me in Sikeston, MO since I still had electricity at my apartment, but all of them said they will just tough it out for now. Parents/grandparents can be so stubborn!
To top it all off, we have a bunch of scammers running around the area! Finally, I just heard on the local news that Jay Nixon, the Governor of Missouri, has declared a state of emergency for all of the counties affected by Friday's storm. So, we should get some much needed assistance from the government soon!
UPDATE (05/11/09): I called my mother today, and she told me that parts of Patton, including her house, had power restored around noon today, and Sedgewickville had their power restored in the city limits yesterday afternoon. Too bad my grandmother still needs her power cables reconnected to her meter! Hopefully, the electric company will get this done within the next couple days.
