OUTAGES AND FUNNEL CLOUDS PART OF THURSDAY'S STORMS
As the storms rolled through the area Thursday, some residents reported losing their power. According to Joe Richardson with Southwestern Electric, there were about 150 total members without power. Those affected were residents living around Governor Bond Lake and those living north of Mulberry Grove. The outage occurred around 9:45 Thursday morning. Half of the members were restored in two hours with the remainder back online by 1:30PM. Richardson said that Bond County was hit with more power outages than Madison and Fayette Counties. AmerenIP is also reporting few outages to area customers from the storms.
The Bond County Sheriff's Department received an unconfirmed report of a funnel cloud in the Woburn area. The resident told WGEL that she saw the funnel cloud in the sky over her house around 12:30 Thursday afternoon, but it never touched the ground.
And in Howell County, Missouri a 7 year-old girl is dead following a tornado that touched down during the storms. According to Metro News Source, the child's mother, father and 9 year-old brother were injured when the tornado touched down in Caulfield. The family was airlifted to a hospital in Springfield, Missouri.
MORE INDICTMENTS MAY COME FOR DRUG ACTIVITY
Several arrests have been made last month based on indictments returned by a Bond County grand jury in January. The charges have included unlawful delivery of cannabis and unlawful delivery of cocaine and come as a result of work by the South Central Drug Task Force. State’s Attorney Chris Bauer told WGEL that agents from the task force have been working nearly two years on the investigation. He said the arrests signal to those involved in drug activity that Bond County is taking the problem seriously. The state’s attorney commented to WGEL that he will be requesting a second grand jury in the near future with hopes that it could lead to another round of indictments.
