KANSAS CITY MetroRegion BREAKING NEWS: 3 Dead In Ray County-MO Wreck

A van with 11 occupants rolled over in Ray County-MO Saturday afternoon- reportedly killing 3 people.

The wreck was near Elkhorn and Norris Roads.

No further information yet available as the crash is under investigation.

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KansasCity'sBreaking News Leader - NBC41 ACTION NEWS.

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KANSAS CITY'S WEATHER: NWS Frost Advisory Overnight - Storm Next Week

The National Weather Service says there's a good chance of a frost across the K.C. Metro and northern half of the MetroRegion Sunday morning.

If you have any frost-sensitive plants outside- either cover them or bring them in if you can.

Also- long-range weather models are indicating the chance for another severe storm outbreak over our MetroRegion by the middle of this coming week.

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Weather Radios Versus Outdoor Sirens

I'd most always say weather radio.

Unless you're a Gladstone/Kansas City-MO Northland resident who lived next door to a warning siren- but also had a weather radio on in alert mode.

If that alert mode was only for a TORNADO warning- one could rightly say: Sorry- WRONG- thanks for playing.

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KANSAS CITY'S NEWS: Northland Storm Called EF-3 Tornado By NWS

According to a storm survey- meteorologists at the National Weather Service have determined it was a EF-3 tornado that passed through Gladstone and the northeastern part of KC-MO North early Friday morning.

The Independence-MO damage has been determined to be straight-line winds of just more than 80 m.p.h..

There were no tornado warnings in effect for any Metro Kansas City county when the tornado struck Gladstone and KC-MO North. The NWS offered no explanation for that on their storm survey page or anywhere else on the site that I could find.

Here are some maps of the tornado-damaged areas in the Northland- courtesy of the NWS.


Here are some NWS damage photos from the Northland where they determined that indeed this was not only a tornado but an EF3-rated twister.

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Exclusive CSW Kansas City Area Storm Damage Photos

The overnight news team went out this morning to take some pix of the damage caused by Friday morning's inland hurricane.

These first photos are from Independence-MO- a motel on the northwest intersection of Noland & I-70. Numerous businesses have roof and non-major structural damage here.

Next is an Arby's fast-food restaurant on M-291 north of Gudgell- almost totally destroyed.

This photo southwest of the Arby's damage is in a residential neighborhood. Note the street sign blown at an almost 90-degree angle. We encountered dozens of these throughout Indy.

One of hundreds of trees uprooted or severely damaged in Independence.

Next we went north- the next photos are taken in the hard-hit area of M-291 near N.E. Stark in KC-MO North.

An Aquila lineman attempts to clear debris from a power pole and restore service.

Houses off N.E. 108th Street with torn-off roofing- windows blown out and punctures in exterior walls.

Now comes Gladstone. This photo is what's left of a check-cashing establishment in the 7000 block of North Oak.

Many- many trees and large tree limbs have damaged hundreds of homes in Gladstone alone.

The last 2 photos are again in KC-MO North. This one is a carport collapsed on vehicles in an apartment complex in the 6000 block of North Jefferson.

The last photos in this series are a strip shopping center and a damaged canopy over the fuel pumps at the Quik-Trip store in the 400 block of Northwest Englewood Road.

There's no doubt going to be several thousand insurance claims in Independence and the Northland. This will probably be a multi-million-dollar storm event.

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KANSAS CITY'S NEWS: Severe Storm Damage Widespread In The Kansas City Northland

KC-MO Police and Fire departments have a heavy response of personnel and have set up 2 command posts to manage the numerous reports of structures damaged in the Northland.

Those locations are Northeast 77th Street and Euclid and M-291 & North Donnelly.


Hard-hit is the area around Northeast 77th and 78th Streets- where at least 3 people have been pulled from what's reported as "at least 20" damaged homes with around 5 destroyed.

Two injured persons from this area were taken to a Northland trauma center but no report of any serious injuries. A search of the area continues.

The other area is far Northeast along M-291 west & northwest of Liberty.

The KC-MO FD reports "150-200 homes damaged- most of the damage to windows- siding- roofs and most (of the damaged homes) unoccupied- ten homes partially knocked off their foundations- 1 home- unoccupied- knocked completely off" it's foundation.

One minor injury was transported by MAST-EMS- one reportedly sought medical help elsewhere.

Damage is reported to be extensive throughout Gladstone-MO but little else is known since the storm knocked out the city's Public Safety communications and has caused other unknown problems.

KC-MO Fire companies were sent around 4:45am to assist Gladstone PS checking damaged structures for possible victims and/or hazards in the "7500 block of North Woodland."

At 3:38am- a carport reportedly had fallen on "a half-dozen cars" at an apartment complex in the 6000 block of North Jefferson. No one reported injured though.

Downed trees and powerlines have slowed access to many damaged areas that are in complete darkness "between lightning flashes" a FD chief reported.

Reports are that this was a tornado have not been confirmed. Winds of up to 72 m.ph. were recorded by nearby weather stations and unofficially by spotters of up to 80 m.p.h. during the storm around 2am Friday morning.

Considerable power line- tree and other damage has been reported since late Thursday night from Lawrence- Tonganoxie and KC-KS into Riverside- Parkville- the hard-hit KC-MO Northland & Gladstone areas- including Liberty-MO..

(Updated 0450 CDT)

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KANSAS CITY'S BREAKING WEATHER-NEWS: "Tornado" Damage Reported In Gladstone-MO

At 02:18am- KC-MO Fire is responding "mutual aid on a tornado strike" in the 1900 block of Northeast 77th Street in Gladstone.

There is reported persons inside that house and possibly "several houses" damaged.
KC-MO Fire is unable to reach Gladstone Public Safety by phone or radio.

One house has been reportedly been "blown off the foundation" in the 8000 block of Northeast 109th Terrace by KC-MO Fire at 2:11am.

At 2:13am- "a roof was reportedly blown off a house" in the 5300 block of Northeast 96th Street.

Power poles and lines are down on North Brighton in the 4400 block.

Riverside Public Safety says Vivion Road was blocked by downed trees in the 2400 block Northwest.

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KANSAS CITY'S BREAKING WEATHER: New Tornado Watch - Damaging Winds Coming

The squall line you see on this latest radar image is producing winds of more than hurricane force- "80 m.p.h" says the NWS .

In addition- tornado warnings are in effect for parts of Douglas county- including Lawrence- and Jefferson counties Kansas.

More- the NWS-SPC has issued Tornado Watch No. 246 until 8am this Friday morning- and this watch includes ALL of the Kansas City MetroRegion.

Persons in Johnson- Wyandotte and Miami counties Kansas as well as Platte- Jackson and Clay counties Missouri- the entire KC Metro- should expect severe- possibly damaging winds soon...

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KANSAS CITY MetroRegion WEATHER: Tornado Watch Continues

Tornado Watch No. 244 continues in effect for a large part of eastern Kansas and western Missouri until 1am..

The Storm prediction Center has made mention of issuing a new watch- which will include the Metro and parts of the Kansas City MetroRegion further into this Friday morning.

The supercell thunderstorms in eastern Kansas moved into western Missouri and weakened. The ominous-looking line further west will crank over the Kansas City Metro early Friday morning.
I'm worried now about strong- possibly damaging- straight-line winds with this line of storms- particularily from the area along and south of the Missouri & Kansas rivers- especially Linn- Miami- southern Johnson counties KS and Bates- Cass and southern Jackson counties MO..

Here's a photo- taken on M-150 near Holmes when Johnson County KS was under a Tornado Warning earlier tonight. We were in Belton a little later- near where the tornado was reported to have "briefly" touched down at 215th Street & Prospect.



I'll post further updates here- since it's too dark for chasing.

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KANSAS CITY MetroRegion WEATHER: Tornado Watch No. 244 Now In Effect

A Tornado Watch- Number 244 this year- is now in effect for the Kansas City Metro- and virtually all of the K.C. MetroRegion- until 1am Friday morning.

Click on the map graphic of the watch to see if your county is included.
Storms have fired along a scattered to broken line from east of St. Joseph- through Leavenworth and Lawrence-KS- west of Ottawa- south-southwestward to near the Oklahoma border.

Storm movement NNE to NE at around 40 m.p.h..

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KANSAS CITY MetroRegion WEATHER: NWS-SPC: SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING - LEAVENWORTH COUNTY KS - NW PLATTE COUNTY MO

A severe thunderstorm warning is in effect for Leavenworth County KS and NW Platte County MO until 6pm.

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Missouri Legislature: Aquila Decision Means No Respect For Laws

Back around the middle 1970's- a crook was let-off serving any time for his crimes. All the perp had to do was resign his office.

That perp was President Richard M. Nixon- and his crime was involvement in the burglary of the Democratic campaign headquarters in the Watergate offices in D.C..

Fast forward to the year 2008.

A utility- Aquila- builds a power plant ILLEGALLY in Cass County-MO.. Rather than have Aquila remove the plant as should be properly done- your Missouri elected officials have decided to let Aquila keep their illegally-built power plant up.

All Aquila has to do is shovel some money into Cass County's coffers.

This is- again- a disgusting and damaging precedent- it sends a message to the populace AGAIN that power and money triumphs over illegal acts.

In America- you BUY justice.

Why not just make ALL laws pick and choose to follow- for ALL CITIZENS?

In fact- why do we bother with laws at all????

Oh yeah- it's to keep us POOR PEOPLE IN CHECK- those of us who can barely afford food & fuel- much less buying the verdict that suits us.

More fodder for the case that America's doomed....

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Kansas City MetroRegion Weather: NWS-SPC: "Moderate Risk" Of Severe Storms Later

If you look at the accompanying graphic (click to enlarge)- you see most of northeast & east-central Kansas as well as small parts of extreme western Missouri are now under a "moderate risk" area for severe thunderstorms and all types of severe weather.

The moderate risk area includes the following cities- In Kansas: Overland Park- Olathe- Leavenworth- Paola- Iola- Topeka- Lawrence- Manhattan- Seneca- Ottawa- Emporia- Garnett- Atchison. In Missouri- St. Joseph and the northwest and west suburbs of KC-MO.
The greatest threat for thunderstorm development is late this Thursday afternoon into tonight.

Storm "supercells" could precede the development of a severe storm "squall line"- with the former possibly producing large- damaging hail and a few tornadoes.

There is no severe storm watch in effect anywhere in the MetroRegion- but this will likely change by afternoon. The best chance for storms in the Metro would be after about 6pm tonight into early Friday morning.

I'll keep you posted here on the latest- at least until we decide to jet-out for photos.

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Hey Rachel- Read Their Butts

An unlucky 13 members of an Ann Arbor-MI high school lacrosse team have been suspended for delivering a prom invitation in a rather unorthodox method- according to this AP story.

One of the players on the team wanted to ask a girl out to the prom- so naturally he had the boys write the invite on their asses- delivery by Moon Express.

The moon-messaged girl accepted the invitation by "patting" the posterior of the messenger whose ass said yes..

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"...We Have Been Lesbians For Thousands Of Years"

So says a resident of the Greek isle of Lesbos.

He's one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit with a Grecian gay organization who has "Lesbian" in their name.

I mean- what do you call a resident of Lesbos anyway? Right- A LESBIAN!

So this fellow named in this Associated Press article- and 2 other Lesbinians (hmm- alternative?) have filed a suit in a Greek court to force the sexual organization to rid themselves of the Lesbo referance.

I'd let you know how this lawsuit turns out- if I gave a rat's pitute.....

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Kansas City's Weather: Still A "Slight" Chance Of Severe Storms Thursday

The Kansas City MetroRegion remains under a "slight risk" of severe thunderstorms and all manner of associated severe weather types for tomorrow- according to the National Weather Service's (NWS) Storm Prediction Center (SPC).

The biggest detriment to this chance is:
A) available Gulf of Mexico moisture. South winds are just now starting to pump these high dewpoints into south & southeast Texas and Louisiana and
B) a strong inversion cap or "EML" over our area (a warmer layer of the atmosphere above the surface that does not allow for warm- surface air to jet upward and form storms).

There's still more than 24 hours until the system reaches the MetroRegion- so that COULD be enough time to get a quality GOM moisture return.

If that does indeed prevail- and the cap breaks in time- chances are that the slight risk will be upgraded to at least a moderate risk that would include virtually all of the K.C. Metro and MetroRegion.

I'll keep you updated here....

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The Cordish Conundrum

"Waaa - Waaa - Waaa- we want an EXCLUSIVE drink yer booze outside license" says the Cordish Company- builder of the better-late-than-never entertainment center next door to the too-small Sprint Center.

"Bogus- Bogus- Bogus" cries the Westport area and other parts of town who'd like a "festival-area" liquor license.

I don't see how Cordish's "exclusivity" would prevail in a court of law seeing how the ordinance is written- thanks to Mark Forsythe over at The Kansas City Post blog.

This city gives chunks of "exclusive" privileges to monied-corporate interests- liquor licenses- TIF's- you name it. The rules seem to change daily to accommodate them.

It seems sometimes the city is punishing those businesses trying to conduct their affairs on the up-and-up (see also new anti-smoking ordinance).

Let Cordish sue! See if I patronize their so-called entertainment district.

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KANSAS CITY'S WEATHER: Severe Storm Chance Increasing For Thursday

I'll post more on this later tonight- but the NWS-SPC still has the K.C. Metro and MetroRegion inside an area forecast for "large/damaging hail" and "possible significant tornadoes"- and the best area for those things is presently right over us- "eastern Kansas and western Missouri"- according to the latest weather models runs.

More on this later....

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Some Virginia Tornado Images

At least 3 tornadoes have struck parts of Virginia- striking the cities or suburbs of Suffolk and Norfolk-VA..

The Associated Press initially reported 1 death- but in the latest article on this afternoon's storms- there was no mention of anyone dying. More than 200 people were injured however.

These images (click on to enlarge) are courtesy of watchers of WAVY-TV- the NBC affiliate in Norfolk.

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Kansas City Weather: Spring - Think Again

Our semi-spring continues- with chances of a frost or light freeze over about the northern 3/4 of the MetroRegion- including the K.C. Metro tomorrow (Tuesday) morning.

If you don't like that- maybe some severe thunderstorms will suit you? There's a chance of those on Thursday.

Then- another frost chance next weekend/early next week.

Warmth? Well yeah- we'll have that between storm systems- it'll get pretty warm Wednesday- maybe Thursday if low clouds don't keep us covered.

By the way- early indications are that Thursday's possible severe weather could get especially mean.

Stay tuned for developments on that through the week here at CSW....

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