Deadly storms in Lucas County & elsewhere

It's still too early and too dark this morning to add much to what we already knew last night about the Saturday evening tornado that claimed at least one life in Lucas County and resulted in extensive property damage. The situation is considerably worse in Madison County, where six died at Winterset.

The tornado here seems to have touched down at Pin Oak Marsh about a mile south of Chariton along Highway 14 where it destroyed the Pin Oak Lodge education center before moving east across the river to cause property damage along the Bluegrass Road, leading out of Chariton to the southeast, then on to Red Haw State Park where the confirmed fatality occurred in the campground.

After cutting through Red Haw, it struck the Country Cabins resort complex along U.S. Highway 34 and the adjacent Sodapop Saloon/Frontier Trading Post complex before lifting and heading east. One man was critically injured at Country Cabins when the tornado destroyed his recreational vehicle home. Damage to the saloon and other outbuildings was extensive.

The photos here are of the Pin Oak Marsh education center --- also headquarters for the Lucas County Conservation Board and staff --- that opened in 2001. The Lodge staff always has been most gracious about allowing public use of its building and the group photo here was taken during an annual meeting of the Lucas County Historical Society a couple of years ago.

The lodge can be rebuilt, of course, but the amazing natural history collection that it contained, assembled by Skylar Hobbs and others, is irreplaceable --- so that's a huge loss. Fortunately, no one was in the building when it went down.

As of Sunday evening, Red Haw State Park has been closed by the Department of Natural Resources so that clean-up can begin and volunteers have begun to assist property owners and others with cleanup efforts elsewhere.