Dallas County residents recover from severe storms

DALLAS COUNTY, Mo. – As severe storms ripped through the midwest overnight, many residents in Dallas County woke up to the wreckage.

“We went down to the basement and we heard some banging around a little bit. It turns out that was our flagpole that had snapped off and probably whacked against the house,” Tommy Lennox said. “We didn’t realize that there was any damage until after the fact.”

OzarksFirst spoke to Tommy, his wife Shiloh, and their two kids as they walked through the damage they woke up to.

“Trees down on fences down there, cattle out, because the fence is down, you know, trying to get all that repaired and cows back in the field and clean it up,” Tommy points out.

Among other things damaged include their trampoline, that was about 100 feet from where they left it Monday night.

They pointed to a neighbor’s barn in the distance that simply wasn’t there anymore and there was little to no evidence of where it went.

“We’re thankful that we had somewhere to go. The storm just lasted about an hour. You know, there’s a lot worse out there than us,” The Lennox family reiterates. “We are very thankful that we’re still standing here to be able to talk to you.”

No one in the Lennox family was harmed, and while most of the items damaged are replaceable, some are not.

They lost a redbud tree that had sentimental value to them, along with damage to a barn built decades ago.

“As far as monetary, I mean, you know, it can all be replaced. We can’t replace each other,” Tommy said.

“We just got lucky. It was a very weak storm here,” Shiloh says.

As OzarksFirst finishes speaking to the Lennox family, around a mile or so down the road, Cambre Thrasher is working with hired help, neighbors, and family to pick up the pieces at their hog farm and home.

“You could hear things starting to break and you could just hear what sounded way more severe than your average thunderstorm,” Thrasher says as he relives the past 10 hours. “I threw all my raincoat and stepped out here and there’s like a 20-foot piece of tin out here in the middle of the driveway, and I knew that was a bad sign.”

Power was out and Thrasher was limited with what he could work with overnight.

“With the flashes of lightning, I could kind of see that there were roofs gone and there were buildings destroyed,” Thrasher said. “It’s kind of a nightmare.”

There were no injuries in the Thrasher family.

“I’m really grateful. His house is fine. The kids are fine. My wife is fine. I mean, that’s that’s the main thing,” Thrasher said. “I mean, we’ve poured a lot into the place and it’s it’s sad and it’s frustrating to see so much destruction.”

OzarksFirst walked through some of the property and surveyed some of the damage, from the minimal such as a destroyed trampoline or a swing in the tree to animal casualties and damaged buildings that house the pigs Thrasher raises and sells to support his family.

“There’s concrete busted out. There’s 6×6 posts that are just snapped like toothpicks. It was a lot more extensive, extensive than I realized,” Thrasher said. “The buildings down here are where the little baby pigs are born. All of them, except for one smaller one, the other four, all of them have the roofs ripped off.”

He says he doesn’t have a number at this point, but he knows he’s lost pigs in the storm.

“I know we’ve got some death loss in there. I haven’t went through every single stall yet, but that’ll be the project for the rest of the day is getting fresh straw in there trying to get tarps over,” Thrasher said. “I’m trying to get some kind of cover. We don’t want them getting sunburned, they’re newborn babies. There’s supposed to be some more rain tomorrow. We want to get we want to get them covered up before that happens. You just try to take care of the most vulnerable animals and work on that. We can’t even get to some of them still right now, but that’s our first priority.”

Thrasher says he had to take time to remain composed when he discovered the wreckage in its totality.

“It took me a couple of hours this morning just to sit and pray and think and just like had tons of people reaching out and wanting to help, wanting to what they could do,” Thrasher said. “I just had to spend the first couple of hours of daylight just trying to come to grips with the situation, the reality of it all. It’s just a lot because every day you spend a lot of time just taking care of the animals and making sure their needs are met and you pour a lot into them hoping and praying that it’s going to be profitable and that they’re going to do all right.”

Thrasher has had support throughout the day, from the aforementioned help from friends and neighbors, to the occasional person driving by and offering any support.

“I really appreciate so many people in the community pouring in and calling and stopping by and wanting to help and just showing up,” Thrasher said. “That’s been really, really humbling and we’re really, really appreciative of that.”

Thrasher says that material things can be replaced.

“It’s going to take probably all summer to try to climb out of this, and luckily, I mean, we’ve had a lot of people reaching out, offering to help,” Thrasher said. “

I’ve got faith in Jesus, I’ve got faith in my family, and I’m just I’m grateful, even though it’s a rough time.”

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