Two tornadoes touched down in Adair County on Wednesday, May 13, 2009. One twister destroyed ten homes in Kirksville and more than 200 buildings across the county were damaged.

It is thought the first tornado was an F1 while the second was an F2. Both touched down in Kirksville around 6:20 pm. Other communities were hit as well, including Novinger, which sustained significant damage. One of the tornadoes was a half-mile wide and stayed on the ground for about a mile and a half, county officials reported.

Troy Mihalevich, Assistant Chief Training Officer with Adair County EMS, recalls the events of that evening.

“I had gone home for the day at around 5 pm and not long after arriving home, the TV news reported a tornado watch for the area. Twenty minutes later it was a tornado warning, as one had been sited,” Mihalevich said. “We got the kids and the dogs and drove to the EMS base and headed for the basement.”

Mihalevich says they were lucky they only experienced heavy wind and rain at the base.  Further north, the story was different. Though the sun was shining just minutes later, the emergency calls began. Mihalevich sent his family home and went to work with the emergency services crews, assessing damage and helping residents.

The first step for local authorities was to establish the Emergency Communications Center (ECC) in the basement of Kirksville City Hall, part of an overall mass casualty plan developed by the local emergency planning committee. The immediate set up of a command structure, communications as well as alternative communication plans, is essential to helping the community quickly after such a catastrophe-- though Mihalevich admits it is very difficult to plan for tornadoes since they are so unpredictable.

The emergency plan included placing the surrounding four counties on standby for possible mutual aid. City and rural fire, together with city and county law enforcement and the highway patrol, worked in conjunction with Adair County EMS to meet resident needs and assess damage.

A local car dealership was entirely destroyed, including the office building. Every car on the lot had been thrown by the force of the tornado. Mihalevich described the scene as a bomb site.

A new residential development was hit hard with several homes destroyed. Tragically, there were two fatalities in the county after a home was destroyed by the tornado.

Despite the damage and loss of life, Mihalevich says Kirksville was very fortunate overall. TV news alerts and area sirens gave most residents the chance to find shelter in time.  Also the larger tornado remained to the north away from the more heavily populated areas of Kirksville.

Had the tornado moved south or had it been larger, the city would have suffered much greater damage and loss of life.

As it was, no other serious injuries were reported and mutual aid support from the surrounding counties was not needed.  Though there have been past tornado warnings in the area, residents have no recollection of any touch-down in Kirksville.

For more information about the incident contact Troy Mihalevich at tmihalevich@academs.us.