12-10-2021 KMOV St Louis Area Tornado Coverage

You know, 10 minutes, you're going to be in the clear but it's pounding rain, maybe less than 10 minutes. Pounding rain right now. Stay inside, stay away from windows. If you're in your storm shelter, which you should be because you have a tornado warning in Troy. So, if you're down in the basement in that safe spot in your house, it is your tornado shelter. You should still be there for about another couple of minutes but Troy, you're going to be in the clear pretty quickly here. Um let's investigate that Washington. I just want to see that little inflow notch right there over Washington. not producing anything particularly strong right now but definitely indications of rotation, what we're talking about is air flowing in here, air flowing out here. Okay? So, that can create a tornado and that's right on top of Washington. It's not to say there is but it's why there's a radar indicated tornado warning for Franklin County on top of Washington. You need to be in that tornado safe shelter. Again, play it safe rather than sorry. I'm here to explain exactly what's going on. If I see something flare up that becomes really intense, I'll let you know about it. See that? See a little curl? That's a little more of a circulation. A little more of an intensification. So, if you're in Washington, headed towards Augusta, definitely want to be in your tornado shelter. I hear the alarm going off too and I think, yeah, is gotta be an extension. Meteorologist Matt Chambers is in the house. You're going to hear his voice from time to time too. Um Let's see. The storm across the Mississippi River in the Calhoun has strengthened. I gotta address that in a second. That's Calhoun County, Illinois. Um that does look like a tornado threat and then let's see. Calhoun Green jersey. I will get to that in just a moment. Uh let's see, law enforcement reported. That was out of Fulton, Callaway County. So, that's outside of our area. Uh trees down and I'm reading the in semester chat we have with the National Weather Service by the way. So, that's why I'm kind of going through all this. Um So, the the storm that they're talking about with Calhoun County, Green, New Jersey. That's a new tornado warning. Let's address that. Uh let's zoom in on the Doppler winds. Not real strong rotation but definitely tornado threat right there. And it's probably crossing out of Calhoun very shortly into that extreme Northwestern Jersey and extreme southwestern green. Gonna switch over to the normal radar and right in here. Yeah, I don't see a real strong signature but there's definitely, just like I've been pointing out at some of these storms, definitely still some rotation. Uh you know, the one I was just pointing at that I said, oh look at that on the latest scan. I look like it intensified. It's stronger for sure coming through Wentzville and then the other one was right here in Washington. So, that Washington one I was just talking about is definitely intensified. Two spots. Let me go a little further south and just see if anything pops up. Um Okay, right here. If you're thinking to yourself, what, Steve, how are you seeing this just, trust me, we're looking a lot of this radar data a lot and sometimes, you just kind of get a feeling for it, okay? So, those three spots and then there's a fourth, right here. Those are my most critical areas for threat for a tornado. So, while I've been talking to you about, hey, anywhere along the leading edge of this line, big picture, be inside when this comes through. Those are really the four kind of be hyper aware. Be in your tornado shelter. I think anyone in tornado warning should be in your tornado shelter in your safe spot in the basement but I think those are the four spots that I kind of want you to take a little more serious. We just investigated that one. The new one that's going into that would be green. This is Jersey County coming out of Calhoun County. I want to investigate these two a little more. This one's coming right at Wentzville. It's right on top of you. Might have some strong straight line winds that are taking down some trees. Maybe even power lines right now. That's the type of radar signature I'm seeing there. So let me zoom in on that. And as I do just to get a look at, yeah, it's going to hard. Hey man, will you keep an eye on the BJC Skycams for me too? Yeah. Um it's just going to be when Lightning lights em up and maybe you see some lowering. I would appreciate it. Thank you very much. Okay, let me go back. That Doppler wins is kind of helping me pinpoint. So, what's what I'm seeing here is you know, strong, straight line wins right here. The green is raindrops that are being thrust at the radar the radar scan. The radars in Weldon Spring in Saint Charles County. So, these are really strong, straight line winds. These little notches right here and this is the one that is a little more, little more significant but those are little notches that all of a sudden can turn into a tornado or produce a weak, brief tornado So, that's what we're looking for. I think north of Wentzville and in Wentzville. The in Wentzville portion is probably more straight line winds and kind of on the north side of town, a threat for rotation but you know, sometimes you can get this a weak tornado develop even out of this little weak inflow notch there. So, be inside, be away from windows, be in your tornado shelter, just play it safe. Okay, we've analyzed that. Wentzville, strong winds coming through. Really want to be away from windows too down in the basement. Mainly for the threat of strong straight line winds but I I do think that a tornado can develop kind of at any moment out of that specific area and then this area is the one that kind of flared up when we were on the air with it. Looking at the typical radar which is a little muddyer now. It's a little not as crystal clear as it was earlier. But I'm going to highlight it for you and be right here. So if you're in Washington That's before I give you. Yeah, if you're in Washington, all clear. Let's get can you, oh, you're still getting right. You know what? I'll do it. Um, I was going to get the BJC Skycam from Washington up and running. Uh, I'm going to leave with that view. Actually, before I leave with that view, let me just do this. Right there. That's what I want to see. And we can see over that highway 47 bridge in Washington. Um, I'm going to put Washington on with our BJC Skycam. I think new guy. A new tornado warning for you, Steve. I'm not mic up yet. They're working on it. Oh, okay. But this is Boy, this is going to include a gaggle of counties here. Southeastern Calhoun, Southwestern Jersey, Saint Charles County, Northwestern Jefferson, Southeastern Lincoln, Eastern Franklin, Saint Louis County, and Southeastern Warren County until eight fifteen. Eastbound storm at 50 miles per hour. I think I know what they're doing. Instead of five tornado warnings, they're going to merge it into one. I'll be here to explain to you what's happening and where we see those little circulations. I've got the BJC Skycam Network here in Washington. Looking in the distance, there's the Highway 47 Bridge. That's Main Street. That's more eastbound. This storm is more to the northeast and you know, we just have to kind of be lucky to catch it. Let's get back to the radar and show you. What I was looking at here. So, a lot of tornado warnings going on across the area and they've kind of merged into one. Right here. This is going to be the newest one. we we also have our storm mode Silverado out at uh141 and what was that? At 41 and what? One 41 in in M forty-four. Okay. So, storms coming at em and they're in the tornado warning. Um if they're at 44 and 141, they're in that Valley Park Fenton area. It would be smart to go a little south on one forty-one. I think Jim's in the storm of Silverado and hopefully you can hear me. Uh Jim, it would be smart to go a little south on one forty-one. So, you're south of 44. I hear the sirens going. You hear that? That's from the Stormiled Silverado. And that's Saint Louis County sounding the sirens. So Jim, I I think it'll be smart to go a little farther south on 141. What I'm going to try to get you out of, that's the new warning right there, by the way. Uh, I'm going to try and get you out of that warning and I see something specific that I don't want you going north into and getting hit. And I'm going to show you that in a second. Um, and they've actually Oh, jeez. Hey, Matt. Let's see. We've got define surround. Let's see, seven forty-five radar over Augusta. Okay, got it. Okay, I know what's going on now. Uh hey, Matt. Uh weather chat is failing. They usually send out an Email for Google Meet. We're going to need that up and running Asap, okay? Got you. Um or reboot this and see if that get that going. Sorry to be so demanding. I just that that chat really helps us out. So, they've got a tornado observed based on radar, okay? So, what that means is that spot I was telling you about, that was east of Washington where I was using the Washington BJC Skycam. That signature there is so strong that they're confirming a tornado right there based on radar. That is just north of Augusta. Well, I've seen this happen before and it's headed towards our friends at the weather service too. Um let's see timing on this. It's sixty-five. Puts it, that's Weldon Spring. That's in about 10 minutes. Uh if you're in Saint Albans, this is going to miss you to the north. If you're in Augusta on 90-4, this rotation is like just a mile or so north of you. this is in so I'm going to zoom out a little bit We are in Saint Charles County here tracking rotation that has been confirmed. by radar and it's headed towards Weldon Spring and that's Highway forty Interstate 64 in Saint Charles County and we have a camera out there too. So that's one thing I want to throw in. That's the O'Fallon cam. It's kind of the southern that froze. It's the southern portion of O'Fallon, Missouri. and I'm going to put that up right now and just see. Again, I know it's it's dark. We're probably not going to see anything but just like to see if something some lightning flares up, gives us some images and that's going to be headed towards that area because this is right near Highway 40 and Highway K right there. See that lightning? So, it'd be actually just a little bit to the southwest. So, I've got the camera point in the right direction. Just saw a bolt of lightning Um not seeing anything obviously out of that right now but that's the direction that's headed. I'm going to have meteorologist Matt Chambers continue to kind of monitor that for us. Let's get back to the radar. this is right where the threat is for a confirmed tornado I. just want to before I start timing that out, see if there's anything, I don't see anything else more significant. We're getting rotations all along that line and I want anyone in the path this line to be inside, away from windows, and depending on if you're in a tornado warning or not, which is a huge portion of us. Um you're going to want to be in that safe tornado shelter. By the way, 8 000 people are in that newest tornado warning. Thanks, Matt. I appreciate that. No problem. Really appreciate your help. Um but that is an observed tornado warning. You see how we have those darker lines there? That's what that is. So, are they going with the radar indicated observed wording? They are. Yup. Yup. Yup. Yup. Good catch by the way. Uh sometimes it comes in as radar confirmed but the the source is actually radar which is the case right now. Alright, let's get back to zooming in on that specific storm. Um we're going to switch over to the Doppler Winds. A much stronger signature. You know, this is the one we're on the air in Washington and I was showing you that inflow and telling you, hey, look, sometimes these things can flare up and then I said, hey, look, this is interesting. That's a little more significant signature and boom, here we are. Let me explain what's happening here. Uh the green is actually going towards radar, the red is going away and it's getting a little messy because the winds are so strong in that area right there. Let me see if the SRV is a little better, a little better. Um but this is going to be towards the radar. actually the radar is right here. Towards the radar and this is going to be a way and that signature is telling us that right about there, there's Matson. You're in the clear. Uh Schulersburg, Augustus further to the south, right about there is a radar tornado Um. right there is ninety-four As it kind of jaunts a little bit north closer to Weldon Spring. For our stormy old Silverado where you heard the sirens going, I just want to point out that there's another little area I'm watching right here. So, there's two circulations. The northern ones, the strong one, the southern one is weaker but needs to be watched and Let me get you a timing on that. Um so, two circulations, strong one north, weaker one south Timing at 65 miles an hour gets it to round Pacific or North of Pacific in 6 minutes. This will be like Wildwood in about 10 minutes, probably north of Eureka and then over to two seventy near Kirkwood in 21 minutes and of course, we had our crew on 141 in the Storm Old Silverado and and they were like right about here. So, I just didn't want them to go north and and I hope they're still listening. We got interrupted because I wanted to draw your attention to that but if they are heading south on one forty-one, they're in much better position. Okay, this one is headed towards the National Weather Service. We've had this happen before where sometimes they have to hand off operations to Kansas City while they take shelter. Be interesting if they have to do that. Let's put a track on that. Actually, before I do, let me just see what it looks like on the, it's buried in rain. You're not going to see anything you're just not. Um this thing is buried in this, right here. But when I look at the Doppler winds and this is the beauty of Doppler Winds, it really helps us pinpoint exactly where that rotation is. It helps save lives. If this is going to produce a tornado and create damage, folks are going to take this a little more serious now that it's confirmed by radar and they'll get into their safe spot and stay safe as this moves through. So, there's those stronger winds going towards the radar. Winds going away, rotation right in between. That's the spot right there. Let's track it and give you an idea exactly some of the cities in the path of that specific storm because New Meli, you're north of it. You're in the clear. There might be some spots where you're hearing the sirens go off. Just keep in mind that this isn't the only tornado threat. I'm going to throw on the warnings here. Even though I'm focused, on this spot right here, for tornado that's, that's the greatest threat for tornado happening right now. Anywhere along this line right here from O'Fallon, Saint Peters, down into Northeastern, Franklin County around Pacific headed towards Eureka. Anywhere along this line, you're in that red box that represents the tornado warning. So, we could see anywhere along this line. New rotation flare up intensify. Right now, that's going to be the one to watch. So, let's track it and give you an idea of where it's going. Um if you're in, I'm going to get rid of the red box. Man, if you're in Chesterfield south, especially south of Highway 40. I think this is going to miss you. I'm looking closely here. Let me put a trajectory in case if if it goes a little more right, then, you're going to be dealing with a little more in Chesterfield. This will be the valley right here. Man, it's really, really, really close. Um in fact, let's put on that camera out. No failing because that camera's almost right there. Just to see if the lightning lights up and we get any lowering. That's from BJC Skycam, Progress West Hospital. Out in O'Fallon. and not seeing anything obviously. We, we've got someone at 270 and 70 as well. That's going to be setting up. Uh let's Hey, guys. Let's keep an eye on them. I may want to move them a little farther south so that they miss this. We're not going to get real good readings right this because it's going over the radar. The radar shoots a beam out. It doesn't go up. So, we call this the cone of silence. So, that's going right over right now and are we back on chat yet, do you know? No. No. No and no word on a. I wouldn't be surprised if the weather service is taking their safety precautions and handing over to Kansas City. Um so, Kansas City can issue the warnings while friends at the National Weather Service which is located where the radar is in Weldon Spring. Uh stay safe. Um of course, this will move off to the northeast and if we have a crew at 70 and 270, can we push them down to like, let's say, Page in two 70, take em down 270 South to Page and put them there and we'll keep em safe, okay? Um thank you. I appreciate that. That's Tonya, my producer in my ear and I'm going to switch over to it's called our term Doppler and see if we can, oh yeah, you can see it really clear right there. So, what this is is a different radar. It's run by Lambert even though it's not at the airport but it's used for the airport here and it's used for windshear, for airplanes. So, the FAA is the one who maintains it but it gives us a really clear low scan just in a really short distance. It doesn't do a real good job with wide distances away from that radar but because this is so close, we can really see it. So, there we are right there. There's the update and That is that is coming just, you know what? We gotta take that BJC Skycam. You're going to have to do it on max two because Videstra Froze on max 1 and then just tilt it more like south east. So, the O'Fallon Progress West Hospital camera and kind of point at Southeast. I had it kind of more southwest. Now, we have to look at it in different direction. Thank you, Matt. Appreciate that. You bet. Okay. So, there's the tornado That's. a really strong signature, guys. Uh it this is something where throughout a night I've been telling you and I'm honest. I'm going to try and be transparent with you that sometimes we're going to get situations where you need to play it safe rather than sorry. It's radar indicated but it's a relatively weak signature. This is a strong signature. This is plant safe period, end of story. You need to get inside, away from windows, down in the basement, to your tornado shelter, and it's a very specific area. This is north of Wildwood headed probably just across the boom bridge. It's literally going to cross the Boom Bridge. Rivers do not stop tornado es. The circulation for this tornado is up above. And so this is going to cross bluffs, valleys, floodplains, rivers, and it will cross the boom bridge here pretty shortly. As it crosses Interstate 64, Highway 40 right there. Sirens are going off in the city now too. Um let's get an idea of the timing on this before I kind of address that. Northeast, I think that trajectory has been pretty consistent. At 60 to 60 five miles per hour. So, it says Weldon Spring in four minutes but this is Weldon Spring as well. So, that's pretty much there now, okay? Uh Saint Charles, that's a city of Saint Charles in about 13 minutes. You see Harvester earlier in eight minutes. Um so, this is going to kind of cross just to the southeast of Highway K in that southern eastern portion of Saint Charles County and slide up towards Saint Charles City. Again, about 10 to 13 minutes. Hazelwood, in about 18 minutes especially the north side. Floor scent, especially north side, may even miss and kind of come up more in this path here in far northern Saint Louis County. Um Blackjack and West Alton, probably more on a path for West Alton than Blackjack. Steve, I'll jump in just real quick here. Uh poor Steve Templeton has not had much of a chance to catch his breath here for the last bit. Um one important new detail here to the south of the storm that Steve is tracking right now. A new severe thunderstorm warning has been issued for Southern Crawford and Southwestern Washington County and East Central Missouri. Not a to warning here. A severe thunderstorm warning. But Steve the reason I wanted to jump in with this information is because it was not issued by the National Weather Service in Saint Louis. It was issued by their partners in Kansas City. So, I think you're spot on. I think they are taking a break probably to seek shelter as they absolutely should do. We gotta practice what we preach, right? So, again, severe thunderstorm warning for Southern Crawford, Southwestern Washington County. That's an area that's typically monitored by the National Weather Service Office here in the Saint Louis area in Weldon Spring but this message coming to us from Kansas City which me that they're probably off the books at the moment. They are. Yeah. That that's what's happening and that makes a lot of sense. Thanks, Matt for that update. I appreciate it. Um let me zoom in on this other tornado warning up here to the north and and I'm going to go right back to that other one that's in Saint Charles County. I just want to see if we're getting any strong rotation. No, not real strong rotation but in that Jersey County, Greene County. So, it'll be kind of northern. I'm going to highlight it for you in a second here. Um from Northern Jersey up in the Greene County. This not seeing any strong circulation. I just don't want to ignore friends who are sitting in the basement. I know I focused a lot on that real strong signature and rotation coming through Weldon Spring just north of Chesterfield towards Saint Charles City but I just want you to know if I'm not mentioning your town that's a good thing, although I am going to take time to kind of look around sometimes and just see if I'm missing anything and Matt, if you hear anything too that you need to draw my attention to, I really appreciate it. Matt was just telling you about this New severe thunderstorm down here, Crawford County and of course, the front is still back off to the west. So, big picture here. We've gotta get through this line of storms and hopefully that just kind of takes a lot of the energy out but then there is the front that's creating some new storms. So, there may be kind of a second wave and we'll have to watch that as it moves to the northeast through the area. Tornado warnings across the area, huge one that at last check had eight hundred and 000 people in it. We were on the air before that one was issued and for good reason, just to keep you posted of the multiple, multiple warnings. Yup, there it is. So, eight hundred and seventy-one people wondering what's going on hearing the sirens. So, let's get back to the nitty-gritty details of exactly where the rotation is and help give people the heads up. Um lots of lightning you see. That's our Storm Old Silverado and we move them a little further south on one forty-one South and forty-four. Guys, that's a good spot for them. That's a good spot. Um they can go north after that storm clears them. Okay, switching back to the velocity data and it kind of looks like the tornado has maybe just cleared the radar there. Let's switch back over to the terminal Doppler. Yup, that's it right there. So, wow. This thing just crossed south of the Boom Bridge. And you know, that Chesterfield Valley is from outlet malls right there. So, it just came right across there. This would be the boom bridge right here. There's some outlet malls. Um not too far from there like right around here would be the Maryville Hockey Center and then this is going to north of that now. So, if you're in the Chesterfield Valley, especially in kind of on the north side of forty there and we're talking over close to the airport. Um that rotation is right on top of you. You need to still be in your tornado shelter. Now, if you're in Saint Charles County like Saint Peters, Saint Charles, the city, this is headed your way. There it goes. Keeps updating. We're getting this kind of quick low-level scans on this terminal doppler terminal because it's from the Lambert terminal, from the airport, run by the FAA and that's how me because the storm was right overwhelmed in spring and over our radar there. Everybody said we're good right here. Um yeah, Jim, I did say you're good right there for a little bit. I'll let the storm pass to the north here. I just heard our friend Jim in the storm mild Silverado there. Uh so, I'm going to highlight it for you if you can't. If it's not obvious, right there, that's going to get towards harvester pretty shortly here too and that would be Towers Road and there's Green's Bottom. So, this is getting this is north of Highway 40, Interstate 6four now. Uh as far as the threat of a tornado in the Chesterfield Valley, it's cleared. It looks like it may have just kind of clipped. This area where some of the outlet malls are but it was very much near the river. So, it might have been kind of in the floodplain area and very close to the Boom Bridge. There it is now, Towers Grove, Green's Bottom Road as well and as that continues north, it'll eventually cross three sixty-four which splits off of of ninety-four or merges with ninety-four really. So, let's get an idea on the timing of this. Uh off to the northeast. We're going to keep this at 65 miles an hour. That'll keep us safe. So, right where 94 and three 64 so that would be, you know, the page extension. Um and right where that merges with ninety-four, that's where looking about four minutes. Okay, signature doesn't look as good there but again, I'm on the terminal doppler. So, let me switch back over to the radar that we're used to seeing from Saint Louis and again, it's cleared now east of our friends in in Weldon Spring at the National Weather Service. And it moves pretty quickly towards that Saint Charles City area. If it goes northeast, it maybe just kind of on the south side. There's seven Guys, remember when we said we had a crew at 70 and 270? That's right there and it's too close. So, hopefully they're down a little closer to Page. That would be a safe spot. As the rotation right here slides just to the north of them. Thank you, Tanya. I appreciate. That's my producer. She's working with our crews to make sure they they stay safe. So, that's about eight minutes. That's Interstate 70 Saint Charles City right there and there's the 270 Loop Maryland Heights. So, that's the direction that this tornado is headed. It was confirmed on the ground. We haven't heard of, have you heard of any damage reports so far? I have not. Steve, it still appears that the chat room that we typically have live in these scenarios with the National Weather Service is down. I assume probably over just north of the Missouri River. So, you're right between Chesterfield and Cottleville here. Again, the motion historically on these storms so far this evening has been to the northeast what? 45 to fifty miles per hour? 55 to sixty-five. Fifty-five to sixty. Okay. So, you can see sort of sort of the whitish, really, really bright green right next to some darker green. That's indicative of that counterclockwise twist in the atmosphere. I don't want to get too deep in the in the technical weeds here. Oh boy, there you go. Steve talked about how quickly these things are updating. Let me move my circle just a little bit. Again at Northeastern Trajectory. Now, it's kind of right in that Chesterfield, Maryland Heights, Cottleville Triangle. Just to the south and southwest of Chesterfield of not Chesterfield. Forgive me, Saint Charles proper here and again, moving to the northeast at about 55 to 60 miles per hour. Uh there has certainly have been times this evening where both we here in the Storm Center and our our fellow meteorologist at the local National Weather Service office have seen a signature on this storm on the Doppler radar velocity. So strong, Steve, that it it certainly appeared that it was capable of producing a tornado at any time if it hasn't already. Yeah. You're right. Do you do you mind working the radar for me a little bit? Not at all. You tell me what you need. I brought up that website, the Google Meet Backup website and and I asked to join. So, keep an eye on on that too. Maybe it'll let us in. Um I've noticed something the signature is much weaker, okay? Yeah. So, as we, this is the terminal doppler radar. Let's switch back over to the typical doppler, the one out of Weldon Spring out of our National Weather Service. Local, powerful one and yeah and with the Doppler winds there. Sure. Um what you'll notice is that signature it was right there. It's it's weaker. There's still could be a tornado but go back in time if you will for me Matt by like a frame or two. Okay. And you're going to see more, well, it went over the, there, it's right there. Yup. And then it's right there. It's a little weaker. Now, switch back over to the terminal doppler and we'll kind of do the same thing and what I think we'll notice is what we refer to as a couplet where you have kind of inbound and outbound wins, inbound towards the radar, outbound away from the radar. It tends to be looking like it's a little weaker. So, it's still a tornado that you you don't want to mess with. This is going to probably come south of Saint Charles City. If you go back in time, just a couple frames, I think we'll see it flare up a little stronger there. Now, it's it it looked a little stronger when it was maybe just coming right over Interstate sixty-four Highway forty. Mm hmm. It's still right there. It's just not as strong. Okay? So, that's the bottom line. That's good news. Um that doesn't mean it's done with. You're still heading to the basement. If you're in Saint Charles, you should probably be there especially if you live anywhere south of Interstate 70 in Saint Charles and then this is going to cross into Saint Louis County, kind of the northwest part of Maryland Heights. Let's see how close this is going to be to like one forty-one. Just to give folks it's going to cross over. Um probably miss Saint Charles County, I'm sorry, Saint Charles City as I draw the trajectory here. So, that's good news there. We're on the terminal doppler. That's the one based out of the airport. Just giving us a good view right here of this. This is 141 and Interstate 70 and then it kind of crosses over into this would be like the Earth City area and then off into North Northern Saint Louis County. This would be like Bridgeton, Hazelwood, Floor Sip. So, that looks to be the trajectory, Saint Charles City, most likely going to miss you here, okay? Um still no word on that yet, huh? Thank you for checking that. I really appreciate you, Matt. On the Google Meet, yeah, I know. It's still, still holding steady here. Okay, I'm going to switch back over to kind of the normal. This, man, you're not going to see anything at all because that rotation is buried like right here. So, I mean, there's just, there's no angle. You know, you can't be here looking to the north and see it. You can't be out here. It's coming right at you. This right here is that little Boeing section. So, there's going to be some straight line winds and it may have kind of transition. Uh by the way, what I'm looking at here is both the radar like you see here but also the Doppler winds. So, I can just kind of eye both of them at the same time. And again, I think the signature has weekend but I think the straight line wind signature right here is really strong. So, this still could be taking down some trees and power lines near and south of Saint Charles City right around Maryland Heights and spreading off towards Hazelwood, Bri the airport. Let's see if we can get our QPop input four on there and I'll change it over to the airport Cam. You got it? Thank you, sir. Right now, it's West Down Market Street. There's the Lambert cam. Okay. So, that's our airport. And that's where what I'm seeing as kind of translating to some pretty strong straight line winds with a circulation just to the west of the airport. It's not strongest circulation. It's not something that looked like reminiscent of the Good Friday. It's not like that but it is circulation nonetheless. So, anywhere in this big tornado war We had earlier confirmed tornado based on radar right around Augusta, right around here. That signature has weakened but it's still showing rotation as it crosses 270 and 70. So, I'm going to get rid of the boxes and focus on that and Um the threat is not just for rotation but you know, strong, damaging straight line winds with this as well. Um So, that rotation is right here and it's just a little weaker signature, Definitely not as strong. And in fact see how this kind of curves like this. That would be those strong winds that could create some straight line wind damage. Um while I'm highlighted on here I'm just going to kind of zoom up and down the line. I don't see any other areas of real significant rotation either. I think this is still the most significant even though it's weakened. I'm looking at this product on my iPad but then also the normal typical radar and I can kind of compare and contrast and see where rotation's developing. But that right around one forty-one as it comes out of as it goes north, sorry, through Western Saint Louis County. This is going to cross one 41 Eventually 270 and you know, towards the airport, we'll we'll keep an eye on. It's a little west of the airport but we'll keep an eye on it as it continues to move to the northeast. Steve, I want to relay some damage reports that are coming in and they seem to be coming in from a concentrated area which obviously builds our confidence here. Um Saint Charles County Police, fire, and EMS responding to a residence on Highway F that reportedly has had the roof removed or at least some significant damage from high winds reportedly after the house was shaking and there are multiple calls coming in for property damage in that area. Um another report coming in from Saint Charles County Scanner Traffic on Twitter. Uh of let's see. Hold on one second. Let me jump back in there. No problem. While you do that, I'll continue to talk a little bit but you jump in when you got something new. Appreciate it. This is Matt with some new dams reports. Go ahead, bud. Yeah and it sounds like in the defiance area, some damage perhaps as well. Uh. Defiance also reporting some damage. Mm hmm. Um we just got that. That's from the Saint Louis Saint Charles County scanner. The Storm Old Silverado which has been parked Oh, right about here which is really the smart thing to do because the strong storms are the threat for tornado have all been north. Um they're going to move towards defiance and get us confirmation. Again, right now, these are just reports coming in. So, even you know, talk about the roof removed. We don't know exactly what that means yet. Right. Uh it could be a shingle. It could be the whole roof. We don't know. Just reports at this point but the newsroom has the information and they are working to to try to get additional info. And we got crews that are out there. They'll they'll confirm this and bring you the ground truth. Um in the meantime, we're trying to keep them safe. We don't want them intercepting the storm. We want them nearby so they can go out and do their job after the storm has passed and that's going to happen pretty shortly. In fact, if they wanted to go down 44 and then maybe take something north like 109 they could do that. They're going to be on the backside of the storm. New tornado warning just issued. This is a big one. Again, and it's a similar situation where they're just issuing for the leading edge of this entire right here. So, a lot of sirens are going to go off as people, new areas are affected. We've got in this tornado warning, one point, almost one 3 million people and that's going to stretch from Saint Louis County, Saint Charles County, up in the Madison County in Illinois, into Jersey County and McCoopin County as well. Uh I'll highlight this for you but this is a big new tornado warning. And I think that's really the the stretch of it right there. Uh. And again, Steve, they're using the radar confirmed tornado language here which means very very strong indication on Doppler radar here with that, yes, there's the couplet right there. Uh, that could be, could be producing a tornado So, they're calling it radar confirmed at this point. It's stronger now too. I agree. Yeah. Yeah. It's tightened up a little bit. Yes, it has and sometimes that happens, the cycle. From right there to right there. That is right on top of 270 and seventy. Um, and it's going to move pretty quickly into to Bridgeton. Um the storm is going to fly to the northeast and I say fly because it is moving. They're tracking it at sixty. Yeah. Let's check out the airport cam. This is it doesn't look like this is going to hit terminals. This is going to hit probably runways on the on the west side of the airport but that is our BJC Skycam Network and I realize it says downtown. It's not. I've changed it to the airport cam so that labels inaccurate. I'll get rid of it but bottom line is Um there we go. Bottom line is that airport cam will keep an eye on and we'll look for more report, more reports of any kind of damage. So far, it looks like the damage reports have really been coming out of Saint Charles County. And focused on really probably this particular one section of the storm. So, while big picture here, we have a bunch of red boxes that represent the tornado warnings. If I get rid of them and focus on where that specific rotation is, It's right here If we go back in time, you'll be able to see kind of the trajectory of of that particular cell. It went right over, it was right around Washington where I noticed, this is back in time by the way and that's where it is now. And now, let's go forward and I can see that trajectory is going to take it. Across sixty-seven. Um across the it may be very near just south of the Clark Bridge. Um and probably across the Lewis Bridge. Uh if you didn't know, there's that there is a Lewis Bridge That's right here but the more kind of famous and the beautiful Clark Bridge is right here. That trajectory is going to take it probably across the Lewis Bridges, South of the Clark Bridge, and eventually into Madison County. Um let's get an idea of timing. So, we'll get some folks a heads up on specifics here. Matt, you jump in if you got anything new. You got it. Yup. Uh in the meantime, and did you, what was the speed on that since that lace? I've been going sixty-five. Northeast at sixty. Thank you. Yup. So, don't change but you know, it matters. Okay. So, talking into you know, well, it's coming into fluorescent now. Maybe in about next seven minutes, we're talking into near and just south of Alton in about 17 minutes and then maybe that would be like getting into the Bunker Hill area in about 30 minutes. We'll put a more specific track on it to a cone track and you'll get a bunch of cities that are listed. Again, about 60 miles an hour. Um There's Alton in 60 minutes. Florist, we mentioned just a few minutes, Spanish Lake in 11 minutes, West Alton, Alton, Wood River, Bethalto. Um probably more likely into the the Wood River area than actual Alton proper at this point. As Steve is busy tracking these storms tonight, I am keeping a very sharp eye out for any potential reports of damage. Uh our friends in the newsroom, Steve, just let us know that they've been in touch with the public information officer from Saint Charles Fire and at this point, They say they have nothing to confirm and obviously they say what we're seeing here too or appears at the moment that the worst of the storms have passed Saint Charles. But we're going to continue to stay in close touch with them because again, we've got some reports from around the Defiance Area in particular of some potential damage. So, we'll stay on it. Let's put the warnings back on and I want to just address some of the severe thunderstorm warnings that have been popping up. You'll notice some new ones back to the southwest. Um the the storm that is in Washington County Missouri, it's weak. It's done with. It's not going to create any severe weather. Uh this is done. This one right around Saint Clair, that's a new one. Uh still need to keep an eye on that and not seeing a significant rotation yet but you know, again, it's not out of the question. Red boxes start to drop a little farther south. So, let's keep an eye on that. It's near Saint Clair. It's north of Sullivan. If you're in Sullivan, you're in the clear from this. Notice this off to the west though and I have to put on the wider radar so you can see what I'm talking about. That's the front. So, big picture is there's still some storms out there to the southwest that can kind of ride on 44 and our way and bring us more severe weather So far, 270 near Olive is what you're noticing in your screen there and with that shot on the left hand side of the screen. That's 270 in Olive and that's the crew that I was telling go south. I don't want you where that tornado warning is located. Um but anyway, we could get some new warnings coming up from this. There's already some warnings on em but right now, there's severe thunderstorm warnings. That's what the yellow boxes are. I see some red ones down in Southern Missouri way down south. That won't affect us but if we get any kind of new tornado warnings. Meteorologist Matt Chambers is monitoring and he'll let us know and we'll try to keep you ahead of the storm by monitoring any areas of little rotation that look like they're flaring up. Speaking of rotation, let's get back to it. Let's see what this one's looking like. It's small but it's right. It's right there. That actually by now, might be kind of over the terminal. Is that, is that Cameron gone? Did it go away? Looks frozen. Yup. Yeah. Does. And I don't know if that's from straight line winds. I don't know if that's because a tornado just hit it but that terminal does look gone and that's about where the rotation is. Let me switch back over. Uh to the Doppler Winds which has been helping me kind of pinpoint this a little bit and I know I'm moving the the radar around a lot. Hang in there with me. I'm going to explain. This is an old view and if you recall, this thing was on this trajectory, this this rotation was on this trajectory and it looks like it just turned east. Steve going to hop back in here. We're we're finally in touch with the Local National Weather Service office which is a beautiful thing. Um our friend Jim over there is monitoring the same cell that you're on top of right now. Uh he says indications that the tornado that moved across Saint Charles County into Saint Louis County has dissipated but there are new areas of concern for a line of storms for Ferguson back toward Creve Course. Several of kind of weak rotation embedded in that line. Mm hmm. That's moving east into the Saint Louis area. So, that's one of em. Yup. Exactly. And that's a legacy rotation from the the weekended tornado We. told you the signature was weakening but that's still where it is at like a little area of circulation we need to monitor but see all this down here, this is what they're talking about is this is a line of strong, straight line wins that's going to come right through the inner belt right now, 170 and you can get these little circulations that develop along them So, that's what we need to monitor and I can I can see there's nothing real significant developing there yet and even that that one area of rotation that had just hit the airport, it's weaker. It's not as strong as what we saw earlier. So, most likely, that camera got buffeted by some strong straight line winds. Let's hope it wasn't even a weak tornado but and even that rotation is looking even weaker right now. That's good news. But I'm going to highlight for you what we're talking about. Speaking of good news, well Steve is highlighting that. Let me just emphasize because I, you know, I think landmarks help people a lot. Sometimes, you don't know your neighboring counties. You don't, you don't know your geography, that all that well. The the the imminent threat for any kind of rotation, any kind of tornado activity, if you're outside of the 270 loop, in other words, west of two seventy is basically nil at the moment. There's still some strong thunderstorms and some rain in that area but if you are west of the western edge of the 270 loop, you're not looking at tornado activity right now. It's all to the east pretty quickly. Yup, good point. Thank you for big picture view there. Okay, so this is still a tornado warning but it doesn't have that strong rotation that it did earlier. It has these little weaker areas of rotation but remember, we were talking about weak rotation over Washington, Missouri when this thing kind of started to intensify and could have put down a tornado on its track across Saint Charles County where we're hearing some reports of damage. The airport camera is back. That's some good news there and it look like the the worst of this storm is actually probably just east of the airport camera now. Um do me a favor and get Christian Hospital in North County pointing west if you could. Sure. I'm at and you can pop that into input one and we'll just put that on the air when you get a chance to see what that's what that's looking like. That would be right about here. It's just to the west of the chain of rocks bridge and if we can get it pointing west, it's probably just down point. It's going to be hard to see. I realize that but in the dark with lightning, maybe you can see a little lowering. It gives you some credibility that you are seeing. Those lowering clouds and maybe a little spinning cloud. Um but right now I just don't see any significant rotation out of there. So, for our friends that are in Alton, Bethalto, Wood River, good news that we've seen some weakening on that section of the line. This is still a tornado warning. Let's get rid of the box and I'll just start analyzing the storm again. I mentioned Alton, Bethalto, and Wood River. You're getting hit by rain right now. Um week, week areas of rotation for sure. Um Sorry, Matt. Did you. No, that's okay. You're good. I've got North County in input one for you and you're right. It is a deluge with very frequent lightning at the moment. There it is. Thank you for that, man. You're welcome. Appreciate it. Um again, not seeing any real significant rotation out of anything here. There's, you know, a little little weak areas here. In fact, let's see if we go back in time. That's a separate area. Um the area of rotation that we were tracking kind of across Saint Charlestown was right here and it's much much weaker now. I think what's what's really developing. So, instead of it being a tornado here, that's probably gone and what we're probably just dealing with is some strong straight line winds right here. That's where the winds are strong but can create those little circulations that can flare up on that northern flank. So, that has come through U City riding down 70 and into Saint Louis City. I'm going to put a track on that just to give you a head up on some strong winds and again, just an area to monitor because circulations can develop. That looks like it's moving kind of east too. We go east at about fifty-five Strong winds get in the Granite City in about 6 minutes. So, it's crossing northern Saint Louis City very quickly. The next couple minutes, Riverview, 3 minutes. Uh Collinsville and 16 minutes Troy, Illinois in about 22 minutes. And you know, on this side of the radar, when I look at that, it doesn't look as strong. Um but there there's still can be some pretty strong winds buffeting and then looking for these little small areas, kind of like what we see right here. See this little notch right there? It's not doing anything. That's not a a tornado but that's kind of beginnings of what I look for. It's an inflow notch that airs flowing in as as the downpour creates air flowing out and that can create a little circulation. So, probably strong winds. Doesn't look exceptionally severe but maybe enough to take down some tree limbs that has come through U City. We track that pretty quickly into Riverview and then eventually, there's Granite City. There's downtown and it looks like that's going to miss downtown just to the north Um Steve, I've not, as you're walking over here, I've noticed this in our friends at the weather service are noticing this too. This line is transitioning kind of from one phase to another from time to time and right now, it seems to be transitioning back to kind of a supercell phase where there are these these individual storms that have a little bit of space around them and sometimes they can make it a bit easier for them to rotate and eventually tornado es. So, they're eyeing three areas in particular. Uh North Saint Louis County and City which is the one that Steve was just moments ago zoomed in on. A second near Godfrey which was kind of in West Alton just a short time ago and another north of Brighton. So, again, the small but noticeable, little pockets of rotation doesn't necessarily mean that the tornado is on the ground but it's obvious to all of us that that the ingredients are there. Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome. That's very helpful and as I as I see those three areas on radar, I'd say the one near Godfrey is the weakest, the one north of Brighton, and then the one that's in North County It's kind of headed from Ferguson to to Jennings. Those are the two stronger ones. So, let's get in on in the nitty-gritty details and highlight it for you. Um Alright. So, I'm going to have to switch over to the Doppler wins just to help me pinpoint these. So, we're going to have one that's going to be near Godfrey. That's just north of Alton right here. That one's weak. Yeah. That one really looks weak. Yeah, that North County one looks more impressive right now. Really, it's kind of hopping from North Saint Louis County into extreme, extreme Saint Charles County there. Um there's Brighton. Let me switch over to. So, there's a, you know, there little bit of something coming in here and a little coming in here and then you it it's probably north of Brighton. Again, nothing real obvious. Like earlier, you know, when we pinpointed near Augusta, moving through Saint Charles County. I mean, that was obvious. These are just weaker circulations but I love that the weather service is helping us kind of draw our attention to where some of these weak circulations that could turn into more significant areas of circulation are developing and this other one that's in North County Actually, noticing right around Glasgow Village. That's the one that's headed towards Granite City and like Matt said, that's one we've been kind of focusing on Right in this spot right here. all of those, I just have to say, no. Sure. None of those scream a tornado es on the ground. Right. Okay. So, that's the good news. What we're doing is just, like I said, nitty gritty, kind of analyzing the radar to give you a heads up on what areas could turn into a tornado The. situation is such that they've issued this big, big tornado warning because anywhere along the leading edge of this line which now stretches almost into downtown, just north of downtown. You can get these little circulations that develop and create a tornado we may have already had one. We may have already had one in Saint Charles County. Um but you've got 985, 000 people in a tornado warning. sirens blaring, and thinking what's going on. So, a lot of the towns that we've been mentioning, Is that a new. That's that wireless emergency alert system we talk about, Steve. Hey. It's a good thing. Two things you need to stay safe is have a warning and have a plan. Matt Chambers has a warning. He has his phone on him. Uh no, that's really good news. Uh but the 985, 000 people here are wondering what's going on. Am I under the gun? Am I threatened? If you are in Saint Charles City, down to Chesterfield, I know there's still some rain in that area. You're in the clear. As far as this severe thunderstorm warning, that's now east of Union and Washington. Uh You know, I think we still need to watch for a little rotation there. It's just west of Cedar Hill. It's weak. It's not a really strong thunderstorm. I'll highlight that in a second but it see that little curvature right there? Just want to watch that. That that would have to strengthen. This is not a real strong thunderstorm. You need a strong updraft in order to take circulation and turn it into potentially a tornado and that's why there's no tornado warning on this but I'm pointing to Eastern Franklin County that will come into parts of Northwestern Jefferson County with a little rotation and something to monitor. Yeah It is Steve to back you up on that. Uh the latest status report on that particular severe thunderstorm warning. Again, we're talking about Franklin County. Um indicated tornado possible. Not not necessarily evident at the moment but it's something that they're eyeing very closely and we are as well of course. Okay. So, let's get a big picture track on this and let's try and zoom in and find some more of these little circulations because they can develop quickly, go away quickly, and I just want to make sure that we have you all covered. Um if I haven't mentioned your town or I Not tracking from where you live. Uh that's that's a good thing. That means you're not under the threat for a tornado warning because this is all tornado warning moving to the east at about put it about 60 miles an hour. So, Granite City in a couple minutes. Remember, there was a little circulation headed your way as well. I can kind of see it. It's on the north side. It's right there. That would be a little circulation. Uh you're going to get some strong winds in Granite City but just north of you now. It's in Granite City now. Just north of you, right across, just across the Chain of Rocks Bridge. That's where that little circulation is and so those are the little things we're looking for that can turn into big things, can turn into a tornado Um. so, Edwardsville, that would be in about four minutes. You can see it's pretty much coming in now. Let's monitor that area of circulation though. That would be longer than four minutes but you're getting rain and heavy rain at that coming into Edwardsville as we speak. Lung Carbon about 10 minutes. Maryville in 12 minutes. Litchfield in 17 minutes, Highland in about 27 minutes. That circulation probably north of Highland. Um but again you know, that one can fade away and a new one can develop. It's one of the reasons why we've been on the air. The other reason is this particular tornado warning has almost a million people in it. Wondering what's going on. Um the other reason is that this is one of those more difficult nights. This is not like the October 2-4th night where we had three tornado warnings that were easy to find right away. They were easy to track and keep you ahead of it. This is going to be more line of storms is moving through and occasionally, a tornado may develop. We don't have obvious signs of that right now but we see little areas of circulation that can turn into that tornado That's why we're here. Keep of the storm and let you know where those circulations are. So, that's the big picture. I'm going to switch over to the Doppler winds and get back to the job of letting you know where those circulations are. The one that's north of Granite City has strengthened. Um it's coming across Cedar Park. It is in Illinois right now. If you're in North City in Riverview, in the clear, north side of Granite City, right about here. That's what we're tracking. That's that circulation I could even see it on the other you know, typical type of radar. Um let's see if this going. More east or northeast? Probably a a little both actually. So, what I was tracking earlier was a big line. What I'm going to track right now for you is actually just this specific circulation and I'm going to put it east a little bit northeast. I want to include Edwardsville there and just keep you posted. Well, you know, hopefully it misses you to the south but either way, I want you, you know, aware. Pontoon Beach would be next though, that would be in about 3 minutes. Uh you know, if it went on this easterly trajectory trolling about 13 minutes. If it's a little more northeast, it's going to miss you and and cross two 255 and 55 here and that would be probably in about 10 minutes or so. Um Marine, in about 19 minutes, Island, we now have you at 24 minutes, but again, I think Highland, you're probably looking at less this signature and and the rotation along it, that little circulation unless it starts to go east instead of what it really is kind of been the trend is more northeast but we'll it. So, you're in, that's one of the reasons why we draw these boxes and they go out like this in time. It's because there's more air in the path of the storm, the farther out you go. So, if the storm is doing this and then all of a sudden, it started to do this, we've got you included island. That's one of the reasons why we draw these little fan boxes here to keep you updated on that threat and in fact, just updated with the timing. Glenn Carbon now in 7 minutes. Yeah, Glen Carbon Pontoon Beach. It is absolutely time to seek shelter at this point. If you're still Watching Steve. We love you for that but Steve is telling you it's time to take action now. Um weather service is watching this closely as well. Steve, they were talking about rotation evident just west of the chain of Rocks Bridge along 270 there northwest of Pontoon Beach brief time ago moving east toward Glen Carbon exactly as you said. Here's another area. This is North and west of Bethalto. This check that. It is pretty much Ambital now that she got an update. Um this is east of Godfrey, East of Alton, you're in the clear. Um and it would be from circulation from this storm right here. Right on this kind of pendant. It is completely rain wrapped. Completely buried. Um and not something you'll see. But that is going to be north of Meadowbrook. It's really northern Madison County. Um if I put track on that to the northeast. At about 50 to 60 miles an hour. That gets you into Bunker Hill in about 6 minutes. Uh Staunton in about 14 minutes. Litchfield in about 24 minutes what I'm doing is I'm analyzing this whole big line and trying to find areas of circulation. I think the more significant one is the one that's coming kind of towards Glencarbon to Edwardsville, farther to the south. So, that one coming your way and this one is another one that's just a little less significant. It's not as strong but it's something to monitor coming into Bunker Hill. This whole line is under that tornado warning because we're waiting to see if some of these storms kind of strengthen their rotation and flare up a tornado So, there's another circulation. What I'm looking at by the way is this, the radar you're seeing but I'm also looking at the Doppler winds at the same time. kind of a split screen like that and it just helps me pinpoint where the strongest areas of rotation are and by far that one that is around Glencarbon is strengthening. Um it's coming at Glencarbon to Edwardsville, Stronger Signature. Let's see if they've extended that warning. doesn't look so look like it but it's covering them for sure. You're totally covered. Can you pop up the BJC Skycam that we have in Edwardsville and and push it west for me. Yeah. Uh west little southwest. This is going to be 270 and it's eventually going to cross around 1 fifty9 in a few minutes. Let's see if this is moving east or more northeast. I think this is moving northeast. Okay. So, this is more headed towards Edwardsville because the the trajectory here and that's what you you see me go back in time, forward in time. I'm just trying to get a good read on exactly direction this is moving. This thing was north of Granite City. Here it is right now, headed towards Edwardsville. More significant stronger circulation. If you've been listening to me and and you're thinking, well, he said, tornado warning but just looking for circulations, not seeing anything strong and you're deciding to just be away from windows, watch the TV, and monitor. Now is the time. If you're in this Glencarbon to Edwardsville area, to get to your tornado shelter, stronger signature, headed your way, we can see it on radar, it's buried in rain. We're going to try with our BJC Skycam in case we get some lightning, especially as that moves in right over Edwardsville to see it. Is that an input one? It is. Thank you, Appreciate it. That's meteorologist Matt Chambers. You hear in the background and a huge help. He's monitoring our instant message chat, helping with the cameras. Just a huge help and I really appreciate you, Matt. Um can't see anything here right now, obviously, but sometimes, I just like to linger a little bit because lightning can light up the sky. What I'm looking for, two things. One, the obvious, a funnel cloud or tornado Um. the other thing is sometimes what you might get is a wall cloud which is a strong updraft that in this case would be rotating. So, it would be of a larger cloud that stretches down from the parent cloud. It's kind of what I'm looking forward to. Just eyeball, confirm, and give you ground truth that we've got an updraft that's rotating and possibly maybe producing a tornado It's. definitely one of the stronger signatures that we have going. Switch back over to the radar. and that is coming right into Edwardsville as we speak. In fact, I don't think the velocity data is probably quite caught up to the radar data because what I'm I'm I'm seeing two areas here. One is right here. You got an inflow notch but then you've also got rotation right around here. Let me switch back over to the velocity. Okay, so it's that one little farther back. That's interesting. Really interesting. I'm going to switch back and explain what I just what I'm seeing here. So, no tornado here but this is an inflow notch. This is air coming in and this is air going out. So, if a new tornado were to develop, it could actually develop right on top of Edwardsville. Um our BJC Skycam from SIUE is pointing down to the southwest to this. This is where there's actually a stronger signature and still, stronger signature of rotation and a possible tornado and that is going to head to the east northeast. That's pretty much right on 270 just northwest of Glencarbon and headed to the northeast In fact, it is now east of two fifty-five Gonna have to look at the Doppler winds because this thing maybe kind of merging actually the the winds hasn't caught up. Image hasn't caught up but probably what's happening here is we have have a merger of inflow right here. Oh, this one's getting a little complicated and then, the former circulation right here. see if it enhances it, if this new kind of inflow enhances that circulation but that's the area right now of concern coming right into Edwardsville and again, I mentioned 255, that's right here. So, it's east of two fifty-five. It's north of 270 and there's 1. 59 So that's going to move to the northeast. Very specific on where it is now. What I'd like to do is zoom out and give you a better picture down the road of where it's going, okay? So, we're going to take this to the northeast a little bit east. We'll go at about 55 to sixty. Matt, as new warnings come out, will you help me if the speed has changed? Absolutely. In fact, we just got a new one on the cellular tracking. So, you you get to the track there and I will let everybody know that Bond County and Central Madison County now under a brand-new tornado warning until 9: 15 PM Steve was asking specifically about the forward motion on this. They're now saying east. Steve, East. Okay. At 55 miles per hour and I know that that's you've been cheating those tracks a little kind of a little more to the right, a little more east and northeast lately and I think that was a good Fifty-five you said? East at fifty-five. Yup. Okay. I'm still going to cheat a little north. So, Edwardsville now, you see some of the other towns in the path of this stronger circulation, potential tornado Kaufman, in 13 minutes, Alhambra in 16 minutes and that moves across Madison County and eventually into Bond County. So, this is Greenville, Bond County, this is Madison County. So, from Madison to Bond, rotation, right there. Collinsville in the clear, Granite City in the clear. Um Edwardsville, that's where it is right now and then moving to the east, I think maybe a little bit, you know, just a little north of east. If you're in Highland, you watch this because if it is more east, you know, it's coming to the north side of town, right? But I think this is going to be a little more north of east and slide just north of you. Focus a lot on this rotation right here. Let me back out and get you the bigger picture and see if there's anything else that has strengthened and I know Matt's going to keep an eye on that for me too. Mm hmm. The other thing I'm I want to keep an eye on is the storms that are coming in along the front. So, the front is going to be right here, okay? And there's some red boxes that represent tornado warnings down here. We'll have to keep an eye if that just clips Reynolds County. Um but so far, those storms look to miss us but these are severe thunderstorms mainly for this line of storms producing some straight line wind damage potential in Ralla. Um for now, I don't see any significant circulation. I think that's something we'll have to monitor right there and then, of course, the other one that had some rotation but was just too weak to really create anything. Still has, I mean they're still in this yellow box which represents a severe thunderstorm warning in Saint Louis County, kind of the southern portion. I'm still seeing very weak areas of rotation but the storm's just not strong enough. Uh I'll show you what I mean here. So, if you're around Eureka, especially just east of Eureka, that's rotation right there but this is not a tornado It's. not. It's just a little rotating cell that just doesn't have the strength to become a supercell or even a weekend tornado Uh. it is a severe thunderstorm warning for the threat for some damaging winds and I wouldn't be surprised. I'll put, won't be surprised if the weather is tag that again is one of those tornado possible It is. It is. Yeah. It's just not doing anything though. This would have to really strengthen in order to warrant a tornado warning. So, right now, this is just severe thunderstorm warning. I gotta tell you, it doesn't even look that severe. That's probably producing just some 30, 40 mile an hour winds, has a little rotation. We will monitor. Some potential for just a little bit of small hail perhaps indicated in there as well, Steve. Penny-sized or smaller the way it looks right now. Okay. So, I wanted to address some of the other storms and in fact, this one has produced a new severe thunderstorm warning. Gascanade, Franklin, it does include oops, it does include Northern Crawford County and it's straight line winds. Not seeing any rotation along that. Matt, help keep me posted if we start to see any notches developed. Yup. Keeping a close eye on that one just in case because there's still a lot of twists even this atmosphere. A lot of winds changing with height. If anything that maybe intensifying a little bit over the southeastern and south central portions of the viewing area. Also, want to let you know on the north end of what you're tracking, Steve, new tornado Central Madison and Southeastern McCoupin County until 915. The hazard threats there would be up to quarter size hail and of course because it is a tornado warning, the potential for a tornado Uh. they're not they're they're the language at the moment is radar indicated rotation. Okay. Okay. Um thank you for that. That's meteorologist Matt Chambers. I'm meteorologist Steve Templeton and you're watching live Storm Mode coverage as we have multiple warnings but specifically multiple tornado warnings are coming through the Saint Louis Metro especially in the Metro East now. We focused on one area of circulation in particular. It's the strongest. But I do want to point out that there's all these yellow boxes that show severe thunderstorms that will keep an eye on. They really need to strengthen. Uh I think this is probably the best chance to produce some wind damage that's coming in the gasconated Phelps County. But they would really need to strengthen the rotation to produce a tornado And. that's why you don't see any yellow or any red boxes out of this. It's all yellow. It's all severe thunderstorm warnings. The tornado threat is focused northeast of Saint Louis and what I'm about to do is get rid of the boxes and just analyze specifically in this massive storms and a lot of them are buried within rain that you're just not going to see if you're trying to go outside and watch it. Imma try and assess exactly where the best threat for a tornado is in all of those warnings. Important heads up here too for you Steve. Indications of some debris on the radar between Glen Carbon and Edwardsville. Okay. Uh that was about five minutes ago. What we call a TDS signature indic possible debris being hurled into into the lower levels of the atmosphere here between Glen Carbon and Edwardsville which again just bolsters the thought that a tornado could very well be on the ground with that cell. Yup and so where is that storm right now? It's northeast of Edwardsville right here. It's crossing 55 and it's headed towards Alhambra and again, that's moving more northeast not east. Um so, that is moving this direction. If you and Alhambra. Uh you're going to want to be in your safe shelter. If you've been watching, you're in a tornado warning so you should be in it anyway. Uh we're we're airing this on Facebook, on the live stream, on K Movie.com, and the News four app and of course, right here on News four. So, if you had to run to the basement, there's no TV. Hopefully, you have a tablet or phone or some way to kind of monitor this live stream and if you've been sitting down there in Alhambra and wondering, wondering what's happening next because you heard Edwardsville, it's coming your way and it sounds like it did produce some debris on radar explain what that means in a second. I just wanted to give folks downstream of that storm where it is now. The heads up that you really really need to be in your safe shelter. Staunton, it's going to miss you to the south. Highland, it's going to miss you to the north. It's actually moved even a little more north. Um going to switch over to the debris tracker. No obvious signatures there but they're right there, right there. Um so, what the debris tracker is showing us right here, that little bright spot and this is back in time. So, this is let's see This is about eight thirty-five, 836 It is eight forty-one, okay? So, we're talking 5 minutes ago. Radar noticing that there's debris up in the air. So, radar can see the stuff that's in the air like the raindrops and it can also see when the stuff in the air is all sorts of different shapes. Some of them are skinny, some of their fat, some are long, and typically, when that happens, like right here and it's located where a suspected tornado is, then, you have a tornado debris signature this was five minutes ago just south of Veteransville. The signature's not as strong as it heads towards Alhambra but it's radar telling us a tornado probably touchdown and through debris up into the air like shingles or leaves or tree limbs maybe parts of a roof. So, things like that, even straw and even in the fields, whatever may be left in the fields, dirt can all get up in the air and that happened right here south of Edwardsville. So, no doubt that we've had a tornado hit. How strong it is? Is there damage? We've got our crew out there. I know the newsroom's working hard. This one, by the way, 5 minutes ago, let me show you where it's at now. See how it's gone? That's where it's at now. That's good. That it's not tossing debris up into the air anymore. Um see another spot down 157. I think that's just anomalous just because you see a little spot doesn't mean you actually have turn it. No, that's not at all. So, let me show you what I was looking at. Na debris signature at all. You have to have the knowledge to know exactly where is this? Is it located, where a storm with the threat for a tornado is and there's still a threat for a tornado It. would be right here. This could flare up again. But I want to show you is how quickly it flared up and it'll help explain, you know, one of the reasons why we've been on the air for so long. We're not tracking one single tornado for hours on end. But we're tracking the threat and at times, we've had that threat in Saint Charles County. It sounds like there was some damage. We don't know exactly how bad yet. And probably some damage around Glencarbon to Edwardsville. But I want to show you how quickly it flares up and then anticipates. So, we're going to go back in time Nothing, well, if there's anything there, it's right here and then, all of a sudden, it strengthens and no doubt, you've got a debris signature right there. This is in a matter of minutes and I'm going to go forward in time. Boom, it's gone. Extremely likely that there was at least a brief tornado there, Steve. That's what it looks like to me and I just can't rule out that it's creating another one right now as the as the signature strengthens just the east of Hamel. It was crossing 55. Uh if you're in Alhambra, it's just to the west of you. This is Illinois Route four. There's a there's an exit off of fifty-five right there. 55 and and four. It's south of the exit but it's headed up to the northeast. So, if you're in Alhambra, it still need to be in your safe shelter. If you're in Hammel, Warden, you're in the, you're clear. This probably came right across or very near Hammel as well but when it did, again, we didn't have that debris signature. That doesn't mean it wasn't producing a tornado. Sometimes it can produce a tornado just doesn't loft debris or the debris it hits isn't really the type of debris that can get high up in the air. Maybe it was weak and so sometimes you don't have a debris signature but you actually end up with a tornado So, we don't know for sure if it maybe produced a weak tornado here in Hamil but I do know that this is still a significant signature as it moves into Alhambra and has crossed Illinois Route 4. Now, east of Route four, you got some new information? Yeah, I want to let you know, Steve. There is a new torna warning coming. It's not out yet but it's as a result of another one of these tornado debris signatures. In other words, where we can see on the radar, the possibility of some debris being lofted up into the storm. This is going to be west and southwest of Mount Olive, south of Gillespie. Um so, again, with that tornado debris signature, it bolsters confidence that there was there is a tornado on the ground. It would be close to Wilsonville, Sawyerville and I can hear the the alarm going off now. That's going to be that new tornado warning. That's that second area of circulation was actually looked a little weaker and still doesn't look as strong as the one near Edwardsville but I'll highlight it for you here what I'm looking at. It was right here. I say was because that's old data and then there's the new data and there's the direction it's headed. So, it'll be towards Litchfield. We've been tracking that one for you as well and it would be buried in rain west of Litchfield right around here, right around there. Um actually a little bit of a little bit of a hook right right in that location just west and southwest of Litchfield. So, another tornado warning which will put the warnings back on the red box to show you where that goes but that no doubt is going to extend into Montgomery County. Yeah and just to make sure we're giving people a proper heads up as Steve really focuses on where those circulation areas are, where the tight rotation could be. That's that's the most dangerous part of the storm but just to highlight this new tornado warning, it includes northern Madison County, Northwestern Fayette County, Southeastern Macupin, and Montgomery County as well on the Illinois side of our coverage area. That is on the books until 9: 30 PM. Again, this storm has a history at this point of it would appear hurling some debris into the atmosphere. At least for a brief time. So, no doubt a tornado warning is warranted on that cell. Yup. Um I still think the signature near Alhambra near Livingston, a little farther south of that one is a little stronger but what I want to do is go back to that debris tracker and see what that looks like and area of the new tornado warning that I've highlighted for you as Matt kind of listed off some of those counties and again, just kind of southwest of Litchfield. If you're in Litchfield, you definitely want to be in your safe shelter. Let's get back to the debris tracker and as I go back in time, I'm going to highlight it for you where it really flared up. Right there. So, that's a little more significant than it is right now. Um and We're going to go forward in time and it pretty much goes away. So, again, brief, little hits of confirmed radar, confirmed tornado es. I'm going to highlight it for you. Boom right here. And here's another in Edwardsville. Boom right here. They don't last long. But this helps explain, you know, why we're on the air, what I'm looking for is a little blips of yellows, blues, right? Boom, right there. It's gone. still could be a tornado maybe just not lofting debris as high to create that signature but it will be coming into Litchfield and then here's the other one that would be heading north of Alhambra. That debris tracker confirms why we've been on the air for so long, monitoring this line of storms that can have circulations that can develop a tornado at any moment. These are brief and isolated. We don't know how bad the damage is but we know that two tornado es at least have hit here and probably a third out in Saint Charles County. Go. Steve, let's shift focus back of those storms to the west for a moment. Obviously, we've got multiple storms that we're tracking and we want to make sure we're doing our best to protect everybody in the viewing area. Yeah. You you asked me to watch for notches in this line of thunderstorms that's down in the western and southwestern sections of our viewing area. We have one and there's now a tornado warning as a result for Franklin County, Southeastern Warren County, and the southern, I'd say the southern to southeastern half of Gascanade County until 9: 30 PM. Again indications of rotation on radar. No reports of damage with this storm. Uh no tornado debris signature with this storm. But the idea is not to wait until there's debris in the atmosphere to issue the warning, obviously. These warnings are an effort to alert people that dangerous weather is moving in. So, you're trying to get out ahead of that and there are indications as we were concerned that there might be that as these storms move deeper into the western half of our viewing area. And that they're encountering a lot of shear. A lot of spin in the atmosphere. And it's helping them to intensify just a little bit. So again it's a new tornado warning until 9: 30 PM shifting focus back to the west for parts of Franklin, Warren, and Gasconade counties till 930. I've highlighted where that circulation is in that notch, Matt. Thank you for drawing our. This is why it takes a team. You know, I'm focused on two areas where we know tornado es have at least recently touched down base confirmed on radar but here we are with Matt keeping an eye on the storms coming in out of the west where new tornado warning has developed. Now, this little bow right here will be strong straight line winds that's coming out of Gaskiny County. This Franklin County. This is where the rotation is and it's going to come into say union in about 21 minutes. Here's something important on this next round of storms. There's going to be some cities that I've already mentioned. Union's one of them. Uh Washington, Missouri is one of them if that circulation does go a little farther north. Probably stay south of Washington. but the point is is that there could be some areas where you've you've heard your city mentioned before and you think, oh, we're in the clear. Not yet. This is actually the front that still needs to come on through and until it does, still can get little circulations develop and thanks to Matt for keeping an eye on this. So, Union 20 minutes, Filler Ridge in about 26 minutes. Some of the cities a little closer, you can see in the next five to 10 minutes or 15 minutes, as it comes out of Gaskinan County, that circulation is going to cross Highway 50 in the eastern part of Gasconade County and then eventually move in to Franklin County. I'll zoom in a little bit more and stop the radar. I also want to just take a look at the Doppler winds. I'm not seeing a real strong signature but definitely seeing that little inflow and that would be right in there and there's actually another one right in there. The first one was the one I was tracking or the second one was the one I was tracking. This one right here that will head towards near and south of Gerald. Um this one is in more southern gasconade. Again, not seeing a real strong signature but definitely seeing a threat for a tornado that could develop and turn into the kind of what we've seen marched through parts of the metro. Speaking of the metro, there is the view right now let's turn on the tornado warnings. We have a bunch of em including in Madison County, just northeast now of Edwardsville. Hundred thousand people in that one and we've got another one in Montgomery County fifty thousand. We got about a hundred and fifty thousand people that are being impacted by in the Metro East, These warnings. The the severe thunderstorm warning that's in Saint Louis County, Saint Louis City. Uh it looks really weak at this point. Uh I'm going to highlight for you what I'm talking about right here. So, there's still some there and that's probably some circulation but nothing too strong. Nothing to worry about. Um wouldn't be outside. I'd be inside and away from windows for sure but as far as circulation goes, the bigger threat is going to be off here to the east. So, let's track that for you. Uh the the circulation coming into Litchfield looks it's there. It just looks weaker. This was the one that Matt was saying and he was right when I looked at the debris tracker through McCoopin County had produced a little bit by tornado debris signature but that signature right there is is much weaker. Um if I go a little farther south, it's much stronger. that storm is now cleared of Alhambra. So, if you're in Alhambra, you can come up. Um I mentioned Hamill earlier. It's ways to view now. I mentioned Livingston. It's east of you. Now, if you're new Douglas, give it about a couple minutes. The threat for a tornado is just on Sorrento Road East of New Douglas. And that storm, let's put a track on it is going to head up into Montgomery County. Um as it moves to the northeast. So, you're going to see exactly where I see the rotation and then moving it to the northeast. We'll put it about fifty-five to 60 miles an hour and you'll see some of the cities in the path of the storm as it cruises through kind of the extreme northern part of this will be Bond County. So, rotations right here and southern part of Montgomery County. more significant and that one was the one that came through Glen Carbon and Edwardsville as well Uh we back on chat too and all good? We are and actually on a Google Meet as a backup just in case. Right. I want to Steve if I can just for a moment kind of open the curtain a little bit and do some inside baseball. As you might imagine at home, we get lots and lots and lots of reports in a situation like this. It is our responsibility and our duty to sift through what's real and what isn't. Uh I can tell you we've had plenty of reports that we've chosen at this point not to pass along because We don't want to do that until we confirm it. Uh but I think it's it's evident at this point that there are at least sporadic areas of damage as pardon me as a result of some of these thunderstorms moving through. Very very likely dropping tornado es from time to time. This is not a situation where these are long lived, long track, tornado es. These are thunderstorms that live and breathe and are very dynamic for a long period of time. They hold together. But we're not talking about a tornado that's on the ground for miles and miles and miles. Steve is doing an job tonight of trying to pinpoint those specific areas of rotation that give us the greatest level of concern that there really could be a threat that something touches down. But rest assured our newsroom is working to to confirm any reports that we do receive. Uh we just have to be cautious with with what we pass along because there's a lot of scanner traffic and a lot of reports coming in from the public that we need to confirm here. Yup. And and I have no problem and we will pass along significant reports. Matt did it for you earlier. Uh it was a report of a roof a house and we stopped and we said, look, we don't know what that really looks like. It could be a couple shingles, could be the whole roof, we don't know. Right. So, we'll tell you when we do have significant reports but we'll also let you know that we haven't confirmed it yet. We also need to make sure that our crews are safe so they can get to those spots, confirm it for you, and we've been kind of maneuvering them around and I just want to say to Tanya, my producer in the back and anybody in the newsroom listening, please, especially as we see this next round come in. If there's some folks in Saint Charles County that are part of our crew and you need me to them or at least kind of give an assessment of if they're in a safe spot, just get in my ear, tell me about it. I'll I'll I'll walk through it. We'll take you know, a couple seconds out of this live storm mode coverage to make sure that our crews are safe. So, please let me know if they're out there and you see the red box and they're wondering, am I safe? Just say, hold on. We're going to ask Steve and biggest threat right now is still out of this southern red box here. There's a northern and a southern to the northeast of Saint Louis. We do still have a tornado warning off to the west as well. I'm not seeing a real significant circulation signature out of that. It is a similar setup to what we'd be dealing through tonight where you have this line of thunderstorms and then along that line, you you can end up with a little circulation that develops. Matt, will you do me a favor? Sure. Uh will you zoom in to this southern flank we're going to kind of investigate around Sorrento, East of Staunton, northwest of northwest of Greenville and Bond County. Kind of investigate that area. We'll take the warnings off and take a look at some of the Doppler winds within the storm. Um so, yeah, right there. That that's where there's a more significant radar signature. That's Northwestern Bond County and it's getting ready to head up into Montgomery County. So, Sorento, it's on you now. You need to be in your tornado shelter. You see as it comes in to that southern part of Montgomery County. Uh Panama would be right here. Coffee would be right here. Uh Fillmore, just some of the cities in the path of the storm as it kind of moves to the northeast. If you're in Greenville and Bond County, this is missing you to the northwest. This is the storm that came through. Uh Livingston, we mentioned Hamel and Edwardsville and we mentioned Glenn Carbon earlier too. In fact, that was the area around Glencarbon and Edwardsville where it produced a debri signature. So, we know this storm has a history of throwing debris in the air, confirmed on radar, a tornado and, still showing a significant signature right over Sorrento. This is in northern Bond County. Matt's going to track that for you too as it moves off to the northeast. Uh hold on. Believe, believe that. I I didn't get myself enough room based on the speed of this storm. So, let me back out just discuss. You know how that goes. Why why you do that? I'll just keep an eye on that storm that passed east northeast of Litchfield. Do not significant rotation with that. Okay, good to know. So, track on this. I'm going to cheat this just a little bit right of Due Northeast. So, kind of east northeast about 45 miles per hour. There's some ETAs for you, Steve. Alright. So, we're talking about getting into Donaldson in about eight minutes. Uh we mentioned East Fork 14. I mentioned Fillmore about 20 minutes and then you can see Ramsey in about 36 minutes. So about the next half hour, some of the cities that this could impact and again, pretty significant signature on radar. The strongest one we have going And so while there are two tornado warnings in that area, it's the southern flank one that's coming out of Bond County. In fact, this line right here is the Bond County, Montgomery County line and that's where the tornado is. Just south of Grisham and I know it says five minutes but the radar actually just updated. So, it's it's really in Grisham now. If you're in Sorrento, which should be right around here, it's east of you. You're in the clear. You're in the clear. We have One, two, three, four tornado warnings going on. The reality is out of all those warnings, there's really three cells. Out of those three cells, there's one that has the significance to, I think, produce a tornado and it's this one right here. The other tornado warnings had significant signatures that have weakened and or the other one to the southwest is one of those line of thunderstorms that has some circulations that aren't strong enough yet to really confirm a tornado. That would be the one that's off to the west. Uh that would be going Franklin County. So, this this is the main show in town. It's east of Saint Louis and Matt's going kind of back in time forward. Showing us those Christmas colors that represent green which is raindrops going in towards the radar and the red which is raindrops are going away from the radar and what that really is is it's rotation. So, when you have fast raindrops moving that way, fast raindrops moving that way. That doesn't happen in the atmosphere naturally. What's really happening is they're rotating and one raindrop that may show up green going towards the radar is going to twist and show up red in the next scan going away from the radar. So, that is what we're looking at. We call it a couplet and it helps us pinpoint exactly where the rotation is and Doppler is actually shooting through and into the rain. This is not something that you'd be able to see. I mean, we're talking nine o'clock at night here. It's dark on top of the fact that this is wrapped in rain. You just wouldn't see it and yet here we are able to tell you that that's possible tornado and help you get to safety and let you know in Sorento for instance that it's now east of you as it's going to eventually slide up into Bond County. Again, right there is the Bond County and sorry, Montgomery County. It's in the Bond County, Montgomery County line. It's going to slide up into. This is Montgomery County. Uh do you mind putting a track on that? In fact, you can kind of see, see a little doughnut hole right there. The reason there's a donut hole. The reason this isn't all red is because the heavy rain can't come down. The reason why? There's strong updraft. Maybe a tornado. That's. air going up. So, as air goes up, it thrusts the raindrops away from this area and the radar ends up with this little kind of donut hole. So, all the heavy rain is around it. That's just another visual clue that you have a really strong and we know it's rotating, a really strong rotating updraft and possible tornado just northeast of Sorrento. Northern Bond County, eventually into Montgomery County. Matt, what I was going to ask you is if you could kind of track that with the arrow tracker towards Ramsey? Sure. Uh give me one. That's off in Fayette County and Just kind of wanted to give folks, you know, I'll help you out for a second. I just want to give folks a a heads up a little downstream. We're going at fifty-5, right? Yes, sir. There you go, bud. Thank you. Thank you. Northeast fifty-five. So, you're looking at an ETA of about 20 minutes, maybe a little bit more in Ramsey, Illinois at this point. And that's again, a little more significant signature. Haven't seen anything from weather service on that one yet either. But one thing I am going to do is check the debris tracker and see if we, nope, that's good. We don't have any obvious signs of debris in the air from this. That's really good. Mm hmm. That's a very tight circulation though. We need to keep an eye on that one. You know, my eyeballs will be peeled here for one of those kind of dots of green and yellow that might indicate that there's debris in the air and I don't see that. You can have a storm rotate above the ground and not be produced a tornado Um. you gotta be in the basement and play it safe when this happens. It's one of the reasons why we're still on the air with you especially since this signature's rather strong but just because it's rotating up above doesn't mean that that rotation translates down to the ground and is doing damage We don't know until we see either confirmation from the radar or confirmation from spotters, emergency managers but that's a significant signature. Alright, we've been focusing on that a lot. Let's go big picture here. As it's now nine oh two. So, let's kind of give the big reset. Some people may just be tuning in. I'm chief meteorologist Steve Templeton. We have meteorologist Matt Chambers in as well. We've been tracking a line of storms and now a second line that can and has produced tornado es. This line has produce tornado es. We've heard of some damage in Saint Charles County and then we've seen on our debris tracker which is radar spotting debris in the air of two spots in McCupin County and one near Edwardsville, Glen Carbon of debris in the air. So, we know that this line has produced a tornado and still could be in Sorrento East of Sorrento, Illinois. Now, coming into Montgomery County. This line has not produced a tornado but could and it's a similar situation to why we've been tracking this line all night. These line of storms can produce circulations that flare up into tornado es quickly. So, just because you see the red box doesn't guarantee that there is a tornado I. want to be totally transparent and honest with you. I will let you know when it's radar indicated. I will let you know when it's a weak signature but I will also let you know when it's a strong signature and either way, if you're in a tornado warning, you should play it safe rather than sorry and head to the basement. So, we have cluster of tornado warnings here to the north, the second one to the south, that's the one that has the more serious rotation. This one, I'm going to investigate as it comes into Franklin County to see if there's any areas of circulation that are significant You see me holding an iPad too. What I'm doing is looking at this that you're looking at, the normal radar but I have side by side this normal radar and the Doppler wins. And that just helps me pinpoint where there might be rotation. I do see an area that's worth keeping an eye on. Um the most likely spot for a tornado is here, if you're in Gerald, you're clear of it. If you're in union, you're not. This is the same area last time we were investigating this line to see if there was circulation. This is the same area and it's a low inflow notch right in here. And I'll explain what that means But what's happening is air is flowing in the radar just updated. Air is flowing in right here to this notch and airs flowing out right here. And that is just south of Highway fifty. and it's right pretty much on one eighty-five. And it's going to be moving kind of east a little bit northeast. Let's just go back in time. It looks like it's moving more east. So that would mean it probably would end up getting in between Union and Saint Clair. So, like Highway 47, let's get an idea of timing for you. Um this is a tornado warning but it's radar indicated. It's not a strong signature but it is the signature and along this entire line, this is the area that has at least right now, the biggest concern to either be producing a tornado If so, it's probably a weaker tornado or maybe strengthen and produce a tornado and that's something we've seen tonight where we've been monitoring things like this and then all of a sudden that tightens its circulation, flares up but bottom line is that would be around 47 especially if it stays on this easterly trajectory. I'll monitor that but in about 11 minutes in between Union and Saint Clair. If it goes a little far, I don't think it's going to go south. So, I think you're okay in Sinclair. Um if it goes a little further north, near you're getting a little closer to unions. So, we'll have to monitor that but that's one of those circulations that we're watching for. Steve, let's bounce back to that eastern self for just a moment. Do me a favor. Take a look and see if you can see kind of tornado debris signature just south of the Coffee area. Okay. That's the most significant Yup. Rotation signature and I I think I might be seeing signs here just in the last couple of frames that they're so. Yup. There you go. There you go, Matt. And there it goes again. So, we showed this to you and said, look, maybe there's a tornado was not producing any debris in the air and or maybe it produces tornado and debris shortly. That's debris. There's a tornado on the ground south of Coffeen. You saw it update too. I'm going to go back in time but this is cross 127 in Northern Bond and now it's up into Southeastern Montgomery County near Van Burensburg but probably just in between Coffee and Vans Brewerberg. If you live just south and southeast of Coffeen, that's exactly where this is and it's you should be in your tornado shelter anyway because you've been under a tornado warning but Highway 185, it's going to be crossing very shortly. Let me back this up. Okay, so no no debris signature there at nine oh four Um that's nine oh five and here we are at 907 So yeah. That right there, I'll highlight it for you too is the tornado Debris. Signature. What we mean by debris signature, Doppler radar can see what's in the air and it's noticing in this spot that there's odd-shaped debris. So, instead of raindrops and some hail that it knows what that looks like normally. The radar beam is bouncing off the stuff that's flat, that's thick, that's long, that's short, it's nails, it maybe parts of a roof, maybe shingles, maybe tree, tree li and so all that stuff in the air is creating this little signature, a tornado debris signature, especially when it's located in an area where you already have been tracking the threat for a tornado. So, that's it. That is in Southern Montgomery County. If you're in Bond County, it's really just cleared the county line. Again, Greenville, you're in the clear. As this moves to the northeast in the Fayette County, Vandalia, this probably stays to the north of you but I'm going to track it towards Ramsey and just get to some cities that are popping up. Man, I heard the alarm go off. You got some new information? Uh big, old, severe thunderstorm warning for that cell that's on the western side of our viewing area. That would be out in front of the tornado warning. So, I would revisit that once we're done tracking the cell here. Thank you, Matt. You're welcome. So, we're using debris tracker to pinpoint where there's debris in the air right here. It's moving across 185 just southeast of Coffee and Montgomery County. It's going to get to Fillmore and about four minutes. Ramsey in about 13 minutes. So, there's Fayette County and Ramsey eventually outside of our coverage area and there's the warnings. We're down to one warning and that is it, Matt out there to the east, off to the west. We have our second warning and that big, old, new severe thunderstorm warning box. Do you want to mention what the threats are and is there any tour possible in there? Sure, 60 mile per hour wind gust, certainly a possibility with this cell. Uh hail, not a major concern at this point but you have to remember that there has been a history of little notches on the leading edge of the cell indicating that there could be some rotation. Don't see any strong, strong signatures of that at the moment certainly not in the severe thunderstorm warning area but that's a fresh thunderstorm warning in effect until 9: forty-five PM. Primary winds here at this point would be 60 mile per hour wind gust, Steve. Great. Um Guys, we've covered up a lot of programming. If someone from the newsroom kind of confirmed to me, I thinks a lot of these programs you can see on CBS.com like the day after. You have to wait till the day after but if someone can help me out, I know there's some viewers that are either no longer affected or not affected and and maybe you don't care. We we we do care that we're interrupting programming. I do. I don't want to be doing this but I have two tornado warnings out here that I have to keep track of and help keep people safe. It's more important but I also that if we can tell people a way to get your shows, I want to do that for you. I just want you to know that. Um okay. So, this yellow box that I've highlighted is the brand-new severe thunderstorm warning. Within it is the tornado warning and I kind of highlighted very specifically coming into union, an area of circulation. I want to see what that's doing now. So, let's stop this loop and we'll just zoom in Again, you see this little, this is part of the severe thunderstorm warning but you see that little Bow, it bows out. That would be an area for some strong straight line winds. Uh that's coming into western southwestern Saint Charles County just north of Washington Um but I'm going to switch over to the Doppler winds and see if that little area of rotation. It's right here. And it's just southwest of Union. It's not a extremely strong signature. But what this should tell you is if if you've been in union and you've been kind of listening to me and you've heard me mention Union several times. And maybe you decide you know, I'm not going to go to the basement. I'm not going to wake up the kids and get everyone in the basement until I really see this things coming. I hope that's not the case. I always want people to play it safe rather than sorry but I just think that if there's anyone that's not playing it safe, now is the time to do it. That's not a extremely strong signature. It's radar indicated but I can tell you that anywhere along that line where there's a tornado warning, that's the spot that can produce one and that would be headed to union very shortly in a matter of minutes. Um again, not as strong as what we're seeing to the west. I'm going to switch over to the debris tracker. I guarantee there's not going to be anything on it but just to kind of give it a look. Nothing significant. You know what? This might be? right here is just kind of dirt getting kicked up by the strong winds from the storm. So, as the winds come in, they can pick up some dirt especially in fields that have been harvested already and you get a little dirt in the air. So, that might be what that is and there's just no obvious signature of actual debris in the air from a tornado but there's a circular just to the southwest of Union and it's about to come up on Highway 50 and I'll kind of give you an idea timing wise. let's see. I mean, unions a matter of minutes. I I you should be in your tornado shelter right now but I will track this at about 5-5 and we'll put it in union in about three minutes. Uh Villa Ridge, that would be about 9 minutes And the one thing we'll see is if the weather service wants to continue this tornado warning. Uh or let it go and just be a severe thunderstorm warning. Um another little area of circulation I was kind of watching too just to the north. It's not real strong but just southeast of Washington and just another spot to keep an eye on. Uh you know, it was over Washington where we're watching a little more significant rotation and then all of a sudden, that flared up and became what? what likely was a tornado in Saint Charles County. We've heard some reports of damage. Uh we just need to kind of tie the two together and get it confirmed. Um but as far as union goes, being your tornado shelter right now, headed your way and then, let's put a track on this off to the northeast and about fifty-five miles per hour. That gets you into Villa Ridge in 10 minutes, Gray Summit in 14 minutes Pacific, in 18 minutes. It'll be over by six flags in about 23 minutes and then Eureka in about 24 minutes Steve, I hate to continuously give everybody weather whip last year but you gotta you gotta bear in mind. We've got 15 counties in Missouri, 15 in Illinois, and the city of Saint Louis that we're dealing with. Back to that tornado warning that still exist on the northeastern corner of our viewing area. I would take a look at the debris tracker due east of Coffeen and or just south of Fillmore. I'm seeing a pretty strong signature there Yeah. And this is the one we're tracking across one eighty-five. It's now east of one eighty-five. I'll get you to that debris tracker in a second but it's right over Fillmore right here and then what Matt's saying is check the debris tracker. And indeed, in in fact, it's a little, a little stronger. Yup. Um. And you have to bear in mind too that the radar because the earth is curved and the radar beam not so much. Uh we're seeing debris actually lofted higher into the atmosphere in this particular scan than that some of the earlier storms as well. So, that is a tornado debris signature just east of Fillmores on the east side of town. If you're in Fillmore, you need to be in your safe shelter. If you're in coffee would be somewhere along here in 1 eighty-five. There's East Fork, South Fork. Coffee is right about here. This is one eighty-five. It's east of you. You're in the clear in Coffeen. Uh but I want to give you a heads up. Seven minutes in Ramsey. And it's not the amount of time to, you know, drive anywhere, don't go anywhere, but it's definitely the time now if you're in Ramsey and you waited. Hopefully, you didn't but if you did to head to the basement, to head to your tornado shelter, it's time to be there because that is a tornado that in seven minutes could be right over Ramsey. I say could be because we're in this situation where these things can cycle. They can flare up and create a tornado and then they flare down and they're rotating above the ground and not producing damage and then all of a sudden, they tighten up their circulation. They flare up again and here we are to move again just a little bit to the east. So, it's not seven minutes anymore. It's probably down to about five minutes as it heads into it is in Fayette County and into Ramsey. If you're in Fillmore, you're in the clear It's just east of you. If you're east side of town, I'd give it another minute or two. Matt, thank you for pointing that out and thanks for monitoring the National One Series Chat. Um basically, what I'm trying to do here, Steve, is whatever storm you're focused on, I'm focused on the other. So, the so that nothing slips through the cracks here. That's what we're trying to accomplish. Alright, big picture here is a loop the radar with all the warnings. I do want to point out that there's a severe thunderstorm warning just to the west of Reynolds County. We haven't mentioned yet. We will watch that. It's another one of those storms where we'll have to monitor for any circulations but Reynolds County, you'll probably end up with a severe thunderstorm warning crossing into your county eventually. Um then, we have this big severe thunderstorm warning and while it's severe thunderstorm, the threat for damaging winds is certainly there. There's also potential that circulations could create a tornado So, we have one point 5 million people in this severe thunderstorm warning because of this line of storms. That's into an area that's already been hit too. So, from Washington into Saint Charles County coming into Eastern Franklin County eventually, into Pacific, in Eureka, and then up into the rest of Saint Louis County. Here comes the threat for damaging winds and then specific areas we'll watch for circulations. That red box represents one of those circulations. So, that 1. 5 million people is in the severe thunderstorm warning but then specifically, there's a smaller area that we're monitoring for threat of a tornado and I'm going to investigate that a little bit here. This has either past union Yeah, it's past union and actually the circulation looks weaker. Um so, this was a little bit ago where the rotation was coming into Union and I'm going to highlight where it is now. And it looks weaker right here. It's east of Union. So, if you've been watching in Union and I told you, now is the time. You're in the clear. This thing has moved to the east of you and it's weaker. So, I wouldn't be surprised if the radar indicated tornado warning for what was a little stronger rotation, not strong but a little stronger, that has now weakened. I wouldn't be surprised if they don't extend it, they might. The atmosphere is conducive to producing quick spin up tornado es and while the storm is still strong, they may extend it. So far, I don't think it has been extended. No. So, we're talking about this area here and you see how the red box ends and what will monitor if they don't issue a new one. Is this line right here? All along this line for the threat of damaging winds. That's what the yellow box is for. Severe thunderstorm warning and then circulations that develop anywhere along or kind of on the back edge of where that heavy rain and that line is. That's the next round to hit. It's hitting in Western Saint Charles County now. If you're in Augusta, there might already be some damage, defiance, there might already be some damage. We've heard some reports. Uh I do not see rotation but I do see a threat for some pretty strong winds. So, if you have friends or family that maybe you've heard they have some damage and a harvester and defiance in Augusta, maybe around Weldon Spring and other parts of Saint Charles County, give em a call on the cellphone. They might not be watching us. They might be thinking we got hit, we're done, Give em a call. They've got Lightning which is a threat coming in if they're out and about trying to monitor or look at, observe any damage and they've got a threat for some strong wind is a severe thunderstorm warning coming their way. I don't see any circulation which is good news but that can change quickly and the weaker circulation is east of Union that has started to fall apart a little bit but you know, if there's anywhere out, anyone out there that's around their house or their property looking at some of the damage, checking out maybe some trees that have been falled filled. I think you you just don't want them to get hit by this line of thunderstorms that produces, let's say, 60 mile an hour winds. This line right here and get hurt and and especially mentioning Saint Charles County is because we have one of those bows. See that little bow right there? So, that's an indication a little stronger winds. What's happening is the strongest winds are pushing the raindrops a little further out. So, instead of a straight line, the stronger winds are going a little farther out and potential for probably some 50, 60 mile an hour winds there. If there's anyone outdoors, I don't want them caught off guard. Severe thunderstorm warning out of that. Not seeing any, we double check. Well, as I say that, I do see a little circulation just to the southwest of defiance. It's weak. I'll show you what I'm seeing as I stop the loop. Steve, while you're queuing that up, I want to share something with everybody. I I've been seeing numerous reports, some scanner traffic, some Twitter reports about the possibility of an incident in an Amazon warehouse on Gateway Commerce Drive in Edwardsville. This would have been that that salvit crossed over near West Alton, headed towards Pontoon Beach. Now, the inner the Illinois State Police is telling us at this point that there is a structure collapse and in their words, multiple subjects trapped at the Amazon warehouse on Gateway Commerce Drive in Edwardsville. Again, my source for that is the Illinois State Police via our live weather chat with the local National Weather Service Office. So, that was a cell that we watched closely. There was a debris signature associated with it for a time. So, obviously, strong, strong indications that a tornado was on the ground with that cell for some time. Uh so again, Illinois State Police structure collapse with multiple subjects trapped at the Amazon Warehouse on Gateway Commerce Drive. Thank you to Matt for that. Um again, I just want to reiterate what Matt said and and he's right to do it. We're attributing that Um you know, getting that from the National Weather Service Chat. We don't have our crews on the ground confirming that and my hope our newsroom, if they do get some confirmation, let's get a news anchor out here to kind of give us some context of this and any fill us in with any more information We do. Do we have her live right now? We have okay. We have someone live at the Amazon Warehouse. Is it confirmed then from our reporter? Is she seeing it too? Well, we'll get to her when we can. Point is, thank you, Tanya. Um but the point is is that we want to get confirmation from our people on the ground. Let's see what they have to say. Jenna Ray, there you are. Hi. Hey, Steve. We are out here. Again, like you said, at that Amazon warehouse, you can see I'm going to step out so you guys can see what's happening. There are dozens of ambulances, dozens of fire trucks, dozens of police, and other law enforcement agency cars here. Again, we're at the Amazon warehouse. You can see, it's going to be tough to see because it's dark out but we're going to try and zoom in. It looks like about a third of the warehouse is collapsed. There is sufficient damage. Again, we're not if there was a confirmed tornado this, could have been done by straight line winds or a tornado You. can see dozens more law enforcement agencies, fire trucks, ambulances down there. This is as far as media is allowed to go. Right now, I have talked with several people who do have family members inside that building. One family member I talked to said that her family member is okay. Others that I talked to say, they still believe that there are several people inside. There are workers inside. There were workers inside. When this all happened, we have no reports of injuries yet. We are still trying to learn more from law enforcement officials who are on the scene. There are again, several different agencies out here and we're going to try and get some more information for you guys. For now, we can see that damage, Steve that you were mentioning about a third of the Amazon warehouse collapsed. Lots of debris. Firefighters on scene working to individuals out. We'll bring you guys more as soon as we have more information. I appreciate that. That's that's significant and I know we just kind of threw Jenna up on the air. Jenna Ray from News four out there on the ground with confirmation. Really appreciate that. I know she's going to do some more work to fill in some more details. Okay, we've got more work to do because we still have two tornado warnings. Okay, one is off to the north and northeast. This is in northern Fayette County. That's going to slide out of our area pretty quickly. We've heavily warned people on that one. I'll get back to it in a second. Before I get to the other one, I want to point out. Uh this is Edwardsville, the tornado that likely did some of that damage that Jenna was just talking about is around 255 and 270 kind of just west southwest of Edwardsville downtown Edwardsville and then here's another tornado warning that this storm has really started to exit that warning and they haven't issued another one. That's good news but I'm starting to notice some small areas of circulation within that big yellow box. The big yellow box represents a severe thunderstorm warning that within it, we could see this line produce circulations that could turn into a tornado I'm. going to get rid of the box because our focus is on the line. Our focus is right here and then along that line, I've been looking for a little areas of circulation. I haven't seen anything really all that strong but near defiance as I zoom in a little bit. It's actually just to the east of Defiance now. Um there was this little, I've gone back in time to see it. Across 94. So this is back in time a few minutes ago and that's where it is now that helped me pinpoint it. right there and it's just southwest, wouldn't you know? Of Weldon Spring and our National Weather Service office. Uh our friends at the National Weather Service and colleagues and I say friends because we really are friends. We we meet up regularly with them and we care about them. They've been taking shelter from a tornado earlier and the Kansas City office handled the warnings for a few minutes. They're back. There's no tornado warning out of this. So, they're probably still operating but keeping close eye on it but that is the radar in Weldon Spring and where the weather service is located and this is where there's a little bit of a circulation that just needs monitoring. I'm not seeing anything significant here. There's no debris out of this. There's no tornado warning. Just heads up. Southern part of Saint Charles County coming back into western Saint Louis County. This would be towards the Chesterfield Valley in Chesterfield. Little circulation that I'll keep an eye on. Matt, if the alarms go off too, of course. Now, we'll check that and just got it. But again, I don't see it being real significant at this point. Um in fact, especially as I switch over to the Doppler winds, I'm also keeping an eye on the BJC Skycam Network. Uh I've got Missouri Baptist Medical Center there at 270 and Interstate 64 in input one, yes. Yes. Yeah. Still has a ways to go before. Oh, no. Hold on. That looks like Washington. Hold on a second. It does. Yeah. No problem. Give me one second. Should be flipping over right now. Uh still it has a ways to go before it hits that part of West County but you can see on the western horizon, the sky really lighting up there. Absolutely and what he's giving you a view of is a camera that's right here and here's the circulation. So, it's exactly why Matt rightfully was showing us kind of what it looks like as this kind of marches towards that area. Um as we zoom in a little bit more, and take a closer look, it's it's hard to see because you're getting this cone of silence from the radar. I'll explain what that means in a second but there's a little bit of a claw right here and if there's a circulation, it's not all that strong but that would be where it's at kind of just south of Weldon Spring, east of Defiance, East of Hamburg Um this cone of silence is because the radar shoots a beam of energy out which bounces off the raindrops and gives us the pretty radar view. It also shows us the direction and speed that the raindrops are moving. That's what we call the Doppler wind so we can pinpoint rotation. The beam goes out. It doesn't go up. So, you have this little cone of silence right around the actual radar but that's a live scan from our radar and that's a little claw or a little hook where there's a circulation. It's not a tornado right now. There's no warning on this but I'm simply pointing out where my eyes are fixed as it comes in towards. There's Chesterfield. This will be the Chesterfield Valley spirit of Saint Louis is probably right about there but as that little circulation comes in especially if you're heavily populated area, that's what we're watching for in this big severe thunderstorm warning, the big yellow box that represents the warning here. What we're really just trying to do is look at this line of storms and say, where do we see circulations that can like we've seen happen already tonight, turn into a tornado and that would be one of that I think we need to keep an eye on and I know Matt's keeping it. Wherever I'm looking, Matt's looking somewhere else. We got you covered. One of those storms that Matt and I were tracking went through Edwardsville, Glen Carbon area and there's been some damage around the Amazon warehouse out there. News four's Jenna Ray has more information for us. She is live on the scene. What's new, Jenna? Hey, Steve. Okay. So, we are here with Aisha White right now. Aisha, she is a family member inside this Amazon warehouse. Tell me how you found out about what was going on. He was on the phone with me while it was happening. Um the tornado was hitting the back of the building. The trucks were coming in. I told him to jump out the truck and duck. Um we watched the building go up. Stuff hitting the cars. Um I told him I was on my way just to, you know, stay under. I came in. No, we can't find them. So. But you have been in community with him. Is that correct? Yes. What has he told you about the climate inside the warehouse right now? Are people panicking? I know that you had mentioned that you think people are still trapped. Uh no, they were actually calm. Um they were just trying to figure out how to get out. So, they were still not worried or anything like they was doing protocol but I was just trying to see if I can find them now so. Okay and what kind of contact are you having? You're texting, calling? Texting, calling. Okay and he's okay. No injuries, any reports of other injuries that he has told you with other employees that were inside at the time? No. Um we have seen the vehicles a back, in the back of the building is gone. So, okay. So, right now, we can only see the front. Yeah. Um of the building. So, you're telling me there's more extensive damage behind that we can't see right now. Yes. Okay. What's what's your message to people who who are stuck in there right now and to all these emergency crews who are working to get them out? Um stay patient. It's going to happen. So, you know, just stay patient. Follow directions. Don't panic. Um and just try your best to stay safe. Alright. Well, thank you Aisha. I appreciate it. I'm glad your family number is okay. We are again checking on those other people who are stuck inside the warehouse. We'll have another update for you guys soon. Jenna, I appreciate your work and by the way, you're in a safe spot. Nothing new coming in right now. There's a line of storms to the west. We will monitor for you. Make sure you stay safe. This is a look at the debris tracker and it's a big view but I can see it. Uh this little dot right here is debris. That's a tornado debris signature. It's the one that we're tracking in Northern Fayette County actually out of Northern Bond, Montgomery, Northern Fayette. It's now out of our coverage area. I'm going to zoom in on it but I want you to know that it's out of our coverage area and it's still producing debris being flown up into the air, thrown up into the air and it's now out of Fayette County. If you're in Ramsey, this pretty much went right over you. So, we told you a while ago, giving you heavy heads up on this that Ramsey need to be in your tornado shelter. You're in the clear now. That tornado and there it is is headed towards Shelbyville outside of our coverage area. So, again, Ramsey, Northern Fayette County, in the clear, and as we told you earlier, there's been Da it would stay north of you and indeed it did. Okay. So, Ramsey's in the clear. That storm is going to go away. That tornado warning. Actually, it already has and the other tornado warning that was near Union, that's gone. We now have no tornado warnings in our coverage area. Now, that said, we have a huge severe thunderstorm warning for a line of storms that I'm still monitoring for circulation could develop a brief isolated tornado and then Reynolds County. might end up with a severe thunderstorm warning get extended into your area but right now, I think as far as the threat for any circulations, what I've noticed out of this line coming through Saint Louis is at around Chesterfield. I'm going to zoom in and show you. Uh there's a little area of concern to kind of keep an eye on. It's the one that it came just south and southeast of Weldon Spring which is where that radar is. Imma switch over to the Doppler winds although I can see it pretty easily with this radar and I'll show you exactly I'm looking at. I'm just telling you what I'm looking. I mean, I'm analyzing this with you but this is an inflow notch. So, that's air that flows in and then, this would be air that flows out and so, if a tornado were to develop, it would be now be north of Chesterfield. Matt, weren't we talking about this exact area just about? Yeah. Um so, here we are again. Talking about a similar area coming into Northwestern, Saint Louis County near Maryland Heights. I think the other one was a little farther north and went this direction. This is not a tornado though have to emphasize that but it's an area of circulation that could turn into one and something I want to watch closely because anywhere along that line, that's why I have this iPad in my hand. I'm watching this radar that you normally see and then the Doppler wins. So, I can pinpoint these and it helped me pinpoint this circulation. So, anywhere along this line, we gotta watch for this. There's one. That would be coming. Imma get the trajectory in a second but that will be coming probably towards Maryland Heights in 270, but what's happening here is as air comes out, it encounters this inflow and it to rotate and so you end up with rotation. That's why we call it a circulation. It's circulating. It's rotating. Air rotates all the time above us. Even in storms. That doesn't mean it's producing a tornado. This. has to tighten up, produce that signature in the Doppler winds that helps give some credibility to the fact that maybe this is indeed producing a tornado And. the reason that you want to see that on the Doppler Winds is because the Doppler win shows us the direction and speed of the raindrops. If you see raindrops going way and just right next door, raindrops going this way and they're really fast. They're not going by each other like on a a two-lane highway. That just doesn't happen in the atmosphere. What would be happening is raindrops will be circulating and rotating in that area. So, we don't see that signature right now in Doppler winds but it's an area to kind of keep an eye on out there and now, northeast of Chesterfield in the Maryland Heights, Planet Hollywood Casino type area, Creve Core Lake, maybe just north of Crevecore Lake it's going to be in about couple minutes. Um you can't see it as well there. As you can hear. Our partners at the weather service here, Steve, confirming that they are sticking with a severe thunderstorm warning on that line. Right now, not a tornado warning, a severe thunderstorm warning but the possibility of some rotation is still there. They're monitoring that same area that you and I are on top of right now as well. Okay. And and up and down that line, I'm looking and I Just don't see anything else with any kind of significant rotation. I think it's important to note even if there's not rotation there, there could be some straight line winds in excess of 60, 65, maybe even upwards of 70 miles per hour. It's a great point. Um so, you know, that's and you, I believe it was you. Uh not me but you that spotted on our debris tracker, the possibility of maybe some light debris just being picked up by those straight line winds and kind of a squall line shape almost. Yeah and that that was when this thing was out near Union. Maybe pick up some dirt out of some harvested fields type of thing. It certainly wasn't significant rotation. Here's a new, let me stop this as we get from a new data scan. Switch over to the Doppler Winds. It's definitely getting a little more interesting right there. Just west of 270 right around Page Avenue and Page Extension. Uh just west of 270 and probably now just east of 141. Yup. Just east of one forty-one. So, this is the area that I'm monitoring. Um little circulation, little more significant. So, what Matt was saying too is you might get some straight line strong winds that would be out of this segment of the storm right here as that moves in the Maryland Heights potential for some wind damage but then in the northern flank is where you'd notice some rotation and maybe a tornado and likely, a tornado has done the damage that you're seeing on your screen right now. That's out in Edwardsville That's that Amazon warehouse and and I think what we're looking at is I I'm looking at this with you by the way. I think what we're looking at is collapsed roof and there's a ladder from a fire truck that goes up. Maybe they're using that to kind of look to make sure everybody's safe or everybody's out in case there is anybody in there but what I'm noticing is at the top, that roof is heavily, heavily damaged and I have to tell you, large span roofs are not good for tornado es. They get peeled away very easily. It's why being in a big box store, a big warehouse like this, or even a gymnasium, you know, school gymnasium, those big, large span roofs are easily peeled away or even sometimes collapsed by tornado es. You want to be in small rooms. If you were in a box store, you'd want to go to like the bathroom or the you know, the back and the manager's office in a area where you have multiple walls between you and the outside. It's a smaller area. Uh it tends to have more structural stability but those large span roofs, they tend to get peeled away. That's a live view. News four's Jenna Ray's on the scene out near Edwardsville with an Amazon warehouse collapse. Matt, you got new information? Yes, Steve. Well, something that's just crossed my mind here. I'm going to call an audible and I think you'd agree. I I think it's important at this point for us to start tracking the arrival time of this line of severe thunderstorms on the west side of the metro because there's such a large first responder presence here and obviously the work underway. We need to alert those folks to win this next potential line of strong thunderstorms is rolling in because at this point, all indications are it will hold together long enough to impact Edwardsville. It's a good point. Okay. Um so, what you're seeing in the left hand side of the screen is radar which I'll do some tracking in a second right hand side is live view out in Edwardsville of the Amazon warehouse collapse. I'm going to highlight with the circle where that is. It's right around 255 and 270 So on my map here, you can see it and then what we'll do is put a storm track. Do you know what the speed is on that particular line? Are we sticking fifty-five. We are let's see. Gosh, northeast at seventy-5 is the latest from the weather service. That feels a little bit fast but. Yeah. Um I'll go sixty sixty5 on that. Yeah. Um it feels a little faster, right? But still, I mean, check that out. This is a great point from meteorologist Matt Chambers. You know, this is where first responders are right now. You've got firetrucks with ladders up and there's a potential for some strong winds that could come through in 19 minutes. Not only that, but you'll Notice where I drew the arrow from. That's actually the circulation I've been monitoring. Mm hmm. So, what we really want to be careful with is that circulation. So, this whole line can produce some strong winds but there's a little circulation that if that flares up as it's approaching our first responders, that could be trouble. So, if there's emergency managers in the Glencarbon, Edwardsville, Madison County area, I hope you're seeing this and relaying that message but I think that's important that they've got about 20 minutes which may not be a lot of time when you got a big ladder and a big truck up in the air. It may take more time for them to kind of pull that all back. Um. And this is what I this is what you and I were both concerned about, Steve. They just issued a tornado warning for that little part of the storm that's got a notch on it there. So, again. Okay. This is tracking in the direction of that massive first responder response there in Edwardsville. with the Generee on the scene of what apparently is some significant structural damage at least to the roof of an Amazon warehouse there. Very close to 255 and 270 in Southwestern Madison County. Um after I talk about this new tornado warning, we'll get back to Jenna but let's start with this new tornado warning first and let me say that this Amazon warehouse where there's a lot of first responders are right here with that circle. Mm hmm. And the area with the circulation and new tornado warnings right about here. And so let's hope that the circulation passes to the north. Again, we put it about 20 minutes. It's going to happen quick. These storms are moving fast. But on the northern the southern flank right here. Those are still some pretty strong winds and some heavy rain and some lightning. So, even if the circulation misses that area where those first responders are right now to what earlier was a tornado and tornado damage. They're still going to get hit by a storm and potentially a severe storm and one that has circulation very nearby. Um so, just kind of impressing upon anyone who's an emergency manager who works with some of those first responders in Madison County, Edwardsville, Glen Carbon. Uh please pass on the notice. We want to make sure that they stay safe. I would encourage our crew there as well. Jenna included her a photographer on site to to start spreading the word that boy, within the next 10 to 15 minutes, things are going to get very active coming in from the west. And so, if anyone's listening that can kind of relay this message to Jenna before I do that, just kind of saw the circulation flare up right there. Uh, great, Jenna is listening. So, Jenna, the first thing you're going to want to do is you've got 20 minutes. It's not immediate on you, but it's going to come up quickly. Um, my hope is that passes you to the north but it's going to be really close. The first thing you want to do is notice if there's anywhere that's really safe nearby that you can get into. Not one of those large span roofs but a safe shelter preferably one with the basement. If not, what I would have you do is actually drive south on any road but 255 Just a little bit south of 270 and you'll be in a good spot. I think if you go just a little bit south, you'll be in a spot where you may get buffeted by some strong winds but any rotation would miss you the north. We'll keep an eye on this for you, Jen and anyone that's out there. Jenna, I know you've been listening to me and we have your safety and our concern but thank you for being out there and bring us the ground truth and what's happened. What's the latest? Steve, thank you. I just want to let you guys in the studio know we are tracking that storm again. We can hear you in our ears. We're also keeping track on the KMOV News weather app as well. Watching that streamline. Again, for those of you just joining us, I am outside the Amazon Warehouse here in Edwardsville just off of 255. I'm going to step out so you can kind of see what's going on. We do have confirmed reports of significant damage here at the Amazon warehouse. I want to give you a quick update from the last time I talked with you. I have gotten confirmation from sources across the entire Metro East. There are several different emergency services here from Saint Clair County, Madison County, and beyond. I do know that the Saint Clair special emergency services team is here. That's a special designated rescue team that goes in to circumstances like this. They are trained for this. I'm told that there are dozens of them here on scene. I've also been told that there could be up to or more than one hundred people trapped inside this building that you are seeing right now. Law enforcement officials also are telling me this is now being considered a mass casualty event. I do want to clarify the meaning of that though. That does not mean that multiple people are deceased. Right now, we have no confirmation of injuries or death but they do consider something like this with a major collapse and people trapped inside a mass casualty event. Again, Steve and Matt, we are just trying to learn more information about what is going on inside here. We are going to move out for a moment to get to a safe space with this weather coming in and we'll give you guys, of course, more updates I'm. also doing some live tweeting from my Twitter at Journalism Jenna. If people want to follow along. Thanks, guys. Thank you, Jenna and thanks for wrapping up and getting to a safe spot. I appreciate you letting us know who you're hearing that from and the explanation. Uh great context of of what that is. Uh a lot is going to be changing and here in the next hour in that spot. In the meantime, what's happening with where the threat is right now? I've highlighted it. That's the circulation that has prompted a brand-new tornado warning. We were tracking it before the warning was issued and now, it's up in North Saint Louis County. Very near the airport and here we go again. We're mentioning this is the same areas that were hit by rotation earlier and maybe just a little farther south of the earlier rotation but this is going to be right around Lambert. I'm going to switch over. Do you mind popping up input four and I'll switch it from that west cam to the airport? Sure to. Just get a look. We did this last time in the airport cam kind of conked on on us. I think it's because of the winds that buffeted it. Uh again, it's dark but we choose these cameras just because sometimes you'll get lightning that lights things up and gives us a look inside the storm. Uh we're not seeing that right now. Nope, nothing there. But sometimes, it's always good to take a look and see if you can get visual confirmation because right now, this is a doppler indicated tornado warning. We, for a brief moment, did not have a tornado warning. We've been on the air for a long time because we've had, at times, over a million people impacted by tornado warnings. Right now, it's over half a million, five hundred and 000 affected by this tornado warning. Sirens going off and get this for the second time. So, they're probably wondering what's going on. We're here for you, okay? So, we have this rotation right here around Lambert. That's going to move through a north 270. In fact, I think it just did in the latest radar update. Um I'm going to zoom in and turn off that radar that warning and that is going a little northeast. I do think that circulation is going to miss that area where Jenna is at and the Amazon Warehouse but it is hitting fluorescent right now and it's about to cross 367. Do you mind popping the North County Christian Hospital Cameron? I it should be facing west in input one and put one. Yeah, give me one sec. Matt's doing is popping in a camera that's right here and then, I'm going to highlight with the yellow. Right here would be the rotation. So, I mean, it's really close. Again, it's going to be dark. We're going to need to see, you know, lightning to light it up and I'll linger here for a second as we look off to the west from Christian Hospital and the BJC Skycam Network. The reason the Skycams are important is because when you have a radar indicated tornado warning, sometimes people don't take it seriously. Hopefully, everyone's taking this seriously at night. You're just not going to be able to see much on your own and we don't want you putting yourself outdoors especially out driving. Some people do that. Try to go find it, look at it, don't do that. We'll try to spot it but if we can spot actual rotation of funnel cloud or even wall cloud, it just gives more credibility to that radar indicated tornado warning and hopefully gets people who aren't taking it serious, taking it a little more serious. Uh as far as the signature rotation goes, it's strong but not not immensely strong. It's definitely something that you need to be indoors away from windows and down the basement in fluorescent as this moves through. We'll track it's a little easier to track from this radar and I'm going to push it northeast is it fifty-five? Is that what we're doing here? Blackjack in a minute. Yup. Wood River in about 12 minutes. Edwardsville in about 19 minutes. Now, let me draw a line in the middle, okay? And if trajectory is more like this than that Amazon warehouse is down here two fifty-five two 70. So, I really think this is going to miss that area. That said, this southern flank of that line is going to hit that area where you have the first responders but the circulation that we just pinpointed at around Flororset. This is 270s north of 270 headed towards Spanish Lake area, North County. Um that's, in fact, Spanish Lake right there in four minutes. That's going to head over towards near and south of Wood River. And then of Edwardsville, Hamill in about 26 minutes. Hamilton area that had a tornado warning and it looked like it rotated kind of right over it. They haven't heard any damage from that area but looks like it rotated right over it. So, line of storms but that's the circulation to be concerned with and that's the timing as it is in North County and eventually goes back into Madison County for a second round of a circulation of potential tornado. Um the data on the radar that shows circulation is not especially strong. This is great news. It'll be right about here Um so, there's definitely still a threat. You want to be in Spanish Lake especially as it crosses 367 north of of 270. That's pretty much right on Christian Hospital. Um keep up in input one for me while I'm here because I mean, our our camera's like, you know, right there. North County? Yeah, just input one. I think it's North County is an input one. Oh, gotcha. Just pull input one. You got it. Yeah. Give me one sec. I appreciate that. There you go. Sorry, Matt's juggling a lot. We're all juggling a lot but that's Christian Hospital, North County. Looking off to the west. Things getting pummeled by heavy rain for sure and I'm just not seeing it. What I'm looking for is a lightning to light things up and a little lowering but now, I'm not even seeing definition in the clouds. Uh So, the good news is, as I track this newest tornado warning, it's not an especially strong signature but it's definitely circulation and warranted the radar indicated tornado warning but on this trajectory, it will pass north of where that 255, two70, and then Amazon would look like the roof has been kind of ripped off. In fact, we've got some more information coming up from that area. Do we have Jenna? Is it just pictures that you have for me, Tanya? Live picture because Jenna I think is moving to a safe spot. So, that's great. Thank you, Tanya. That's my producer, Tanya And that tornado warning, that red box extends all the way up into McCoupin County includes Edwardsville. Again, the box you'll see the crews out there still tending to the damage at that Amazon warehouse and keep in mind, even though I'm pinpointing the circulation, you can see that there's a little bow, this little section right here, that's going to come precariously close to that spot where the warehouse is. So, let me time this out in for folks who are not necessarily in the circulation and not even just that Amazon warehouse but just anywhere in that that little surge of strong winds, right? In here and I'll push that off to the northeast in about 60. I know it's moving pretty quickly. So, potential for some strong winds that circulation again on kind of the northern flank of this. Um Rocks, South Roxanna in about seven minutes, Riverview. So, it's in North City. Pretty much now. Uh Edwardsville in about 14 minutes Hamel 19 and 25 minutes to Alhambra. Some cities that we've already mentioned. By the way, if we're not mentioning your city and you're getting rain, you're getting thunder, it's a good thing. We have meteorologist Matt Chambers in the Storm Center. He's watching storms that I'm not watching to let us know if anything kind of flares up and intensifies but until then, if we're not mentioning your city, that's a really good thing. It means you're getting hit by a storm but not one that's producing a threat for a tornado. The only threat for a tornado is on the northern flank of this area. I've just drawn and then maybe some strong straight line winds in the track that you right here. Get some new information coming in, Matt. Sorry. Uh you know, just actually a friend of mine, believe it or not, is texting me with some additional details on this Amazon location. Some indication that it may, you know, we're using the term very generically, Amazon Warehouse. That may not strictly speaking be accurate. Um it may be near some other Amazon structures and also reports that folks that are in some of those other buildings are being told to shelter in place as of now. Which would make sense with this pending tornado warned thunderstorm moving in from the west southwest. Absolutely. And even if this doesn't produce a tornado there's, a pretty good bet there's some really strong winds with it. Um that are going to come through that that area. I've zoomed out in the big picture here. You're watching live storm mode coverage. I'm chief meteorologist Steve Templeton. We have meteorologist Matt Chambers in the Storm Center. We're down to just one tornado warning and no severe thunderstorm warnings otherwise and that's good news too Because this line of storms flaring up to the south while strong and I think still needs to be monitored is not producing any severe thunderstorm warnings or tornado warnings. So, that's good news. We will monitor it. It's one of the reasons why we have this team coverage because Matt can let me know if anything kind of flares up on that line. Right now, though, it's coming through Saint Louis, a threat for some damaging straight line winds and the threat for a tornado. You'll notice a red box off to the northeast. That's in Effingham on the outside of our coverage area. We've had several likely tornado es. They say likely because they really were confirmed by radar that was producing debris in the air and this debris tracker you see right here. Let's see if I see anything significant. Nothing significant on the circulation in Saint Louis. That's good news. Um but that doesn't mean there isn't a tornado Uh. but the debris tracker did kind of give us an idea that there was at least a couple tornado es and just kind of off the top of my head here. Uh one was in Saint Charles County. and one was near Edwardsville, Glen Carbon right about here. I think the other one was kind of Northern Madison. Maybe it went up to McCoopin County but we had several spots and now we have another line of storms that's producing that threat for damage and a tornado and the threat for some damaging winds out of this as well. Uh it's nine fifty-four Uh we're coming up on News four at ten. And we will continue with our live storm mode coverage. Is this warning continues. I can see Corey Stark too is gathering information. I just want to say I appreciate the folks in the newsroom, Jenna Ray. I know you guys are trying to gather the news information and confirm it. That's the other thing is we don't want to just send out reports of what may have happened. We want to kind of explain what is happening. Alright, looking at this circulation now, it's looking a little more like real strong straight line winds and a little less. Um of a tight circulation and that would be if there is a tornado coming, it's right here. It's south of Alton. Alton, you're not clear from the storm hitting you but as far as the rotation, that's south of you. It's going to miss. This is going to come through Spanish Lake as we said right now. That was where our Christian hospital camera on the BJC Skycam Network is located. and it'll move in the Madison County, South Roxanna but again, I'm not not seeing as strong of a signature. Let me switch back to the typical radar here. There's just a couple areas to kind of keep an eye on. They're just not as well defined. There's a little inflow notch there. There's a little inflow notch there and then, there's some strong winds coming out of the storm right here. So, the northern flank will probably be a little more likely if there's rotation there. Um and then, on the southern side, there's a little rotation right here coming out of Spanish Lake. If you can tell, I'm trying to analyze this in detail but it's not a real obvious rotation signature which is good news but there's still some rotation right there and thus, the tornado warning continues. Yeah Um killed my mic there for a sec, Steve because I was talking to one of our newsroom managers. There's a Fast and Furious flow of information right now. Uh we're going to sort of reset the table right at the start of 10 AM here. Kinda get into a P My gosh, it sure has. Ten PM. My friends, 10 PM. Uh our anchor Cory Stark is standing by. We'll get back to some live pictures from Jenna Ray in just a moment but yes, as of now, one singular warning in the viewing area but it's got our undivided attention this morning. This evening, my goodness. This evening, that tornado warning continues until 10: 30 PM and we are on the cusp of seeing the more dangerous part of this thunderstorm move into that area where we have confirmed reports of damage with Genera Ray News four reporter on the scene here, Steve. So, it's about to be a very dangerous situation for those first responders out there. Indeed and you were the first one to point that out to me. I'm glad you drew our attention to that. What I want to do is track the leading edge of this entire storm that's in the tornado warning and so I've detailed where those small circulations are. Kinda see two em but they're just to the west of Edwardsville now but I just want to give some folks a heads up a little longer term in time when this storm in general will hit and then we'll continue to watch for circulations along it but that means Wood River now, Meadowbrook, that's in Northern Madison County in about four minutes. Edwardsville, about 10 minutes Uh Alhambron about 21 minutes. Sorrento's a town that was under a tornado warning earlier and we'll have to watch this line as it moves your way as well. Uh see if it continues to produce the circulations which again, looking a little weaker which is good news but still threat for some some strong straight line winds at the very least and yeah just not seeing anything that really flares up as far as rotation other than seeing the little bow that we have right here that would indicate to me some strong straight line winds coming this direction and Steve while you've been focusing on that throughout really the life cycle of this particular storm because we've had a history of storms tonight that have hurled debris into the sky and we've been able to detect some of that on SkyTracker Doppler radar. I've been watching for any signs of that in the most danger parts of this cell and thankfully, no debris signatures whatsoever at this point as the storm rolls through. Okay. Um thank you, Matt. Appreciate that. Uh I've kind of highlighted the area that I think is the biggest concern and against headed towards Edwardsville, the tornado likely tornado was down a little farther south. So, they're just getting clipped by some of those strongest winds but still coming in and I just want to show you kind of down to the south. This curls back, that's not a tornado though. There's still a little curl in that. It would actually, you want to curl the other way for tornadoes. So, after you're getting hit with heavy rain. Again, some of these towns that we haven't mentioned you. If we're not mentioning your town, it's a good thing. It means you're not under the gun for the biggest threats for severe weather and Afton you're not. Downtown Saint Louis is not but there is a line of storms that's coming right into downtown And we're going to continue to track that as it moves off to the east into the metro east because while the severe thunderstorm warning is gone from that the tornado warning continues. And as I look at that tornado warning, I do see a little bit of a stronger signature. On the northern flank here and I'll show you what I'm seeing Right here, a stronger inflow notch just south of Bethalto and that's what we kind of look for in this line of thunderstorms. All night, it's been this situation. Line of thunderstorms, watch for a little inflow and circulations that can produce a tornado We've. already had some already. It's been a long night but we're going to continue and News four at ten is in storm mode starting right now. My from the KMOV broadcast center in downtown Saint Louis. News four is in storm mode. You were watching News four at ten. We continue to follow that breaking news out of Edwardsville. A live look right now at the Amazon Fulfillment Center off of 2 fifty-five just north of 270 in Edwardsville and if you take a look at your screen as our crew is working to get in a safe spot because we know that Steve Templeton's talking about even more storms moving this direction but if you take a look, you can see that there is damage to that. We are going to get right over to Steve Templeton to talk more about those storms that are headed right to Edwardsville, Steve. Let's get that crew in the truck. Um I don't see any circulation coming at em but you can actually hear it. Uh strong winds buffeting and let's get them in the truck. They'll be safe in that spot right there. There is a thank you. Tanya, my producers telling me they're heading for safety. So, they're going to be okay. Strong winds coming in but there's a little rotation farther north of them. That's what this, the tornado warning is. We just got a brand-new severe thunderstorm warning in Reynolds and Iron Counties. Again, line of storms. We'll watch for little areas of circulation. No tornado warning on that right now. These yellow and red boxes are out of our coverage area but likely, we've had a couple tornadoes that have hit in this area as we've seen from our debris tracker on radar that actually sees debris in the air. Several spots that have had debris and likely a tornado One. of those was near Edwardsville and where that Amazon warehouse or at least a warehouse has been damaged and we have news crews on the ground. That spot where you just saw our news crew was right about here around 270 and sorry, right about here, two and 255. Let me redraw that. Uh right about here, just southeast of Edwardsville and you can see they're getting hammered by the strong winds but as far as rotation goes and I'm going to double check, let me peek it. Nope, it's just strong winds coming in. So, we're just protecting them from some strong straight line winds. As far as rotation goes, it's a little farther north around Meadowbrook and even that is in a extremely strong signature but there's this little inflow right here. So, that's air flowing up into this part of the storm and then what's happening is air is coming out this way and that's how you end up getting a little rotation. If it develops, it would be north near and north of guard on Highway 159. This is east of Bethalto and then this would be moving to the northeast near and probably north of Hamill. That's a town that had tornado warning earlier. I realized there's some towns that you're getting named again and that maybe you have to wake up the kids again, play it safe rather than sorry, just in case to be heading to your tornado shelter, there's just one torna warning and it's this circulation that we're monitoring. It's not the strongest signature. I'm always going to be honest and transparent with you. It's radar indicated. It's not especially strong but I've said those words tonight before and then all of a sudden, the next radar scan, it intensifies and the next radar scan, it intensifies and then, we notice debris on our debris tracker which is Doppler Radar noticing debris in the air which confirms the tornado That's. not the case here but I'm just telling you, play it safe rather than sorry. It's not the strongest signature but it's certainly circulation of monitors to the northeast. Alhambra, this probably is going to miss you to the north. So, what I'm going to do is zoom out. This is actually for my benefit and your benefit. I'm going to highlight where that circulation is and then I'm going to backtrack. And then I'm going to go forward, backtrack, forward, northeast. Yup. Just making sure that I have the right trajectory there and put a track on it off to the northeast at about 55 miles per hour. there's some of the towns in the path. We mentioned the Hamel. That's about four minutes. Pretty much in the Carpenter now, Livingston, another town that had tornado warning circulation right over you, very near you. 10 minutes Uh New Douglas in 15 minutes. Sorento, another town that's had rotation pretty much right on top of you. Um that's going to be in Sorrento in about 21 minutes. By the way, that would be getting into, this is Bond County and Montgomery County and let me double check to see if the warning don't think it is yet. No, it's not. So, what we need to see is and I said, it's not the strongest signature but if this strengthens, the weather service may extend this tornado warning into that Southern Montgomery and into Bond County. Again, it would be that northern northwestern part of Bond and southern part of Montgomery, south of Litchfield by the way. Um as far as Edwardsville now, getting hit with some of the strong winds. Do you mind popping the BJC Skycam from SIUE in input one for me. That's meteorologist Matt Chambers working in the Storm Center. It takes a team when I'm focus on, you know, one storm. He's monitoring our instant message chat with the weather service and monitoring the other storms in case we get some new warnings. Steve, this this could be storm related but that camera is actually offline at the moment. It's the only camera on the BJC Skycam Network that is offline right now. Okay. Uh that's a possibility. Yeah. It might be, it might be. We don't know but it might be an indication of how strong the winds are as far as circulation goes. That's up here to the north, not down here in Edwardsville. So, it's not like it got hit by a tornado and is out. Um all if if we haven't checked earlier, there was a tornado that came right over it earlier and that could've knocked it out. Maybe we just haven't seen it since but the circulation right now is north of it and this is some strong winds moving through Edwardsville. Also, Staunton going to get hit with some of those strong winds in the northern end. There's a new severe thunderstorm warning. Matt, you want to help us out with what's new on this? Brand new, Steve. Hot off the press is here. Severe thunderstorm warning for Southeastern Iron and East Central Reynolds Counties in Southeastern Missouri until ten forty-five. We also have back in the metro area, a severe thunderstorm warning for Southern Madison, Northern Saint Clair counties on the Illinois side and then the southeastern corner of Saint Louis City. Is that? Is that a tour possible too? That is a tornado possible. Okay. I'll I'll explain what that means. So, here's the new tornado or new severe thunderstorm warning. Uh that's in the yellow box you see. It's coming through downtown right now. Uh this is the airport cam I believe. I'm going to have to switch the inputs. I'm going to get you right looking west into the teeth of this storm that just hit a just prompted a severe thunderstorm warning. We're looking down Market Street and here comes the storm and the big raindrops. So, that's West Elm Market Street on the BJC Skycam Network. Heavy, heavy rain. Just give me a second to analyze. What I'm looking at on my iPad here is normal radar and then the Doppler wins. I see him side by side. It helps me analyze where there might be rotation, strong winds, and then what I do is I use that to quickly direct you to where the strongest storm is. This looks like just heavy rain. I'm not seeing any circulation out of this. Uh what tornado possible means is that as this storm does hit, it can develop a circulation. I'll show you on the radar. I'm not seeing any circulation but along the leading edge or just buried in the rain would be the area you'd want to watch. So, new severe thunderstorm warning, heavy heavy rain right in here, hitting Saint Louis and we'll watch for new areas of circulation that could produce a tornado I'm. not seeing that right now. The tornado warning up to the north does continue and that circulation is weaker and weaker and northeast of Edwardsville now. It's really right up in this area. Uh northwest of Alhambra. But earlier today, we did have a tornado or likely a tornado Um. right about here, around two fifty-five, 270, just southwest of Edwardsville and it has done quite a bit of damage. We have crews in the field that we keep out of the way of the strongest storms and the circulations and the tornado es but we have them nearby so that they can get to the area and show us exactly what's been happening. News four's Jenna Ray has been out there. She has some of the latest information from that Amazon Warehouse. Jenna, what's new? Yeah, we're going to get to Jenna when she is back into a safe spot but this is actually video from about 20 minutes ago. We want to let our viewers know what is happening here at this Amazon fulfillment center in Edwardsville. This is off two fifty-five just north of two seventy. As Steve mentioned, Jenna Ray, our reporter, has been on this scene and she can tell us that sources are telling her there are injuries because of this warehouse collapse that you see. You can see one of the walls that is on that Amazon fulfillment center, the roof, off that Amazon fulfillment center looks like it has collapsed and sources again telling News four, dozens of people trapped inside, possibly over 100 people trapped inside, and as Jenna Ray is reporting right now, there are possible injuries because of this situation, and a rescue effort underway right now there at Amazon. Also, Gener Ray, about 30 minutes ago, we heard from her talking to a witness and somebody who a family member inside of this fulfillment center, an Amazon worker. That's what the witness said that one of her loved ones works inside and says that everybody is relatively remaining calm but again, that report was about 30 minutes ago. Now, we're getting some new information from Jenna Ray who was at this scene before going to somewhere safe to get out of the path of the storm that's now headed this way or headed that way that there are possible injuries because of this situation. Matt Chambers is tag teaming with Steve Templeton. He is also in the Fort Warren Storm Centers and Matt just mentioned those storms that are moving toward Edwardsville. What's the latest on that? Well, they're still very dangerous at this point and we know there's such a large presence of first responders there. We're going to stay really glued into that. Cory, I also wanted to add to the new information from Jenna. We have a lot of viewers. A number have reached out to us directly saying, I have friends, I have loved ones that work there. Can you please give us any kind of detailed information about building numbers, etcetera, things that might mean more to people who have a loved one works there or actually work there themselves than it would to the rest of the general public. So, our newsroom did some digging. They found that Amazon DLI four and DLI five are both located in this area and I've got a source who has a spouse that works there who tells me that the most significant damage was to DLI four. Let me just specify one more time. Our newsroom did some digging and found the DLI four and five buildings might have both been affected. I've got a source with a spouse that works there who says DLI four is where the at least partial roof collapse is and that was also the source that told us the information that as this second storm moves through that in some of the other Amazon buildings on that property, they have been told to shelter in place which Steve, no doubt about it, is the right call. That's why we're not hearing from Generate specifically at the moment is because safety first, we can get the fresh pictures later. And nothing new on those storms off to the east. They're still pounding along 55 in Madison County and pounding along I-55 in Madison County from Livingston to Edwardsville and down in the Collinsville, you see the yellow box, that is the severe thunderstorm warning. I'm still not seeing any significant circulations out of this. So, no urgent need for any kind of worry to watch a circulation that could be a tornado immediately but I'm going to continue to watch that and I know the newsroom is continuing to work hard, bring some new information to Corey Star. Corey, you have anything new? Well, first of all, just thank you for that clarification. Matt, exactly where this is. I think that's going to help a lot of people at home know what is impacted. We've been talking about Edwardsville. We also know that there's been damage out in Saint Charles County. That's where our Caroline Hecker is right now in the Defiance area. Caroline, what are you seeing? Well, guys, we're hoping you can stick with us. We have a little bit of a spotty signal out here. We are on County Highway F at ninety-four in Saint Charles County. Right behind me, you can see all of the debris that had fallen on County Road F. Cruise have been out here. You might even be able to hear the humming of the chainsaws behind us as they work to clear the road that just about 30 minutes ago was completely impassable. We also want to show you some video we shot right up at the road at the corner of F and ninety-four. There are two homes that sit on that corner. We are talking with a neighbor. Both had their roofs blown off. He told me the homeowners of the first home were not home at the time of this storm. The other homeowners he tells us were planning to move in just next week. It was a brand new home. The roof completely blown off. Now, here on F behind me, we're working to make our way further down. There was another report of a structure collapse and or a roof being ripped off of a home about a half a down the road. Now that they have cleared the road here, we are working to make our way down that way. We were speaking with a woman whose sister lives down there. She was just given access. So, it sounds like it's an ongoing project down off of County Highway F here in Defiance as all these kinds of debris in the road, in and around ninety-four in this highway F area. Lots of crews on scene behind us. Many power lines also down in the road. There are crews out here trying to work to correct turning a lot of people around. So, still a very active scene with a lot of things developing tonight, guys. Out here in Saint Charles County, Cory. Yeah and Caroline, as you are making your way to defiance this evening, did you see anything else before you got to defiance and each kind of trees down or power lines down or was it kind of when you got to defiance? Is that when it was that defined damage there? It was mostly on Highway 94 as you enter into defiance. When you're on 94 and hit DD, that is where we started seeing all of the power lines down, all of the tree limbs in the road and it's interesting. You've got the two houses on the corner there that have the roofs ripped off but the houses across the street are unscathed. So, it just kind of shows you how direct some of these winds and or a possible tornado was when it came to the route that it took here through defiance. I was talking briefly with the mayor of Augusta, he said everyone was safe there. They had gone into their basements earlier during that tornado warning but everyone appeared safe there, Cory. Yeah, but homes damaged. You can see the damage and debris behind you. Uh pretty active night there. Again, in Saint Charles County just like we're seeing over in the Metro East and Edwardsville. Wanna get back over to Steve Templeton. Situation right now. The good news is I don't have a significant update other than we still have a tornado warning here. It's our only tornado warning in the area. Uh as I say that, there's a new one. This this is Eastern Reynolds County Southern Iron County and let's zoom in on that brand new one and we'll go up to the other one in a second. Um this is a new one that's going to move out of, did you mind working the radar for me for a little bit, Matt? I appreciate it. Yeah, let's zoom in down here to Eastern Reynolds, Southern Iron Counties. Uh this was an area where the line of storms hadn't produced any severe thunderstorms and then all of a sudden, the yellow box, the severe thunderstorm popped up and then within it, there's this little area of rotation and that's going to be North of Desark. So, the rotations probably a little closer to southwest of Annapolis and look at that. This is they've actually issued it all the way into the next county. Um let's switch over to the velocity data and get a look in there. Um I think it's going to be just, yeah, there it is. Right around there. So, it's just south, southwest of Annapolis. So, Annapolis, I would say even Dazark although I think the rotation's probably going to miss you maybe by a mile to the north but Annapolis for sure. Be in your tornado shelter. This is a brand-new tornado warning and this one is probably going to be radar indicated and it is. Um I'm not going to track the the timing on this because it's going to move out of our coverage area pretty quickly but I mentioned Eastern Reynolds County. that's the county line. So, this is extreme rental. So, if you're in Reynolds County and you're in Ellington, you're you're fine. Um this is kind of crossing the Iron County Reynolds County border and it's going to move to the east a little bit northeast and the speed on that, it's moving east at forty-five. So Annapolis, does Ark, threat for a tornado radar, indicated, it's our brand new. Now, we have two and that's going to cross, what is that? Highway 49 across Southern Iron County. Okay, let's zoom out, Matt. We'll stay with these Doppler winds. I just want to inspect and kind of get an eye on the other tornado warning and see up there where maybe the circulation if it is any stronger. I don't see it. It's no of of Livingston be up in this area right here. It's past Edwardsville by the way. So, you know, we had Edwardsville's likely had a tornado and we know it's had damage but now, the rotation's a little farther north. So, it's a little farther north, kind of up 55 northwest of Alhambra and do you mind switching over to the regular reflectivity for me? Sure. Um thanks and I'm going to pop it just a little farther south. Weage signature but there's little inflow and the tornado warning continues but it's a legacy tornado warning. Meaning, the signature was stronger earlier and it hasn't been extended. In fact, if I turn on the tornado warnings, you'll notice this is just outside of it. So, any kind of rotation is getting away from the tornado warning and they haven't extended it. That is really good news. Now, a severe thunderstorm warning may be extended especially for this section of the storm where there's a little bit of circulation here but more likely some strong straight line winds. Again, north of Northern Madison County coming up into Montgomery and Northern Bond County. A little farther south into that severe thunderstorm warning where you see the yellow box we go and see if there's any circulation. The one spot in the southern flank is the one I want to keep an eye on. Not seeing anything too significant there right now. I'll show you what I'm seeing on radar though and why I want to analyze it. Another one of those inflow notches. So what happens air is flowing in there. it's flowing out here, and sometimes that can create a little circulation that creates a tornado warning. It's exactly what we were tracking a little farther to the north that actually ended up turning into a tornado warning but it's not a real significant signature right there. So, this would be south of Troy, Illinois and kind of to the east of Collinsville. Just kind of pointing out to you these little areas that if they do pop up into a tornado I, hopefully have given you the heads up before it happens and I'll just stay on top it is sometimes you get these little circulations that flare up and then they fizzle out. Little farther north coming marine, this all would be some pretty strong straight line winds crossing Illinois Route 4 and I-70 but that isn't showing any circulation at all. Got a new severe thunderstorm warning out ahead of that tornado warning as well. Steve, this one just coming in. This is going to touch parts of bond, Madison, Fayette, McCupin, and Montgomery County. So, again, sort of down the Weather River from the currently existing storm and actually, painting a wide enough swath of real estate to compensate for that thunderstorm that's in the southern part of Madison County and extreme northern Saint Clair County which has a severe thunderstorm warning on it as well. So, in essence, they're taking the existing tornado warning and thunderstorm warning and extending all of it out all the way through the northeastern corner of our viewing area with one big severe thunderstorm warning. So, we just outlined it there. And no new tornado warning. So, that's good news there. Cory, you've got some new information? Yeah, Jenna Ray and her crew are now in a safe spot over in Edwardsville. She's been working to get a lot of information from her sources there at the Amazon Fulfillment Center. Jenna, you see the active scene behind you. What do we know? What's the latest? Cory, right now, we do know that I actually saw a video from a viewer on Twitter of a tornado here in Edwardsville. The video is from earlier today. We believe that that is possibly the weather event that hit this Amazon warehouse behind me. We're on scene right now. It's in Edwardsville right off of 255 to give you guys context of exactly where we're at. There are dozens of agencies from across the entire metro east here. I've talked with several who tell me multiple rescue specialized units are here on scene. Law enforcement are the ones who are telling me that this is now being called a mass casualty. The Amazon Warehouse. Again, dozens of agencies here. There are probably close to 100 different firetrucks, ambulances, and other police and law enforcement personnel on scene. We do know that there are up to or more than one hundred Amazon workers who were inside this warehouse when it collapsed. They are still trapped at this moment. We can't see the warehouse where we are but we did talk with a family member whose nephew was in inside the warehouse at the time. He is okay. Here's what she had to say about the event. Tell me how you found out about what was going on. He was on the phone with me while it was happening. Um the tornado was hitting the back of the building. The trucks were coming in. I told him to jump out the truck and duck. Um we watched the building go up. Stuff hitting the cars. Um I told him I was on my way. Just to, you know, stay under. I came in. Now we can't find them. So just stay patient. Follow directions. Don't panic. Um and just try your best to stay safe. Alright. Now, we do have another crew that was on their way. They have told us that 255 coming into this area is now blocked off by law enforcement. Right now, we're trying to get a little bit closer but I'm going to direct you to the warehouse right now. You can see fire crews, they have ladders up over the collapse portion. I'm told there's a collapsed portion in the front which you are seeing. There is additionally more collapse and damage in the back of the building. Again, dozens of law enforcement agencies and personnel here from across the entire Metro East area. We are working together more information. Crews are really just working as fast as they can to get those 100 or more workers who are trapped inside that warehouse out. And Jenna, while you're there, from your vantage point, as you look around, kind of that industrial park area. Are you seeing any kind of other damage to other buildings or any kind of structures around you? Cory, we were, when we were driving here, we saw emergency crews on both 255 and other outer roads near here. So far, the only damage that we can visibly see is this Amazon warehouse. It's pretty dark out here and we know that all emergency crews and both the Saint Clair and Madison County area have been detailed to come to this event. And I know you mentioned this special unit that is on scene to try to get inside and rescue the people that trapped. but specifically, what type of things have you seen from this rescue crew? Are they climbing up those ladders that we saw to try to get inside that way? Can you describe exactly what the rescue has been like at this point? Sure. So, there's a mass casualty crew here from Madison County as well as a special rescue unit from Saint Clair. We can't see exactly what they're doing inside the building but I can describe for you what they looked like. They had hard hats on. They had harnesses on with carabiners. They looked like they were ready to go in the action. I asked one of them what they were doing here and they specifically told me they are here to rescue people out of that warehouse. And one other thing, I want to go back to that interview that you had with a loved one who says that her nephew was inside. She described to you maybe some other damaged walls or some things that you couldn't see from your vantage point of the Amazon Fulfillment Center. Can you describe what she told you? Sure. So, her nephew was actually a truck driver here for Amazon and he was pulling in just as the weather event was coming through. We believe that the additional damage, I'll kind of point to you. Again, it's dark. You can see these emergency crew vehicles kind of further up on the left. We believe that the damage is further that way behind the building. We're not able to see that at this time but we do know that there were several Amazon trucks as well as other sort of building and personnel back there too. Unclear if they are, if Workers, excuse me, are trapped there or trapped in the front. Um the front right now is obviously the most damage that we can see and where it looks like. Emergency crews are paying the most attention. And Jenna, we are coming now just upon two hours since that possible tornado hit there in Edwardsville. Very active scene. A lot of work ahead. We're going to check in with you. Again, a little bit later in this newscast. So, don't go anywhere. We want to toss now to Steve Templeton who again is tracking these continuous that we're dealing with tonight. Yeah and what you're looking at here is rotation tracks. This is from early around 830 to to now and what you notice here is I've kind of drawn the path of that tornado and it's not necessarily that it was a tornado that entire path but rotation tracks means a storm was spinning all along this path and that was a path we were tracking this likely tornado at times like right around 270 and 255 where you just saw Jenna near Edwardsville and then just notice that it went up in the Northeastern Madison County, North into Montgomery and Northern Fayette. We tracked it out of our area. So, just gives you a visual of exactly what happened as far as rotation. We'll get a better idea as we get into the next couple days of where there is actual damage and where the tornado path was. Let's get back to where the warnings are right now and you'll still see a little red box of tornado warning there. I'm not seeing any rotation out of that right now and just double checking with the Doppler winds which helps me spy for that rotation. This is looking more like straight line winds out of this entire line and still a threat for some damage and not only that, that doesn't mean the tornado threat's done. It's not out of the question that along the leading edge of this line of storms, you end up with circulation that develops and creates another tornado So, this storm time wise going off to the northeast at about let's say 55 miles per hour. Puts it into Troy, Illinois now, into Greenville and Bond County to 13 minutes. Ramsey, an area where rotation went right over your area, maybe a tornado at in about 23 minutes. In fact, there was a debris tracker signature of a Ramsey so it wouldn't be surprised if there's some damage there and you have another storm coming your way with the potential of strong winds. Again, that's in about 23 minutes. Now, the that just issued a new tornado warning. This one for Montgomery County and Northern Fayette. Let's switch over to the velocity, the Doppler winds, not the strongest signature but it's going to be right in this area here where you see this inflow notch. Am I right on that, Matt? Yup, that's exactly right. In Montgomery County and what they're seeing here is inflow air flowing in right here and then the northern flank of this bow echo and I'll explain what that means. That's where you end up with the rotation. Um so, there's a bow echo right here. These are strong straight line winds on the northern flank right here. You can get a little rotation and a threat for a tornado Uh. East Fork, I think 185 cuts through here and coughing would be right about here. So, this is going to be north northwest of Coffeen, Sorento, you had a tornado warning earlier and this is a new storm. This one's not producing rotation over you. It just produce some strong winds and you're in the clear as far as rotation goes. Still heavy rain and some lightning but the rotations little farther north now in the Montgomery County. Um so 185 cuts about here. So, this is going to be going to the northeast and probably miss Ramsey. So, that particular rotation will miss an area that got hit. So, let me draw a couple lines here to explain what's happening. Here's our new rotation. just north northwest of Coffeen and our old rotation went like this and there probably was a tornado in that southern line because we saw in the debris tracker. We saw debris in the air. So, again, this is not the circulation right now. This is but I just want to give you some reference because there's these towns that are getting mentioned again and again. This is the second time that you've had tornado warning coming through your area. But again this circulation is just to the northwest of Coffeen. I'm going to double check with the Doppler winds. Have they spotted a a specific area? I don't see a real significant signature but definitely some inflow in there. East Fork, and just to the east and southeast of Hillsboro. Yeah, they mentioned within about five minutes or so. Um Van Burensburg. That's a potential spot that we need to keep an eye on. Sorry, Van Van Burensburg around 10: 30. I'm sorry. Yes, around 10: 35 PM this evening would be the ETA for you. Yeah, that that rot farther to the northwest of Embirensburg. So, it must be near of Van Burensburg. Van Burensburg is right here. Rotations close to right here. Um so, that's going to be more in the kind of South Central, Southeastern portion but not extreme southeastern portion of Montgomery County. It's going to clip Northwestern Fayette County. Okay. So, the other red box you see, the threat there has gone away. So, this is really the only tornado warning in Illinois right now in our coverage area. We have a severe thunderstorm warning that was issued too. Um for Southern Jefferson but it's really out of Southern Jefferson now in Monroe County. We may miss some of these severe thunderstorm warnings like that one that just was issued here is now into Monroe. It's because our focus has been on the tornado warning now to the north and then this one as well down to the south and southern Iron Counties and I'm going to double check on that to see if we've got anything new. You haven't heard of Dane Damage down there around Annapolis? I have not, Steve and Southeastern Reynolds County, that's a brand-new severe thunderstorm warning as well until eleven PM. So, yeah, the southern and southeastern tip of our viewing area Uh just getting padded with, if nothing else, some heavy rain but it looks like there could be some strong straight line winds in there as well. Rotations moving out of Iron County. So, really getting the clear there. Annapolis, this is east of you and then, a little farther to the southwest. that's the new severe thunderstorm warning right here and once again, we're just going to have to monitor along the leading edge here for any spin ups and tornado es that can develop but right now, I think the one in Iron County left Iron County and we'll just keep an eye on the tornado warning that's in Montgomery County heading to extreme northwestern Fayette County. That would be this one right here and that's going to miss Vandalia to the northwest. We'll keep an eye on if you're in Ramsey but should be just to the northwest. You can see Saint Louis getting to the clear, clear off to the west, and that's the good news is the cold front will eventually sweep all of this out of here overnight. Much calmer tomorrow but it hasn't been calm tonight and Corey Stark is at the Anchor Desk with some new information. Yes, Steve. Wanna get back to Ed where we have team coverage of that situation at the Amazon Fulfillment Center and Susan Alcori now checking in from a different vantage point. Susan, what do you see from where you are? Well, Cory, from where we're standing, you can really get a better idea of just how big the scene is out here and as well as how many first responders are here when you see the camera panning over. That is the warehouse and you can see just how much of the building has been damaged. We're seeing parts where the siding was completely ripped off. There is no more roof on the building and obviously, lots of first responders. Since we've been out here, we've seen more police cars, fire trucks, emergency rescue vehicles, all coming out here. Now, we're we are out on two 55. Crews have all of the roads leading into that area closed right now. Obviously focusing on their search and rescue efforts that are going on in there. But this just kind of gives you an idea of how big the damage was to that building and how large of an area they're having to surf through right now and you can see clearly just a lot of crews who are out there. We of course are going to keep trying to get more information about what's happening. We do know that the highway is open but they are asking people to stay out of that area since we've been up here. We've seen several other cars stop along the road and I know crews are asking them to please just clear this area so they can get to work out here. Cory. Well, Susan, if your photographer can go back to Pan where that wall, it looks like it used to be on the Amazon fulfillment center. Can you describe it? I mean, is it look like the walls have just kind of caved in inside of the building? Do you see any kind of debris on the outside of the building that where those walls used to be? So, you can see sections where it almost looks like any siding that was up there is just been completely ripped off and then, towards the edges, you can also see parts where it looks like there was a cave in of the roof. We can kind of see, I mean, you can definitely see through the building to the other side. There there support beams that looks like what's left standing and you can kind of see into that middle section of the warehouse. Um obviously, there are a lot of the the lights are focused over there and that's where we're seeing some of the you know, the damage where the building almost looks like it was caved in in parts. You just see the power of this possible tornado and you said you were along 255. Are you still seeing emergency responders come pass you and and head to this scene? Are they still headed that way? We had even minutes before we went on, there were still cars going through and we can see that they're moving through that scene right now. So, there's definitely been a lot of movement going on here. Alright, Susan, as we keep this shot up, Jenna Ray is also there. She's getting more details from the scene and she talked about talking to law enforcement personnel saying to her that this is a mass casualty event that there are injuries. We don't know how many injuries. Uh that are on this scene but we are getting some more information again from our reporters there on scene including Susan Alcori who you just heard from and you can just look at this picture. It is remarkable of what this building used to be in Edwardsville and now, the walls ripped down, the roof off, dozens and dozens of emergency personnel. They're just to respond to this situation. Our General who we checked in with 15 minutes ago, she talked about the special rescue unit the mass casualty unit that is in there right now trying to get these people out possibly more than a hundred people that are inside of this fulfillment center Amazon fulfillment center that right now. So, a very active situation as we see fire crews trying to assess this situation and that's another part of this. Is this trying to wrap your head around what you're looking at, where the entry points, where are the safe entry points? Going up on a ladder as we saw from one of these live shots of trying to go in from an aerial standpoint. So, just the personnel that are here right now trying to wrap their heads around what they're dealing with and the people getting them to safety that are inside. Uh it it truly is remarkable and your your heart has to go out to the families affected and the first responders there on scene. We want to go back to Steve Templeton because I mean, it's still this weather situation that we continue to deal with, Steve. One of the things I wanted to point out is Jenna mentioned, we hear this term mass casualty. Um you know and until I understood the definition better, I thought that meant death. Yeah. It doesn't mean death. Exactly. It it could mean people are just missing and unaccounted for right now or just injuries. So, I just want to she did a great job of explaining that and I think that's important to know and that first responders are trying to do their best to figure it all out and help people who need help right now. That would be right around 270 and 255 in Edwardsville. There's still some rain there but nothing severe. Uh we do have a tornado warning to the north east. We have a severe thunderstorm warning that I want to zoom in on here in a second and show you potential for some rotation near west of Redbud. This tornado warning, the rotation has moved out of Iron County. You're in the clear and the severe thunderstorm warning in Southern Reynolds County. No rotation, watching it closely. Matt, do you mind working the radar for me for a little bit? I'd like to zoom in on this storm where you and I both kind of pointed out and noticed behind the scenes while Cory was talking a little bit of rotation. Just something that we like to let you know about. Doesn't mean there is a tornado but it also helps give you an idea like, hey, some of these storms are rotating and they could produce a tornado warning. So, we like to give you the early heads up. It's right in here. This is the eastern part of Monroe County, Waterloo, you're fine. This is southeast of you now. You're in the clear. There's no tornado warning on this but it's right in this area here. If you zoom in a little bit more, I think we'll see Red Bug probably pop up on the map here. Here's Sparta, Illinois in in Randolph County and that's well off to the north. There's Red Bud. Rotations kind of right in your area. So, there could be, you know, the clouds rotating hopefully above you and not producing anything in the ground because we don't have a tornado warning. We don't see real strong signature but it's just one of those areas of circulation that we continue to watch. This is, by the way, a severe thunderstorm with a tag on it called tornado possible and that's the weather service just letting us know, hey, there is some rotation. We need to watch this or the environments conducive that there's could develop into a tornado. So, do you mind putting on the velocity data, the Doppler wins? I don't think we're going to see anything real significant. No, it not a tight couplet but there's definitely rotation. So, I think it's justified west and northwest of Redbud to just mention that we've got some circulation. That green you see are raindrops that are going out towards the radar. The red is going towards red bud and so that means this thing just south of Hecker and about to cross 159 in Eastern Monroe County is rotating. So, just a heads up, this is what we've been doing all night long. Giving you the heads up. Hopefully, it doesn't produce a tornado. Hopefully, it doesn't and will you let me know if you hear that alarm. We get a new warning. Absolutely. It may be this but it doesn't look tight at all. Let's zoom out to the big picture, Matt and turn the warnings on and just kind of recount the big picture here on what we've got going on. So, we're monitoring that severe thunderstorm warning with a threat for a little rotation but nothing too intense. We still have some rotation that's really extreme northwestern Fayette County right now and a severe thunderstorm attached to it because if you look at that tail right there, that tail is a line of storms. It doesn't have a tornado warning on it but could some damaging winds. Uh this tornado warning again is out and even the Eastern Reynolds County, that line is going to get out. Do me one favor. Let's zoom in to north, northern, and northwestern Fayette County and just check on that and make sure it hasn't flared up. One of the things I can do too is keep an eye on it from here. Um I don't see a significant increase in the rotation but it's northwest of Ramsey right here and that's important because some of our friends from Ramsey down to Sorrento, they had a debris in the air. They're likely was another tornado here. Northern Bond into maybe Fayette County. And this rotation right here is northwest of that track. And that's going to move out of our coverage area pretty quickly. So, if you're in Ramsey, you're going to get hit with storms. Stay, stay inside, be away from windows but that rotation is a little farther to your northwest and it's going to be moving out pretty quickly. Newsroom's working hard. We have a lot of crews on the ground covering any kind of new information. It's all funneling in to Corey Stark at the Anchor Desk. Steve, thank you and it was about 820 this evening when a possible tornado went through Edwardsville damaging that Amazon warehouse where our Generai has been for really the last two hours. Jenna, you have new information there on the scene and a new vantage point to kind of walk us through what's going on there. Yeah, Cory, I want to start out with that new information that you mentioned. We have seen some Illinois Amrin trucks on scene. This is typical when events happen with weather-related events. Amrin usually is one of the first to come in and try and assess the scene, turn off gas lines, power lines, anything really to just secure the scene to make sure there's no additional damage. We've also heard from people that the Red Cross is on their way. Again, another typical thing for an event like a massive warehouse. collapse like you're seeing behind me as well as dozens of people trapped inside. The Red Cross really just comes to offer some assistance, snacks, water, just your basics to make people who work trapped, that get out, and of course, first responders make them all feel comfortable. Let me give you another look about, again, about what's going on behind me. We are at the Amazon warehouse right here in Edwardsville just off of Interstate two fifty-five dozens of emergency vehicles, fire trucks, police vehicles, as well as ambulances here the scene. As Susan mentioned earlier from 255, we can't see it from this point but she told me that the damage, you can actually see straight through the warehouse. We also have a video from viewers on Twitter who sent us a video of a tornado in Funnel Cloud near this Amazon warehouse just several minutes before we heard about this collapse. For those of you just joining us, we do know that there are about 100 people who are trapped inside. There are reports of as well as possible death. Again, there are mass casualty teams on scene as well as specialized rescue teams on scene. I know Steve just mentioned mentioned this and Cory talked about it as well. I just want to keep reiterating law enforcement are the ones who are calling this a mass casualty event that does not mean that there are multiple deaths inside this warehouse. That just means it's a massive search and rescue effort right now. We don't have more information than that. There are emergency more and more of them arriving by the minute. Several agencies from across the entire Metro East spanning several different counties are responding to this event. And Cory we're we're working to get an interview with some sort of law enforcement official to kind of give us an official update of exactly what is going on on inside. And I'll I'll let you guys know as soon as we have more information. Yeah, Jenna, stay right there for a moment. We just got a tweet. Uh Governor JV Pritzker sending out a tweet moment tweet moments ago saying quote, my prayers are with the people of Edwardsville tonight and I've reached out to the mayor to provide any needed state resources. Our Illinois State Police and Ready, Illinois are both coordinating closely with local officials and I will continue to monitor this situation. Again, that tweet just coming from Governor JB Pritzker. You talked about your sources and telling you about some of the the injuries there. Um have you seen anybody taken out of by an ambulance at this point or is it still just from what you've seen to get people out. For what we see really, it's just law enforcement crews coming in ambulances, fire trucks, things like that. To my knowledge, there are not ambulances that have come out yet. I'm going to point you over here right now. We have two buses coming in. This probably means that they are going to get people out. That means there are survivors, most likely of this warehouse collapse. I believe they're sending these trucks in to get some of those Amazon workers out. Now, Cory, earlier you did hear from Aisha her nephew was inside the fulfillment center right when the tornado hit. He is okay. However, there are other family members here on scene that have not heard from loved ones yet. There is limited cell service out here. I will say that but again, there's no telling or no confirmation on the number of injuries or the number of deaths right now. So, there are. Possible deaths I should say. So, there are family members, possible family members of people inside. Have you seen them gathering around, trying to figure out exactly what's going on their loved one is impacted by this? Yes, a lot of people are been telling us that they just, they haven't got gotten a text. They haven't gotten a call. They're still just waiting to hear from their loved ones. Again, a lot going on. We know that more than 100 people are trapped inside. Um so, we're just waiting with these family members. Again, praying like Governor Pritzker said as well as the mayor of Edwardsville. Everyone is really just coming together as a community to support all of the law enforcement agencies here working extremely hard around the clock to and get these people out and get them to safety. So many anxious people out there. A lot of anxious moments for everyone really across the metro as these tornado es have been very active, I should say, possible tornado es, very active throughout the metro. Yup. And we do want to get the latest from meteorologist chief meteorologist Steve Templeton who tracking the storms and Steve, I I mentioned it. I at one point, you just looked at the board and it was just red after red. Yeah. It's so active tonight. Yeah and and what really is is this line. Actually, it's been two lines. This is the second one that along that line, you get these little circulations and so you issue a warning then you issue another tornado warning, another, another, and that happened quite frequently throughout the evening. Apologize for anyone who's missed your shows. We haven't heard from any people. I just want you to know that we care about your shows. Tonight was just more important. Too many tornado warnings, too many lives at risk. There was one point where I I used our tool that shows you how many people are in in one, just one tornado warning and it was a one point five million people. Uh met many fewer people now under warnings but we still have warnings. Watching that storm that came through Redbud, little rotation, nothing real significant there. Let me double check. Yeah, I mean, we're seeing a little area of rotation. I have heard we just heard from someone who used to work here and a friend of ours that in O'Fallon, Illinois, the sirens are going off. There's no tornado warning. I'm going to zoom in. There's a weak signature of rotation but it's just a little rotation and maybe someone saw a little funnel cloud on the north side of town. It would be right out of this right here and that's not a real strong storm. You need a stronger storm to develop a tornado. So, not likely a tornado, no tornado warning. Maybe someone saw funnel cloud related to emergency managers. Maybe they set up the sirens. I don't know. I'm just trying to offer an explanation but I will tell you that I have no problem with that. If they're getting information that says they see a funnel cloud, let let's set off the sirens and get people to turn on channel four and then I'm here to explain what's actually happening. No tornado warning. We'll monitor that and again, really weak. Uh little signature there. Not even much rotation and we see signatures like that all the time and they don't produce tornadoes. es a little farther to the north. Uh they're still some signatures along this line Right here through Greenville headed towards Vandalia. Uh circulations will need a monitor. None that have warranted a red box which will be a tornado warning but nonetheless, still some threat for some strong straight line winds. Let's track that as it moves off to the east. We'll drag it in about 55 miles per hour. You get it in the Sharon. Now, Vandalia, Illinois in about seven minutes. All the rotations and there's two of em so far have missed Vandalia to the north and northern Fayette County. Uh so, we'll continue to watch this as you finally get hit with some storms but no rotation right now. Saint Alma in 17 minutes. See some of the other cities in the path and then a little farther north that red box that does represent a tornado warning. Uh that rotation was right here and I just want to double check and see if any new areas of rotation developed and I don't see anything significant. So, that's good news there. So, the big picture is that while we still have some of these colorful boxes like Cory was saying, it was littered with red boxes representing tornado warnings. Um now, this one moving out of our viewing area. This one is out of our viewing area and so we have really two severe thunderstorm warnings that we're monitoring for circulations that can develop a new tornado but at this point, I think the threat for tornado es has really calmed down. We're still monitoring this line. If you're in Saint Louis City, county, Dunn, areas to the west, done. Um they are keeping that tornado warning in Northern Fayette County by the way. So, that's going to continue and that's from about Ramsey North but not seeing anything real significant there and I'm going to give you the big picture. Look at this. Here's my line that I drew a few minutes ago and it's already changing. So, let's redraw it. Anywhere west of this line, you're in the clear, you're done. Severe threats done. Anywhere east of that line, still has a threat. So, Saint Louis is done but we continue to track these storms as we move through our Illinois side. We also continue to track the information flowing in on the damage that's been happening across the area and of course, the significant damage in Edwardsville. Cory, what's new on that? Well, Steve, we're going to get on to that in just a moment but we have had that extensive damage in Edwardsville but we want to go over to Saint Charles County. That's where our Caroline Heck is in defiance and Caroline, you've seen damage out there as well. That's right, Cory. We've shifted up County Highway F from where it intersects with ninety-four. We're here on Red Barn Lane. Wanna show you the beautiful home here behind me and what has happened as a result of the storms that moved through. If you can see, you can hear the chorus of fire alarms that are going off and you can see the middle section of that home's roof along with the left-hand side is completely gone. Uh if you look down into the grass, you can see where part of that roof landed and kind of the trajector of how the winds and the storm came through. There is all kinds of what appears to be insulation stuck to the house and onto the windows, in the trees. There's remnants of Christmas lights that were ripped out of the tree and ripped off the house. Uh you can see the front window was busted out. The front door is open. We did speak with the owner. He and his family are okay. Very very shaken up but they are okay. They've been grabbing things out of the house and are planning to leave obviously for the night but you can just see the Deva station in the front yard and we're part of the roof landed. We talked with another neighbor that lives a little bit down. This is a cul the sac and he said that it it really felt like the storm or the alleged tornado whatever it ends up being cut right diagonally through this home's yard and continued on across the other side of the street. There are huge trees on the other side of the street that are just snapped in half like twigs. So, devastating damage up here. We know farther up county Highway F, there are another 14 or 15 homes. We were talking to a gentleman who was help clearing debris out of the road. He mentioned many more homes up county or Highway F. This suffered some of that damage. So, again, here in Highway 94, County Highway F. This appears guys to be where a lot of the damage came through when those storms passed, Cory. Caroline Hecker with the update there in Saint Charles County. Thank you. We want to get back to our team coverage of the Edwardsville situation of that Amazon warehouse. Susan Alcori, checking in with us live now there in Edwardsville. Susan, are you still there on I 255? And I guess my question would be, have you Jenna Ray is also there telling us about the situation. Have you seen her? Are you at a different vantage point from where she's looking at this situation? Yeah. So, Jenna is down closer by the warehouse. We haven't been able to get off of the highway. Crews have the roads leading down there just completely blocked off. They wouldn't let us through but where we are, you can really see just how extensive the damage is out here and also how large the emergency response is. What you're seeing is from our vantage point, it almost looks like about half of the building was damaged. We're seeing parts where the metal siding was ripped off. The roof is gone. You can look through the building and then there are parts where it looks like the roof is caved in and If you kind of go towards the back of the building, we're seeing another area where that back wall looks warped and there are more emergency crews in that area. So, we've seen them kind of focus all along that front section where you can see the very obvious damage and then along that back wall of the building as well and when we're talking about these reports of, you know, about 100 people that were in that building. It's easy to see just based on the scale of the building and just how much damage we're seeing from here and looking around, I mean, from where we are, you can't see where any of that siding has gone. Um so, it's this is as close as we've been able to get but it's just clearly very active scene. We've been seeing the crews that are in there moving between the two spots. We've also seen just a few minutes ago, another fire truck, more emergency cars that keep coming to this area. So, obviously, just a very active scene and the the building in that middle section taking a a big hit from this storm. On your way to this location on I-255, we know this area in particular has a lot of different warehouses kind of in this general location. Did you see any other damage to to the buildings possibly from this possible tornado? So, from where we're standing, there's another warehouse just across the highway and seems intact. There are trucks that are parked out there, signs that are still on the wall. It's once you cross over this field where the Amazon warehouse is and it's it's a pretty far distance off the road compared to the other warehouses and it just seems like it was in this section of that field where the damage is really concentrated. I'm kind of standing in a straight line to where it started. Alright, Susan Alcori, live for there tonight. Uh I want to get back to Steve Templeton because we're not done with our weather situation yet. It's been going on throughout the night and our team here, Matt Chambers and Steve Templeton Tech. Steve Templeton tag teaming really getting us the latest information, Steve. Thanks, Cory. Uh while you were talking, we were kind of analyzing the radar and we are not done. You're absolutely right. Saint Louis is done. Our friends in the Illinois side. We still have threats for severe storms and the threat for some circulations that could turn into a tornado. So, we're not quitting you. Uh this storm that's coming through out of into Clinton County kind of out of Eastern Monroe County and is southeastern Saint Clair County. That one has shown a little times, a little circulation. This is just a yellow box. Now, zoom in on it but that's a severe thunderstorm warning. So, there's no tornado warning but we've been kind of analyzing it and we've seen that at times this storm kind of intensifies. I'll show you exactly where I'm watching. It's right in this section of the storm right here. and we we could see this kind of flare up and create a little circulation. I don't see it happening right now. It kind of strengthen, weaken. Right now, it's in the weakened phase but that's coming at Ocaville and that would move up to the northeast. What I've drawn is kind of the direction the winds are going within the storm and where there might be a little circulation but the actual movement of the cell is off to the northeast. So, I'll check the winds within the storm too just to double check and see if we see anything strengthening. No, but definitely potential for some strong damaging and that's why the yellow box, the severe thunderstorm warning is there across that northwestern part of Washington County, southwestern part of Clinton County. Again, I'll highlight for you what we're talking about right here. That's the strongest storm going out of that yellow box. The other yellow box in the southwest, that storm's gone. Uh they're moving to the east and we'll continue to monitor that but I don't see anything in, you know, southeastern Saint Clair other than that circle I've highlighted that creates any cause for for concern. Okay, so a little further to the north, we we have a severe thunderstorm warning here with still a red box but I'm not seeing any significant rotation. The earlier it was north of Ramsey and it's north of Fayette County right now as far as any kind of threat for rotation. You're going to see me switch over to these Doppler wins or Christmas colors to try and help pinpoint exactly where any rotation is but I did notice down here in Greenville and Bond County. Starting to get some areas that we'll have to monitor. See this right here. That's a little inflow notch. This is exactly what we have to monitor. Does there is a tornado but this is the type of stuff that can tighten its circulation but the wind is coming in in flow, wind is coming out, outflow right here and that can create a little circulation. Another one right here around 70. There's a lot of these. We've seen a lot of them tonight. Not all of them turn into tornado warnings and even the ones that do are often times radar indicated tornado warnings and not necessarily an actual tornado However, we've had what is likely probably at least two tornado es tonight. Uh one near the and one from Edwardsville that went up to around Sorrento, Illinois and Ramsey, Illinois. Um so, we've likely had at least a couple tornado es and so, the circulations that I'm monitoring sometimes can turn into that. We're still monitoring that here in Bond County but again, that is a severe thunderstorm warning. I want to be honest and transparent with you. I'll let you know when I see a real strong signature. I'll let you know when I see it's weak but just know, sometimes the weak ones, they can't produce a tornado We'll. be here to let you know if that turns into a tornado warning. So far, it's just severe thunderstorm warning for damaging winds hammering east side of Greenville and Bond County. Go up a little farther to the north. Strong winds is the main signature I'm seeing here out of this from Vandalia. That line and the threat for some damaging winds from Vandalia, northwards through Fayette County is going to move out towards Effingham pretty shortly. Not seeing any significant rotation, that rotation that kind of move north of Ramsey north up out of our coverage area but still potential for some damaging winds here. Uh so, you definitely still want to be in inside and away from windows when that hits. That is the latest radar analysis. Let me just zoom out and see if there's anything new and we're we're getting close to the point where where we can call this and we're done as far as storms go. We're just not done yet because well, Saint Louis is completely done. Anywhere along this line and to the east, there is still a threat for not only damaging winds but some of these storms can still spin up a tornado So, we continue to track it, continue to coverage it, but we're also covering the news that's coming in on some of these storms whether be from Defiance or from Edwardsville. What's new from the newsroom, Cory? Steve, we want to continue to follow that breaking news. A very active situation here in Edwardsville. Hey, we know that people will maybe saw something on Twitter or Facebook about this this situation in Edwardsville. So, we want to give you the latest. This is the Edwardsville Amazon Fulfilment Center for off 255 just north of two seventy. We're getting some new information that we actually shared with you, I should say, 30 minutes ago, the specific building for Amazon that our sources are telling us is the DLI four which is a delivery station building for Amazon. Walls collapsed, roof collapsed as you can see there. Our sources there on scene telling us that dozens possibly over 100 people trapped inside this Amazon fulfillment center in Edwardsville and we're learning a little bit more about this building itself. I mean, you can just see how massive it is. 1. 1 million square feet. This particular building for Amazon. Again, this DLI four, a delivery station for the Amazon fulfillment center. Also, about 15 000 square feet of office space. Give you an idea of just what first responders are dealing with of dozens of people that working there tonight, trapped inside, and now rescue crews as you can see are working to get them out safely. We are getting reports from our sources of injuries Our Gener Ray there is on the scene and she's talked with law enforcement which law enforcement is using the terms. This is a mass casualty event. That does not mean that we have death or possible death. It just means that this is how they're handling that situation with rescue crews there on scene. Again, our sources telling us that there are injuries with this and it's a tall task for all of the emergency responders there on scene as we see firefighters doing what they can, possibly waiting for that next moment that they're going to be called in to see if they can get inside this building. We clearly have not had any vantage point inside the building. We don't know if rescue crews are inside at this point, able to get to those people that are trapped inside but again, this is the Amazon fulfillment center in Edwardsville. If you're just joining off, joining us off two fifty-five North of two seventy where crews will be here overnight into the morning. A very tall task ahead of them of trying to get these people inside that are collapsed to safety. Wanna turn things back over to Steve Templeton who's been tracking that two lines of storms that moved to Saint Louis area and clearly causing quite a bit of damage, Steve. Yeah, indeed and I'll switch on all the warnings for you as you still notice some yellow boxes representing the severe thunderstorm warnings. We still have a tornado warning that hasn't quite expired but the rotations really out of Fayette County up the north and what I want to do is actually kind of take you back in time here. We're going to go back a few hours and I'll show you that what Cory was talking about in Edwardsville. I want to show you what it looked like on radar. So, going to go back in time. You'll see actually two lines come through. It's this first line. Now, I'm going to zoom in and I'm going to show you what the tornado and it likely is a tornado because we had a tornado debris signature on it. Um what it look like is it came in. So, This right here, I'm behind the scenes in the Storm Center managing the radar for you. So, I'm going to point with this. So, this is 255 and this is 270 and this is the rotation around the tornado which will be right here, right here. This is at about eight twenty-eight. So I'll step forward in time from eight twenty-eight. the rotation is right here, road tornado is, right here, just east of 255 at that point. now we're at 833 and you see the rotation. It's kind of muddy but it's pretty easy for, you know, trained meteorologist to see right here in the southwest side of Edwardsville. We don't know for sure whether it was straight line winds or this likely tornado that did it but we do know that our BJC Skycam at SIU is out. We can't get anything out of it. So, it's possible that this tornado went right over that camera. Um when I get a chance, I will try to effort the time lapse from that too. Okay, let's zoom back out and go forward in time to where we're at right now and start analyzing where our current war are New warning. Is this the one that came out of Greenville in Bond County? Yes. Yup. Okay. It's just crossing the line from Bond and the Fayette County now. So, a brand-new tornado warning for Central Fayette County until 1145. Just in the last, I would say 10 minutes or so, we've seen the rotation on this cell tighten up just a little bit. Yeah. Well, you work the radar for me on? Sure, of course. I appreciate it. Um and actually, while we're right here, can you just switch over to Velocity? I imagine it's just going to be yeah. right here. So, if you're in Greenville, so if you recall, we were mentioning this in Bond County and I was showing you inflow and I said, look, this isn't a tornado but this is kind of how they start. Here it is, right here is where it's flared up and it's east of Greenville. If you're in Greenville, you're in the clear. Um this is crossing or already has crossed the Bond County line, Bond County's on this side right into Fayette County and it's very near and just south of 70 right around Mulberry Grove. So, if you're in Mulberry Grove, threat for a tornado right now, stronger signature on radar that has warranted the radar indicated tornado It. is radar indicated, right? That's correct. You're right. Yup. And and that's going to move northeast right up towards Vandalia. I mentioned this earlier. Vandalia, you've missed rotations that likely produce a tornado near Ramsey to the north. Now, here we are with the storm that's coming your way that does have a strong rotation. You need to be in the basement from Mulberry Grove to Vandalia in Fayette County. Um this is going to move, let's see, to the northeast. It, they've got it east at 65 but. Yeah. Can you kind of rewind because I think this came right out of Greenville and Boncherney and I want to watch that rotation. Yeah, it's it's more of a northeast trajectory. So, let's go back to our current and then, let's track this off to the kind of east northeast but definitely with a little bit of a northeast track towards Vandalia and again, sixty-five miles an hour and we'll see some of the cities in the path of the storm. Thank you for doing that. Matt's working the radar for me. This is a newest tornado warning. Uh Fayette County but specifically near Mulberry Grove and headed towards Vandalia. Bandalia is right about here and it's not showing up. Can you get rid of that? Yeah. Just clear that. Yup. And let's take let's do that again and just draw it a little more north. Let's make sure Vandelli is in that. I'm going to guess it's a matter of, you know, five minutes. Bottom line is you need to be in your tornado shelter if you're in Vandalia. Uh I'm looking on my iPad here at the Doppler Winds but also the regular radar and it just kind of helps me see what's going on and pinpoint for you exactly where the rotation is, where the strongest winds are. If it's strengthening or weakening. So, now we have it in eight minutes into Vandalia. Thank you for that, Matt. Sure. Saint Almo in about 21 minutes. Um so, that is I70 right there in Fayette County. So, it's very near or just to the kind of south and Mulberry Grove to Vandalia is going to be the spot that we'll have to watch this. Eventually, it moves into Effingham County and out of our coverage area. Um but it's it's going to be wrapped in rain too because what's coming into Vandalia that's not the tornado tornado will be back around here So, you're going to get hit in Vandalia with just a deluge, a downpour and then, all of a sudden, the rain will actually if the tornado es on the ground because again, it's radar indicated. If there's a tornado the, rain actually lightens up right about here because rain can't go down when a tornado sucking air up and the rain lightens up and then, boom, you end up with damage. Hopefully, that doesn't happen but we're here to warn you and let you know that that's a possibility. Matt's keeping an eye on as it crosses 70 and heads up towards Vandalia. You want to check the debris tracker too? That's CC. Yeah, let's give it up. Let's give it a tough to see much there. Now, so what we would see is if if this was throwing debris up into the air, we kind of see a little smaller round area probably right about here that's more blue and and greenish as opposed to what we're seeing right here. So, I'm not seeing a tornado debris signature or debris tracker but that is our newest tornado warning, Fayette County, Mulberry Grove, two Vandalia, and points to the east as we head through the next about 20 to 30 minutes. Cory, you got some new information coming in? A new development over there in Edwardsville, this Amazon fulfillment center situation. When we get back to Genera Ray and Jenna, I understand some heavy pieces of machinery construction equipment just arrived there on scene. That's right, Cory. We do have a couple of excavators here at the Amazon Fulfillment Center. I'm going to step out so you can take a look at them. Two of those went in just about a couple of minutes ago. You can see them getting off their trucks and getting ready to head what looks like into the debris. Now, right before those excavators came through, we also saw the Saint Clair special emergency services van as well as an emergency sponsor truck that basically is going to be their home vase, home base for emergency vehicles, responders, personnel to all kind of coordinate around that one entity. We're not sure if they're leading the search but we do know both Saint Clair County and Madison County EMS personnel are on scene. And Jenna, we've we're getting questions online and through different social media platforms about do we know that if responders have located exactly where in this building these People are trapped as you've reported possibly more than 100 people. Do we know exactly if they've located them? At this time, Cory, no, we do not. We are still waiting to talk. We're told that the Madison County Fire Chief is our head point of contact this evening. We have not seen them yet and have not gotten any word from any other sort of law enforcement agency about when we're going to get an update but again, as we mentioned earlier, there is a portion of the building collapse here in the front and witnesses who have family members inside also tell us that there is a collapsed portion of the building in the back. from what you're seeing are more people with possible loved ones inside the building or people who work there. Are they showing up there at the scene trying to get more information from first responders that are there? They would be back there. Cory, we've seen a couple but I do believe that emergency personnel are trying to keep as many people away from the scene as possible. Again, we're several hundred yards away from the actual warehouse and the actual damage. This is as close as we can get. There's dozens of emergency crews behind our camera right now that stretched the entire driveway of this Amazon fulfillment center and again, as Susan mentioned earlier in the newscast, she's still stuck outside the entrance to the warehouse where it comes in. So, right now, I I'm safe to assume that emergency personnel are trying to keep this area contained and aren't necessarily letting more people in except of course for emergency personnel who are going to help with the situation. Alright, Jenna, as we just saw from her live shot, two large excavators getting there on scene, possibly to clear some of that debris. So, emergency responders can get inside that Amazon warehouse. I want to bring Steve Templeton back into the conversation because of course we've been talking about this possible tornado that hit Edwardsville but Steve, can you go back, you know, two and a half hours ago when that happened and define what we were seeing at that point when this possible tornado hit that area. And I I'd like to call it a likely tornado. I mean, I saw a tornado debris signature. Everything I'm seeing on radar confirms it was a tornado Um. you know, we haven't had anyone tell us they saw it exactly but this is likely a tornado that hit Edwardsville. Um it it's a little you know what, Cory, instead of taking you back in time, I'm going to focus and what just happened now because we have not only the warning that we focused on up near Vandalia and around Highway 51 but this is a brand-new tornado warning coming out of the Clinton County, Washington County. It's a tornado warning moving towards Centralia. So, let me focus on that. We zoom in. Matt, you're working that for me? Sure. Thank you. I appreciate it. Um so, we're going to have to take a little time here to analyze that one too and see where that rotation is. It looks like it's just north of Washington County in North of Covington and so here's the Washington County lines probably right in here and if you switch over to the Doppler winds, yeah, we'll see a little bit of rotation there. So, this moving to the probably east, northeast. There goes the tornado warn just popped up. They've got it northeast at seventy. Okay, radar indicated too. Um and yeah, northeast at seventy. You're going to have to back out for that seventy mile an hour. Yup. Stretch to to get an idea the timing but what I want to point out is this is just south of Carlisle but as it moves up to the northeast, you know, it's coming up on the kind of southern side of town. Uh if it goes on this trajectory, it's coming into Centralia. So, if you're in Marion County, especially Centralia, heads up. Um let's see what the timing is here too. Coming in at 70, Centralia about 14 minutes. So, you got 14 minutes in Centralia. You want to be watching this closely. Radar indicated tornado warning. Uh once again, not extremely signature, strong enough to warrant the tornado warning for sure and the possibility that this could produce a tornado either now or you know, at any time. That's the other thing is sometimes we see these lower end signatures and all of a sudden, they intensify and it can happen in one radar skin. It can happen so quickly. Hoffman and Posey in the next five to 10 minutes. So, you need to be in the basement right now. Centralia at 14 minutes, you need to be gathering the kids, maybe waking them up, getting down to the basement, that safe tornado shelter. I always want to be honest and transparent with you. This is radar indicated. Uh the signature is strong but not especially strong but I think the best thing to do is play it safe and I know in Centralia and Odin in 18 minutes, it's an knowing especially if you have to get maybe elderly parents down to the basement, maybe it's the kids, it's the safe thing to do, play it safe rather than sorry is what we always like to say and that rotation is right on the kind of almost on the Washington and Clinton County border. It's right about there. It's north of New Minden. That's where we had a disaster in November several years ago where we had NEF four tornado and two deaths. It's north of that area. So, if you're new, New Minden and you hear sirens, this is actually north of you for that rotation and moving off to the northeast. I think Centralia, Hoffman, Posey, all couple of the cities more immediately in the path of that newest tornado warning. Alright, that is our newest one. Let's go back up to the north and towards Vandal and see what that one's doing. And it's still producing a signature for sure of of rotation but it's now moved to the east. You might it's it's going to be right in there. You might put on the doppler winds. I don't know if it's going to help much. I just confirms. Um Shobonier is somewhere down here down fifty-one. Here's Vandalia. It's right in between. So just south of Andalia. Really the south side of town. And that again is radar indicated. Always want to be honest with you what I'm seeing. Radar indicated. Not especially strong tornado warning. But what it is showing is the green is the winds and rain raindrops going towards the radar and the red is going away and so that's creating this rotation and possible tornado south southeast of Andalia. Again, I know especially if you have to wake up family and get them down to the basement. It's annoying. Uh the one of the things I like to think about when we say play it safe. When you get into a car, you buckle up. Not because you think you're going to be in an accident because you know it's the right thing to do and if you are in an accident, you're going to stay safe. Very rarely, you're under a tornado warning. Unfortunately, tonight, for some people, it's been a couple warnings but when it does happen, you play it and buckle up. Meaning, get to the basement or get to your tornado self self safe shelter and play it safe rather than sorry. Just in case there is a tornado doesn't, guarantee there is but I always want to be honest and let you know that radar indicated can sometimes help save lives if this is producing a tornado and if so, it would be on the south side of town crossing 51 right now. That is just south of Interstate seventy. We're in Fayette County zoomed in on Vandalia. This would move up to the north towards Saint Almo as well So, again, some cities where you just want to play it safe, get to that tornado shelter, and hopefully what we're seeing is rotation up above the ground and that's what radar spies. Radar can't see what's on the ground. It would hit buildings. It just can't see what's actually in the ground but tornado es are on the ground. The radar can't see that. It can see what's up in the air and so we can see rotation up in the air and sometimes can see debris up in the air. Do you want to check the tracker and just see if we see anything? I don't think we will. It's not especially strong signature. but there's, yeah, debris tracker doesn't show anything real. If so, you would see like a little round area right here of kind of blues, greens, little yellows and there's nothing right there. Actually, it's probably a little bit east of 51 right now. This is fifty-one. So, that's what radar sees stuff up in the air. Hopefully, it's rotating up in the air and there's no stuff because it's not touching the ground but of course, we want you safe rather than sorry. Okay, big picture. Let's zoom out to our coverage area and let's pop those warnings on there because we've analyzed for you two different new warnings. I just want to see if there's anything new here coming out of and know there isn't Randolph County. So, that's good there. So, I think if you're in Sparta, Farmington, done. Um Jefferson County is done. Saint Clair County, Belleville, Mascuta, you're done. Uh if you're in Nashville, Illinois, hang on. Washington County and rate them. Ashley, just hang on. This storm hasn't quite cleared you yet. If you're in Marion County, definitely not done yet. If you're in Clay County, Florida, Louisville, you're not done yet. This storm is move your way. Uh if you're in Vandalia, we're almost done. Again, I pointed out that tornado warnings with the rotation just south and southeast of town but this is the back edge. This is it folks. We're finally seeing the end. Uh I have been on TV way too much tonight. More than I ever want to be but when tornado es hit, I'm trained to be here to explain exactly what's happening. It's been a long night and I'm sorry that we've covered our programming and I'm sorry that it's been one of these nights but when it happens, I want to be here for you and I want to let you know we're close to the end. is the back edge. We're almost done. So, we still have two tornado warnings going here and I said in Nashville and Eastern Washington County hangout. We're not quite done yet. Let's zoom in into that Washington and Clinton County area because I saw that, you know, it doesn't look particularly strong. This is why I said Nashville, hang on and if you look can you go a little south so I can see south of yeah, this storm right here. Not particularly strong but that's why I say if you're a natural hang on but you're almost done. As far as the threat tornado goes. It's a little farther to the north. This rotation right here. Do you want to flip on the it looks a little weaker too. It it looks like it's right around Carlisle just south of Carlisle. In that direction of it, movement is up to the northeast. Thanks, Matt for helping me. Give me a little better idea. So, what we're tracking there is the Doppler winds and what we're noticing is the green. So, that's raindrops going towards the radar and the red away. It's not especially signature but between that and the regular radar, we call reflectivity, reflectivity. There's a little bit of a hook there and as that moves out of Clinton County and eventually into Marion County, I think that's going to stay north of Centralia. Um and hopefully not produce a tornado on its way by the way but that is the newest tornado warning. Okay, let's let me switch over. I'm going to take over here and switch over to that reflectivity and highlight that hook I was talking about. That's going to be right in this area here. So, rotation, and potential tornado right here and I'm not seeing anything real significant a little farther downstream. So, that's northwest of Centralia. Might hear the sirens Going off and if you're in, gosh, we had this going at 70 miles an hour. So, if you're in Salem, let me adjust the speed here and give you an idea of timing. It's going to be real quick. But Salem in about 12 minutes. So that gets into Marion County, Central Marion County in about 12 minutes. So, there's one Now, highlight it with a circle. So, one area of rotation, very near northwest of Centralia. Um and then other one is now east of Andalia. I'm going to zoom in on that one and I'm going to guess that we're pretty close to giving the all clear in Vandalia. Let me just see what's going on off to the west. So, that storm off to the west is not severe. This one I'm talking about right here. The threat for any kind of rotation is actually where that circle is. So, that's east of Vandalia. Uh if you leave east of town in between Saint Almo and Vandalia, you're definitely not in the clear. This is definitely still stay in your tornado shelter. Uh if you're in Vandalia, there it goes. Just updated. You're in the clear. So, if you're in Vendalia, Chauvinir, which is down 51, kind of the circulation kind of went right in between right here. So, there's that circulation, potential tornado in between Saint Almo and Lone Grove. It's actually north of Lone Grove. So, if you're in Lone Grove, this is going to miss you to the north but that rotation is going to be very close to Saint Almo and then eventually, right there, out of our coverage area, getting close to the end, folks. Getting close to the end but nonetheless, if you're in Saint Elmo and right along 70 in that part of Fayette County, we you to stay in your tornado shelter. When I say tornado shelter, it doesn't actually mean an actual, you know, built-in-the-ground shelter, something like that. I just mean, wherever it's safe for you and your family and the two things I always preach before these events is you need two things to stay safe from tornado es. One, you need a way to get the warning. No weather radio, the News four app, your phone, anything to get you a heads up on, there is a warning and then to a plan and that plan should include, where is that tornado safe shelter for your family? Uh it may be the if you don't have a basement, it's the lowest level where you're putting as many walls between you and the outside and staying away from windows. So, that's where folks in around Saint Elmo and especially southwest of Saint Elmo, especially south of I-70 in Fayette County need to be right now as that moves off to the northeast eventually out of our area. So, that's the other tornado warning. Um two going on right now. Big picture here. Get rid of some of our markings and big pitch here is we have two tornado warnings and one severe thunderstorm warning. Um and the and then we're going to be done. The severe thunderstorm warning includes Washington County and again, I just haven't seen anything significant coming out of Ocaville. Um if you're in Nashville, that that storm nearby is just not doing much, not showing me any kind of signs of of rotation. So, I'm hoping that that comes through and doesn't intensify. Um we have seen though. Right here to the northwest and north of Centralia and right here where I was just highlighting near Saint Elmo. That's our focus right now. These will move east and eventually out of the area. Unfortunately, when storms move through the area earlier, they did produce likely tornado es and we know that they did damage. So, let's get the newest our newsroom and our crews have been working really hard and they're funneling all that new information into Corey Stark at the Anchor Desk. Steve, we want to get back to the Amazon warehouse that partially collapsed tonight with dozens of people trapped inside that Amazon warehouse as we The company, Amazon, releasing a statement now. This is an initial statement from the company and this is what they're saying tonight. It says, the safety and well being of our employees and partner, excuse me, I guess we're going to go to JB Pritzker at this point but quote saying, my prayers are with the people of Edwardsville tonight and I've reached out to the mayor to provide any needed state resources. Our Illinois State Police and Ready Illinois are both coordinating closely with local official and I will continue to monitor the situation. I don't know if we have the Amazon statement but I do have it here in front of me and I want to go ahead and read that. Again, this is going to be from Amazon. It says, the safety and well being of our employees and partners is our top priority right now. We are assessing the situation and we'll share additional information when it becomes available. This all in response to what happened at around 820 tonight in Edwardsville. Here's a live look at that scene right now. The Amazon fulfillment center right off of two fifty-five just north of 270. This is actually video from earlier but you can see the type of response with emergency crews, dozens and dozens of crews from all over the metro responding to this tonight. We've had our team coverage. Jenna Ray there on scene. Also our Susan Alcory collecting information and what we do know again as I said dozens of people trapped inside this Amazon fulfillment center more than 100. We don't know if rescue crews have located the individuals at this point but the latest things that we have seen is two large excavators have shown up on this scene in order to maybe clear out some of that debris to get people out of the warehouse. Also, our news team collecting this information that two metro buses have just left that area and they were filled with about two dozen people that were evacuated from the scene. We don't know at this point. We're making phone calls to see if the people that evacuated. We're actually inside the building or if they were just there on scene but we're still collecting that info but we do know again that two metro buses just left this area with about two dozen people inside. Wanna go back to Steve Templeton because he's still tracking some storms out there. I am and I've highlighted in two circles the areas of rotation and they're under a tornado warnings. They're doppler indicated. This is the stronger signature right here but it's going to move out of Fayette County. We warned you folks in Saint Almo. You need to still be in your safe shelter. We also told Bendalia, you're in the clear now. If you're down around Centralia, this rotation is actually just to the north. Stay in your safe shelter if you're in Centralia because you have storms still coming through just for another couple minutes and you'll be in the clear. Carlisle in the clear. This is going to move into Salem. That's Salem right there in Marion County. So, those are the two that I'm focused on right now. We've been doing some tracking and showing you exactly where that is. One thing I want to do though is kind of take you back in time because with the focus and rightfully so is on the the damage in defiance and say Charles County and then in Edwardsville but I'm going to show you the storm that hit Edwardsville likely produced either the same tornado farther downstream or it produced new tornado es and you're going to have to bear with me here. I'm going back in time and I'm doing this all manually. So, hang in there. We're going to go back to where the tornado hit in Edwardsville and that's about it right there. Tornado would be right there and just before it cross 255 and 270 and hit that warehouse area, okay? So, I'm going to go step forward in time and that hook echo is still right here as it moves southeast of Livingston over towns like Hammel, Sorrento. In fact, if you can see there's a little donut hole right there, that donut hole is the tornado We. explained it on the air while it was happening. The reason there's a little bit of a donut hole yellow and not all red is because instead of the rain coming down, it can't come down on a tornado Tornadoes. air getting sucked up. So, you get this little hole there. There's a tornado there. So, even though we've talked about damage and defiance, damage in Edwardsville, this Edwardsville tornado may have produced either damage all along this path or it may have produced new tornado es and kind of cycled as we call it where it weakens and then all of a sudden, intensifies and produces a tornado that's, northern Bond County. It doesn't stop there. If I continue a little bit more and again, I'm back in time. I'm at 9 PM right now on the radar and I'm moving to I'm going to have to adjust the radar so you can see it a little better but I'm going to go to about nine fifteen and right around Ramsey in Northern Fayette County. So, what I'm now going to do is kind of connect the dots. Uh I'm doing this on the fly but I think what it's going to do is give you some perspective that this either is all one tornado or is one circulating storm that dropped a tornado near Edwardsville. Again, near Hamel, Sorento, and Ramsey. We're starting to hear reports from emergency managers and some damage here in Southern Montgomery County and parts of Northern Fayette County too and I think because these are areas that are less populated, no more significant than any other area and that's why we were on the air tracking it for you but more or less populated, you tend to not get the reports as quick as you might say from the really populated Metro East and we are indeed starting to get some of those reports. We know there was a tree down in Sorento and they were trying to get the tree out of the blocking the entire road that goes into the main part of Sorrento and again, these are smaller towns but it gives you some perspective that that's either one tornado or it's multiple tornado es along a path where a storm was circulating, dropped a tornado It. weakened, then, moved on, dropped the tornado weekend. That's what happened earlier tonight and I know Cory, you were asking me about perspective on that earlier and I just couldn't give it to you because we had those new tornado warnings pop up but I wanted to go back and get the get that for you. As far as those neut tornado warnings. They're now older tornado warnings but they continue and you'll see the eastern part of Fayette County. This is going to move out of our coverage area very shortly. So, the red boxes, the tornado warning, that's going to move across into Effingham County where they have not extended the warning and there's still some circulation there though. Won't be surprised if they keep an eye on that in Effingham County and then, not seeing anything real significant here. The the circulation looks to be weaker but just northwest of Salem. So, if you're in Marion County and Salem, still think it's best to be in your safe shelter. You see Salem pop up on the map right there. And then as I check the top of their winds, let me see if it looks any better from this perspective. And it doesn't. I'm not seeing any real significant intense rotation. I'm always trying to be transparent and honest with you with what I'm seeing. But that is much weaker near Salem and Marion County. That looks a little stronger but moving out of our area. And that's the two areas of concern. And pretty shortly here. We're thankfully going to say goodbye to these storms. But they've done the damage and we're getting some new information coming into Cory. Our reporter Susan L Corey has a really good vantage point from she is along I -255 and Susan, from your angle, have you guys kind of have that wide view of you can see a lot of the damage there to the Amazon building there? Yeah, you could really see where crews are focusing on where the building has been torn apart. You can see now they they have lights that are out there. So, better illuminating some of the damage and we're just seeing just walls that have been knocked down the roof gone in what looks to be about half of the building there and crews really focusing on that middle section of the building where you can see kind of the support beams are basically all that's left. You can see pieces of the roof still kind of dangling there and we're also seeing is crews. They have the ladder trucks out there and one of them is towards the middle there and they're really focusing on that area. Um another thing, we're still seeing emergency crews continue to come out here. Um an ambulance just passed us and this is something that we've been seeing just in the hour or so since we've been here. A constant emergency cars coming back out to this area. Something else crews are having content with is people who are stopped on the highway just trying look at what's happened and that's actually causing traffic on the highway not just on the side of the Amazon warehouse is but also on the other side of the warehouse, we're seeing people stopped in the median, stopped in the breakdown lane and that's something crews are asking them to just please clear this area so that they can stay out here and do their work. and you know that they have all of the roads to the Amazon warehouse closed right now. So, this the highway is basically the only point where they can see it from. Susan Alcori with the latest from her vantage we do have team coverage. Our Gener Ray is a little bit closer to that Amazon warehouse and Jenna, you just saw some brand-new crews showing up there on scene. What department are they from? So, Cory, for the last three hours all of the emergency crews that have been here are Metro East Emergency Vehicles, emergency personnel just seconds ago, dozens of Saint Louis metro law enforcement agencies have arrived. I've seen Maplewood Fire, Metro West Fire, Maryland Heights Fire, the Urban Search and Rescue Team, multiple Saint Louis Metro Agencies. Again, coming in here are several dozens of firetrucks and ambulances that are sitting behind me. We have even more behind our camera lined up on this sidewalk and pavement entrance to the Amazon warehouse in just the last couple of minutes. We have seen a lifelight helicopter land on the property. We have also seen two Metrolink buses carrying about two dozen Amazon workers out of the facility. Now, we know that they were Amazon workers because most of them were dressed in the Amazon delivery vest that they wear to work. We saw some earlier employees that were here dressed the same. We also again saw some excavators going in as well as some tow trucks. We still don't have any sort of update from law enforcement yet. I am working to call several sources to try and get the fire chief to kind of come out here and just give us some more logistics of exactly what is going on here. So, it's good clarification that you who you saw on those buses where Amazon workers, did any of them look injured from your vantage point? Could you tell from where what you saw? not necessarily Cory. Uh what we saw, one bus had the lights off so it was really hard to tell. The second bus did have its lights on and I've posted a video to my Twitter kind of detailing those buses coming out but the bus that had the lights on, they were all just honestly kind of sitting there calm. Some of them looked relieved to be getting removed from the premise. Many of them on their cellphones, I assume calling loved ones, telling them that they are okay but for now, those are the only vehicles that we've actually leave the warehouse grounds in the last about three hours that we've been here. And the last question for you, you mentioned those excavators. Have you seen those excavators at work at all over the last 20 minutes since we saw them arrive on scene? I know that they were getting off their trucks and getting ready. We saw them kind of lifting up and down. For now, again, it's kind of hard to see. We're about a couple hundred yards away from where the action is happening. Right now, we again, like you said 20 minutes ago, we could see those excavators. Right now, we cannot see them from where we are. So, they must be closer in the rubble, maybe possibly digging through debris. Again, we still don't know, you know, what they're doing, how many crews are here. We just know that there are dozens of emergency personnel. We have more on standby here waiting to be potentially called in and everyone is just kind of on edge right now. Um I've talked with first responders here on scene. They say they haven't seen anything like this in such a long time as you know, Steve and Matt have been saying all night, tornado es and strong winds are so unpredictable. You truly just never know what's going to happen. You never know the extent of the damage and these first respond are really in awe of what they're seeing tonight. Yeah, it's such a massive structure and so many emergency personnel there on scene. Thank you for all your updates tonight. Jenna, we want to get back to Steve Templeton because we're not out of the woods yet on some of these storms. Not yet. We're getting close, Cory. We really are. Here's the line. Uh eventually moving out. By the way, Jenna touched on something about December tornado es. I've heard a couple people talk to me about this. How, hey, it's not usual, is it? It's not. I mean, March, April, June, May, those are the big tornado months but at the end of the year, the not big tornado months, out of all of them, August, September, October, November, December, December has the most tornado es in our greatest Saint Louis region, Greater Saint Louis region. Out of any of those other months, we do get tornadoes in December. We call it the second season, late November into December. You start to get some of these systems where you get a warm up like today in the 60s, mid upper 60s, and then you get slammed with the cold air. That's not what causes a tornado You. need other ingredients but it helps create the thunderstorms that set the age for it. So, December tornado es happen. They don't happen very often. They're rare but sometimes they do and they create tornado es. December 31st 2010, the New Year's Eve tornado that created a bunch of em including an EF3 that went through parts of Saint Louis County. Here we are now with the end, the tail end of the system but it's not quite out yet. So, for our friends there in that red box in Marion County, I continue to track what is a weaker signature. In fact, what I think's really happened is it's transitioned where one really moving out and the next one moving in doesn't have much rotation. Here, let me explain what I'm seeing here. I'm going to get rid of the red box and the original area of the of concern is really in Commundi and it's a weaker, weaker storm right now but that's area of rotation that had warranted this tornado warning. I'm always trying to be transparent and honest with you. It is radar indicated. Uh we haven't heard of anything on the ground out of this and it's not a strong signature. It has weakened and this storm coming at Salem, if you're still in your basement, just hanging out there for a little bit until this passes. I don't see any strong rotation out of this. I think this is going to pass with just a downpour, some lightning, and some strong winds and then you'll be done but just give it like another two to five minutes. Get the kids yourself out of bed, out of the basement. Uh if you've elderly parents, get them up into bed and then you can put everybody to bed safely because this is it. This is the back edge. So, once this passes Salem and can Monday, you're done. Now, if you're in Clay County, let me zoom out a little bit. I'm going to continue to watch but I don't see anything immin that one area of rotation that is weaker is going to cross that northwestern part of Clay County and they have yet to extend any kind of tornado warning here. Louisville, Clay County here, Florida. Uh we're not seeing anything significant. I'll have to watch this storm because that is strong and this is the type of storm that you can get a little notch and it looks like a little circulation and all of a sudden, you've got a radar indicated tornado warning. We don't have that yet but it definitely needs to be watched for our friends in Clay County. Otherwise, we're really kind of getting on the back edge here. This is starts to move east and eventually out of the area. So, those are the two areas of concern. Monitoring the weaker but still rotating storm here over Kimundi and monitoring a strong but not rotating storm coming through Salem. Both are going to move through parts of Clay County. Um very shortly and then eventually out of the area. Um other than that, we are actually getting into the clear and if I put the big radar on the big picture, this is actually part of a bigger system that yes to the north is producing snow. So, we're not getting any of that but we're going to get some of the colder air tomorrow. It will be dry, cool, breezy, windy, really tomorrow but this line just has to clear our coverage area and then we're done with the storm threat. We are done in Saint Louis and all of the metro including where we've seen some damage from defiance to Edwardsville to even around Fillmore. Some of these smaller towns in Illinois that have reported some damage as well. You all are done. We'll continue to track this. In the meantime, we're also tracking new information coming in on damage from those areas. Cory has the latest. We want to get the latest from Edwardsville and the video that you're looking at now, you heard Genera Rae about five minutes ago talk about those metro buses carrying about a dozen Amazon employees and if you look, you can see them in their Amazon gear that's normally what you see when they're making deliveries or working there at the warehouse like is the case in Edwardsville and they're leaving this scene. They look like they were pretty calm for the most part but our understanding is that it's two of these metro buses that were filled with about two doz Amazon employees leaving this scene. What we don't know is were these individuals inside the building were they outside of the building when this partial collapse happened and the tornado, possible tornado hit the building there. That's what we're trying to find out right now. Uh we also know that there's been two large excavators that showed up at the scene about 20 minutes ago and here's some video of that. You can see them being hold in there. Again, when we talk to Jenna Ray, minutes ago or so. She said that you could see them unloaded from where she was just right behind her and then 5 minutes later, those excavators were gone. So, possibly that means that they've traveled farther into the warehouse, into the building where there's a lot of debris as you can imagine from just the massive structure that has partially collapsed. You can saw, you saw the walls that have collapsed, the roof that has collapsed, and if you're just joining us, I understand is dozens of possibly over 1hundred people trapped inside of that warehouse there in Edwardsville. Uh it's been an active night. We've got the damage reports out of Edwardsville as we've been resharing. We have reports out of Saint Charles County as well where we've heard from our Caroline Hecker tonight out of defiance and our weather team. Uh if you you look over there, I know we don't have a camera over there but you have Matt Chambers, Leah Hill, and Chief Meteorologist Steve Templeton here tracking all of this for you and we want to check back in with Steve to get us the very latest on our ongoing weather situation. Thanks, Cory. You know, it it does go on. It just is going to go on east of our coverage area very shortly here. Uh this big yellow box is outside of our coverage area but it just shows you they're still dealing with severe weather, severe thunderstorms, same thing up around Effingham. Um so, the reason why this red box and it's our last warning before we're going to be done, okay? That's in Marion County and as long as nothing new comes out around Clay County. Hopefully, that'll be done but the reason why that is still out is not because of the original storm. The original storm is right here and it's still rotating but it's a much weaker storm. Uh the reason why is because of this storm, that strong storm that's not rotating strongly but it's in between Kinmundi and Salem right now and meteorologist Matt Chamber helped draw my attention to something on this that the weather service had actually said. You know what? We're going to keep the warning. The tornado warning here in Marion County even though this is weakening. So, instead of cancelling it and then, let's say this flares up in the next radar scan and then renewing it, they're just going to keep it. So, what doing is they're saying, look, we recognize this is weakening as that rides north of Kinmundi up 57. If there is a tornado it's, super weak and it's right there but this doesn't have that type of rotation signature but it's stronger. You can see by the red. It don't need a degree in meteorology to know that's a stronger storm compared to that. So, what we're waiting to see is if that especially like right in here or in the far far southern flank here. If you get that inflection point, circulation, area where winds come in as winds are coming out and it creates little rotation. Not happening, not seeing it. I I'm going to switch over to the Doppler winds just to see if there's something I'm missing out of this view because you do really need to kind of flip back and forth and know I'm not seeing anything significant there but that's the reason why that warning hasn't quite been lifted just in case this new stronger storm starts to develop circulation at least those folks are still covered. The bottom line is, if you are east of Salem, you're still under the gun with this strong storm, I would say in Kinmundi, it's probably Southview but if you're in your safe shelter, hang out for another two to five minutes and if you're in Salem, I'd give it another minute or two just because of that little thing right there in the southern flank. Uh real technical language, that little thing. Um that little appendage which could turn into a little rotation. Uh east of Salem, maybe by half a mile. So, you give it another couple minutes. It's going to be even far the east and you're in the clear, okay? So, Salem hang out just a little bit. If you're west of Salem, you're in the clear. Um can Monday to Salem though? That's going to be it. Uh I do want to show you too kind of the bigger picture. I've drawn three circles here where I know we have damage. Um out around defiance, Edwardsville, and Fillmore in Southeastern Montgomery County. I think there could be some other damage along this line I've drawn to. Not sure if this is all one rotating storm. I think that's two. We were looking at the radar data. I'm going to replay it for you. But I want us, I want you to just kind of see how this all evolves. This is over the last four hours. This is the main line that caused that tornado Here's. the second line that we're now tracking the storms with one tornado warning exiting. So really two lines that move through. Defiance, I think that one fizzled out and then a new one developed here along that line and moved out. And then look at that same area in those circles got hit again with storms. Not necessarily tornado got hit with storms yet again and that was a problem for folks especially in the Edwardsville area that were you know, doing some search and rescue. So, that's how things kind of evolve throughout tonight and we still have damage and new information coming in. Cory, what's the latest? Well, Steve, so many families are dealing with the unknown right now and Susan Alcori who is on the scene of that Amazon fulfillment center in Edwardsville. Susan, you just talked with the woman whose husband works at Amazon and she has not heard from her husband. Yeah, that woman didn't want to go on camera but she did tell me that her husband is a driver. Here at the warehouse and that she spoke to him before the storms hit but says that she's tried calling him since and his call just keeps going to voicemail. She hasn't been able to make contact with him. She's sitting out here waiting for answers. She tells me that his manager wasn't working today and is now trying to feed information to her and other family members who are waiting to hear news About their loved ones. I asked if she had heard anything else and she just told me at this point, she's waiting to see. She actually told me she's also called around to different hospitals and found out that her husband wasn't a patient at this point. Now, what you're seeing though is the damage, extensive damage to the warehouse and a focus of those emergency and search and rescue crews who are in there trying to get out any people who were trapped and we can see from our vantage point at least one ladder truck that people are on. They're also focusing on the back side of the building as well but of course, this area here, there is just no roof to the building. The walls are gone and the only thing that we're really seeing left standing here are support beams and for families who are out here looking at this, at least the woman who we talked to telling us that, you know, tonight, she's just trying to get answers about where her husband is and at this point, she still doesn't know Cory. And so many families, the reality is, they may be dealing with that same situation and when you were talking to her, I mean, did she have any correspondence with emergency personnel, any luck reaching anybody to try to get some information that way? Yeah and that is something that I asked her and she told me at this point that she hasn't been able to get any information. She's being told to stay out of the area. She says that there hasn't been anyone in terms of a first responder or anything like that that's been set up at least as a point of contact for families. She told me that what she's been doing is trying to call her husband's manager who is trying to get information to families. Hm. Your heart goes out to her and so many families that are dealing with the similar situation. Susan, thanks for that update. We want to go to that Amazon statement. Uh they released an initial statement about 20 minutes ago. And if we could show that there on the screen, this is again from the company tonight We'll wait for that to pop up. The safety and well being of our employees and partners is our top priority right now. We are assessing the situation and we'll share additional information when available. Again, that from an Amazon spokesperson tonight. That is just their initial statement as you can imagine. They're trying to grasp what is happening and what continues to happen over the next hours at that fulfillment center there in Edwardsville. Wanna get back to Steve Templeton with the latest on our weather. We still have a tornado warning. We're still tracking that for Salem County and Salem, sorry, in Marion County. I think Salem's probably in the clear. I'm going to zoom in in a second and let you know if you're all clear and if you're in Clay County in Illinois, this is going to move your way. We'll see if the red box gets extended into this is Clay County. So, let's zoom in. That's the big picture there. We have only one warning left. It is a tornado warning and while the original storm weekend moved out, the new storm that has strengthened is showing some signs of a little bit of circulation. Let's get rid of the red box and if there was a circulation that would develop a tornado be over omega, it's but there's not much there. Yeah, there's not much there in the velocity data. I'm actually going to switch to the Evansville Velocity data. Just see if there's anything there because we're kind of getting on the outer reaches of our coverage area and sometimes looking at radars around the region helped give me a better perspective and a more complete picture and I'm just not seeing any real significant rotation. What I am seeing is air flowing into the storm right here. Not much of a notch. Air flowing out. So, if something were to develop and the reason why we have that one tornado warning going is because of right there over Omega. Um Salem, you're in the clear. I know you're getting heavy rain right now. Uh that's going to pass in a couple seconds and well, maybe a couple minutes. That's going to be done. Kim Monday, you're in the clear as well So, Marion County, even Ioka, rotation is north, you're in the clear. That's a heavy downpour. There's lightning but that's not severe, not showing any signs of rotation. Now, that can move east into Clay County So, right there, that's the Clay County border. This is Clay County. That would be north of Xenia. Uh Louisville, we'll have to keep an eye on it. You know, this is one of those storms that is strong. It's showing some signs like, hey, we should keep an eye on this but I I would guess that for now, unless this circulation strengthens, they probably won't issue a tornado warning in the Clay County. It could strengthen like that in one scan and so that could head up towards Lewisville in Clay County. We'll continue to watch that for you. In the meantime, it's in Eastern Marion County, Salem. Can Monday, you are in the clear. We're almost done with this as far as the current storms. We're not done with the news gathering and figuring out what is happening out there and how bad the damage is. New information coming into Cory right now. And we're still trying to assess the entire situation in Edwardsville. We have team coverage. We just heard from our Susan Alcori but we want to go back to Jenna Rae. She is the reporter that has our closest vantage point to the Amazon Warehouse. Jenna, what's the latest that you see there? Cory, still no update on what's going on. The newest thing that we've learned right now is that a couple ambulances have come out but they're now stationed here. There's about four or five of them sitting right here. It looks like they were just trying to get some vehicles out. It does look like they are going now into the debris that has fallen inside the Amazon warehouse. Again, several emergency crews still on this driveway. Let me turn you around to go back to this warehouse over here can see there are a few cranes. The fire truck still has their ladder up looking through debris right now. Again, in the last half hour, about half a dozen Saint Louis metro first responders actually came out here. We saw Metro West fire, Maryland Heights, Maplewood, and the Urban Search and Rescue Team. They are now all out here with several Metro East law enforcement officers as well. I just asked law enforcement who standing here. When are we going to get an update? We still haven't talked to any personnel who has given us information tonight. They still have no answer for us. They just told us that they were extremely busy dealing with this. Right now, we do know that about two dozen Amazon workers as you guys described and as I told you earlier, wearing those Amazon working vests that were transported by Madison County Transport buses out of the facility. They did not look injured but again, that is not confirmed at. We're still out here trying to fight for details and find out exactly what is happening behind me right now. Since you mentioned those workers that were taken away by those buses, do you know where those workers were taken? We do not have any official information right now. We do believe that they were potentially taken to a local police department but again, nothing is confirmed. I'm I'm sorry to keep saying that but I'm just, you know, being honest with you and the viewers that we don't have a lot of information confirmed right now. We do know that there are still about 100 or so people trapped inside this warehouse. That came from law enforcement about an hour and a half ago. They're still, of course, digging through the rubble trying to patch through exactly, you know, what is underneath, where some of these workers are, but those two dozen workers that we saw on those buses were transported out of the premise. And just being there on scene, you overhear conversations maybe from emergency personnel. Has there been any discussion about just how cautiously they're approaching this building because clearly that building is very weakened by the extensive damage. Have they talked about just kind of from a methodology standpoint of how approaching this very volatile situation I think that the the best information I can give you on that is that's why they're sending in those special reported I'm trying to think of the word. I'm sorry. Search and rescue teams that I mentioned earlier. There were two from Saint Clair and one from Madison. They're mass casualty. Special response teams. They again had those hard hats. They had harnesses on with carabiners, work boots, and they specifically had mentioned that they're the ones that go in to kind of dig through this. Again, we did see the excavators. Um we though could be used to remove possibly large steel beams that have fallen from the side of the warehouse but as of now, we don't have any specifics on what's going on about digging through the rubble or any sort of search and rescue efforts. And I just want to echo echo something that Jenna said is clearly you're working to get information confirmed on your end but our newsroom also has several people making phone calls to emergency personnel to try to get some information confirmed because there are a lot of questions but we also understand emergency personnel extremely busy on a night like tonight. Jenna. Right. Thank you. We want to get back over to Steve Templetoon who who's been over the last several hours watching our weather situation. Yeah, indeed and and we're almost at the end as far as watching the weather situation now and we continue obviously with the news gathering part of it and details but this is our last warning here. It's in Eastern Marion County. We still could see this extend into Clay County but Clay County, no warnings right now and that's really good news. I'm going to zoom in. that cell and and check it out. Kind of investigate it and analyze if there's been any kind of indication of increased circulation. It's a strong storm and it's producing a downpour but I don't see a threat for damaging winds and I'm going to get rid of the box and highlight specifically what I'm talking about right here east of Kinmundi, Salem, Kimundi, totally in the clear. Um coming in to Clay County, there's no extension on this as far as the severe thunderstorm warning. So, this really the the main threat out of this is either it it tighten its circulation and turns into a tornado warning or it's just going to be a quick heavy downpour that moves through Clay County potentially hitting Lewisville. I'm checking the Doppler winds and I'm just not seeing any significant rotation but that's why they've kept this warning and that warning as it moves into Clay County and really if there was circulation to be had and a tornado to be had, it'd be out of Marion County and right there and because it hasn't extended into Clay County that really gives me the indication the weather service is going to kind of just monitor this for right now We were monitoring storms as they did damage in defiance, in Edwardsville, and we know of damage in Fillmore. We're hearing a lot of reports from friends, a storm spotter, our spotter Robbie up in Hillsborough. Um Hillsborough, Illinois. That there's a lot of people in Montgomery County. This is Montgomery County here. Hillsborough will be right about here. There's a lot of people that are seeing Styrofoam on the ground. Is there anything else other reports? Is it Styrofoam specifically that coming up and they're wondering, you know, is that from the Amazon warehouse? We don't know. It could be insulation from it. It probably isn't from what I think and suspect and don't have a lot of a lot of information to confirm this but what I think is probably a tornado around caffeine and Fillmore. I have a tornado debris signature. So, I think that happened. Maybe one in Ramsey too but any debris thrown up there would then get pushed downstream. So, it's not from that it is possible that it came from this Edwardsville tornado, likely tornado that then debris thrown up in the air, traveled hundreds of feet of thousands of feet above the surface and then eventually floated down to Hillsborough. Matt, what else are we hearing out of that? Yeah, it's interesting, Steve. Uh you mentioned Robbie, one of our trusted spotters. He does specifically say roofing materials. He uses that phrase. So, regardless though, whatever you want to call it, whatever it may actually be it all appears to be relatively light which of course it would probably have to be to travel that distance. Steve and I were tracking that out between 35 and 40 miles and that would not be at all unprecedented. There there are plenty of historical events where we've had debris hoisted into the atmosphere and carried even farther than that by tornado thunderstorms in both Missouri and Illinois. So. Sometimes pay possible. Checks, things like that. Right. Um. Exactly. Like things that can float up in the air. Uh like Styrofoam or or siding. Uh my advice to people in in Hillsborough by the way would be don't touch it. Uh I don't know if it's dangerous. I don't know if it's fiberglass on it but stay away from it but it's possible. This is going back in time. Again, this is a radar replay back in time. This is about eight thirty ish. It's rough. Uh that's the hook echo coming through Edwardsville. There's 255. There's 270. So the warehouse right about there and of course, the trajectory of the storm and thus, the winds are all in this direction off to the northeast and as it travel to the northeast and I'll zoom out a little bit so you can kind of get a better idea but as it does travel to the northeast and now I'm going forward in time, it could still be producing a tornado here but here here's Hillsboro. So, it is possible that debris, you know, got up into the air. When we show our debris tracker and we showed that on this storm actually in Edwardsville, we pointed out a little area where debris had been thrown up into the air. The question is, where does it settle? It's possible. So to answer a lot of the questions for our friends in Hillsborough and around Montgomery County, we don't know for sure but it is very plausible that some of the Styrofoam and some of the debris, especially the lighter weight debris. Nothing really heavy but lighter weight debris that you've seen on the ground could actually be from what hit around Edwardsville and it's possible too that it may have hit even a little closer to to Hillsborough. Hillsborough be right about here. It's not out of the question that there's some damage reports that haven't come in along that line. That line is a rotating storm. The circles represent area where we know there's damage and again, that's a radar replay as I play it out for you. You'll see that first line come through and then the second line, that's the one we're tracking out of the area right now. So, three areas of damage we know about, two very significant, one in defiance, one in Edwardsville, still getting some new information. Corey has the latest. Steve, we are getting a new look inside the Amazon warehouse building. I'm looking at live picture. So, if we zoom in, my understanding is that we can see a little bit better inside where crews may be Again, I'm looking at this for the first time but you can see some movement inside there possibly, I don't know if I saw just a flashlight then trying or that looks like it's just something that's blowing in the wind there but yeah, Steve, yeah, Steve, go ahead and jump in here. If we can get Steve's bike on, he wants to talk about something here. So, there's a couple things that I noticed that I've seen a lot of unfortunately, a lot of tornado damage in my time and visit a lot of bad sites but one of the things that kind of catches my eye is if you look above that J sign, that's the sky in the distance. So, that siding or roof in the distance is completely pulled off. So, you have at least one side of the Amazon warehouse where the siding is ripped off, been ripped off and you have another side. That's indicative of a tornado because straight line winds would maybe peel off the roof and damage one side but winds that rotate would actually damage both sides all around. The other thing I notice is if you look at the very top, it it's almost kind of cream color. That kind of looks like that Styrofoam. I was just talking about they were getting from spotters. So, anyway, I just wanted to jump in. And and we just confirmed that there's Styrofoam all over the place from from a neighborhood and Bryant is, I'm going to guess that's probably somewhere oh around Edwardsville. Okay, which is keep in mind too Edwardsville downtown is actually northeast of this location. So, it's totally plausible that this debris then carried even a couple miles into Edwardsville but that's what I'm seeing when I see some of that damage right there. This is from our live crew, Jenna Ray. They're on scene. So, Jenna, while we have you, you've been monitoring this particular angle of the building for the last several minutes. What kind of movement and work have you seen from this vantage point over the last five minutes or so? Yeah. So, Cory, you can see, you know, we're zooming in now with our camera and what you can really see is kind of the inside of this fulfillment center. You can see signs just dangling by threads from what could be a ceiling from what we're seeing. Of course, as Steve said, you can almost see through and see the sky at some point in some of these windows. Meaning, the roof could be completely off of this Amazon warehouse tonight. Inside, it looks like debris just scattered everywhere. Again, things hanging by threads, machinery on the floor, Styrofoam of course, maybe off the walls from the ceiling. These emergency crews still really focused on the right side of this building where most of the damage looks to be from where we're standing. Again, dozens of emergency crews here. We can see cranes. We can see those excavators in the in the distance as well as fire crews with their ladders up. There are emergency personnel from both the Metro East and from the Saint Louis Metro as well. In addition, there are specialized teams here. Uh search and rescue teams and you know, we're just continuing to follow everything that is going on. And we've seen that ladder truck from the fire truck that you have been showing over the last couple hours. Have you seen anybody go up in that to kind of get a overhead vantage point or what have you seen with that truck particular? No, we haven't. In Cory, I'm sorry. I'm having a little bit of trouble hearing you right now but we haven't seen much movement since then. Um we, again, are just standing here again trying to get, you know, a little bit of information from emergency crews. Uh we were told the potential Madison County Fire Chief is supposed to come out and give us some sort of update at some point but the personnel that we've talked to here on scene say they're just completely overwhelmed at this point dealing with what's in front of us right now. And when you talk about that personnel. You talked about this 20 minutes ago or so. The Saint Louis metro area entirely has responded this. You talked about units from Maryland Heights, Saint Louis City. Talk again about just some of the overarching response that you've seen from the Saint Louis metro area to this particular location. It's it's really been honestly overwhelming to see just how many emergency crews are on scene. From the Metro East side, we've we've seen all of Saint Clair County and their municipality agencies as well as the Madison County along with their municipality agencies as well for the Saint Louis region, we've seen Metro East fire equipped with their urban search and rescue team. Those are the types of teams that go out to things like this, things like boat rescues when potentially has a boating accident. Those are the types of people that respond to these events. They have special equipment designed to deal with again mass casualty events like this for the clarification that does not mean that there are deaths. That is the just the term that law enforcement uses in situations like this. We have Maplewood, fire on scene as well, Maryland Heights, and their special unit and that's all we've seen for now, Cory. And just to verify, you have not seen anyone else be removed or walk out of that building with emergency personnel. You haven't seen anybody go from the inside out over the last 20 minutes or so. we haven't seen a single ambulance come out, Cory, since we've gotten here about three hours ago. The only ambulances that came out are now staged behind us. Uh there are no people in them. I think I believe these ambulances are just on standby for the moment. The other emergency crews are are on scene of what you're looking at on camera right now. Alright, Jenna Ray with the very latest there in Edwardsville. Clearly, we're going to continue following that situation. Just how extensive that is. We also have damage tonight in Saint Charles County in defiance. That's where our Caroline Hecker has been all night checking out some of the damage there. Well, we've continued to make our way west on County Highway F and what we've encountered is some of the most serious damage we have seen so far this evening. What used to be homes completely flat and gone. The fire department's here telling us this is some of the worst damage in the defiance area that they have encountered so far this evening. You can see over there a barn has collapsed. What appears to be the rest of the foundation. Uh it is all that remains. Look at these trees that you see and how they are snapped. Just clearly like twigs like nothing. Uh as we pan over here to the right, there are some firefighters away back from the road. looking at some of the damage. You can see this power pole right above that red truck there. You can see the angle that it's laying at that gives you an idea of just how hard the wind was blowing here. Again, we are west farther west on County Highway S down from Highway 94 in Defiance. Farther west down the road, we are told there are many more homes or what's left of them that look just like this. We are working to learn more information from the fire department and police. There are all kinds of emergency vehicles here on scene. A lot of them out there working right now. So, we are working to learn more about what exactly they believe happened here. Storm, potentially a tornado If. people were home and if those people are okay, we will continue to press for those answers. Guys, alright, Caroline Hecker, thank you. Let's jump back to the other side of the river with Susan Alcori continuing our team coverage in Edwardsville. Susan, what's the latest that you have out there for us tonight? Well, right now, you can still see just how massive the search and rescue is. A lot of those flashing lights centered on around the middle of the building where we're seeing just the walls completely gone, roof also gone, and basically, all you can see at this point is support beams are actually looking through the building to the other side. Not too long ago here, I did talk to a woman who's parked out along 255 with us and She tells me her husband is a truck driver for Amazon and he was at work that today and she tells me she was talking to him before the storm hit but says, since then, she hasn't been able to reach him. Right now, she tells me the only information she's getting is from her husband's manager who is trying to pass on whatever they can find out but of course, just a very, very big concern for family members who had loved ones inside of that building trying to get information but telling me at this point, they really don't have answers. I know she told me she called different hospitals trying to see if her husband was okay but again, that's just something that they just don't have those answers and right now, are watching all of this unfold from the highway and wanting to find out what's going on. Again, we do know that at least some people were injured inside of there. This woman telling me she's hoping her husband is okay and that hopefully, it's just his that die but again, families still waiting for those answers tonight. So many anxious families. Susan, thank you. Wanna go back to Jenna Ray and Jenna, I understand there's a new development from what you've seen out there at the scene a little bit closer to the warehouse where you are. Okay. Yeah. So, the the new development that we're seeing right now is actually a drone flying over the top of the rubble here at the Amazon warehouse. Again, the entire right side. I should say a partial right side is collapse. Um I know like from previous experience working with some law enforcement agencies, those special units that I was telling you guys about earlier, they actually use these drones in events like this. Sometimes, it's hard to get those fire ladders up high enough to kind of see exactly what's going on at a higher level at an aerial view and get a little more detail. So, we could possibly assume that that drone is a fire and rescue team's drone just trying to get a better advantage point of what's going on inside. And Jenna, as you continue to look there, we talked about those excavators a little bit about 20 minutes ago. I just, I wanted to bring those back up just because I wanted to see if they've been clearing any debri from what you've seen to kind of make it easier for some of those rescue crews. Yeah. So, again, you know, we can't see the extent of the debris from where we are. Cory, honestly, a lot of these emergency crews are blocking a majority of the debris. We know that there is still some steel beams standing inside the warehouse but as we pan over to the left as we were showing you guys earlier through these windows, we can't tell if the glass is there or not to be honest but you can see right through the windows. Some of it, you can even see the sky. We have signs dangling from threads. It looks like debris has been tossed all around inside the Amazon fulfillment center. Jenna, thank you. As we keep this live picture up, you can, as Jenna just said, just see some of the debris. You can, if you look really closely, what you're looking at is the sky to show you that the roof of that Amazon Center warehouse is gone and just a reset because here we are at 1211 tonight. Uh we have been on this since about 830, 845 So this is an ongoing situation. You have dozens and dozens of emergency personnel, not just from the Metro East but throughout the entire Saint Louis metro area that are responding to this. Dozens, if not more than a hundred people trapped inside, that's information that we have from about an hour and a half ago. So, we don't know if that number has changed. We're making calls here in the newsroom to get the very latest. Our General Ray and Susan Alcory there outside of the warehouse trying to get some but understandably, emergency responders, their focus is here. Their focus is to get these individuals out of the building safely, hopefully, this is a going to be a situation where there aren't deaths but we don't know. We don't know about deaths. We don't know about the extensive of injuries. So, that's all questions that we're asking right now and we know many of you at home are watching this and been watching this for the last two hours or three hours or so and they have, you have the same questions. So, I just want to let you know, we are contacting the people that we know in order to get some of these questions answered. Wanna go to a statement that was released about an hour and a half ago by Governor JB Pritzker. You can see it there on your screen. Quote, my prayers are with the people of Edwardsville tonight and as I reached out to the mayor to provide any needed state resources, our Illinois State Police and Ready Illinois are both coordinating closely with local officials and I will continue to monitor this situation. Again, that tweet coming about an hour and a half ago from Governor JB Pritzker. Let's get back to Chief Meteorologist Steve Templeton. Still tracking but it's at least getting out of the area. That's the good news, Steve. It's out. I'm done. It's it's done. Uh in Clay County, I'm going to continue to watch but that's all week. That's all rain. Uh there is no severe threat across the area right now. I want to jump on with something that Cory was talking about. Um first responders are trying to do their job and we see this sometimes. We see this all the time. When we have significant tornado damage, especially in the populated metro area you tend to get people who want to drive by and see it. I don't think that's as much of a problem this late at night but tomorrow it could be and they're still going to be doing work out there and that's a view right now of the Amazon warehouse just southwest of downtown Edwardsville and the Edwardsville area and the crews are going to be working hard tomorrow. There's probably going to be people who work there who want to come in and see if, you know, some of their personal effects have been strewn about or maybe they can sal them and the last thing they need is people on the roads gawking. Uh we saw it happen with the Good Friday tornado especially. We saw it happen with the the New Year's Eve tornado in 2010. It happens. I I just want to let you know we're going to do our best to stay out of the way of first responders not only tonight but also tomorrow but still bring you the pictures and the stories of people and let us do that job as opposed to you you know, some people that want to clog up the roads and be gockers. Um so, I'll step down off soap box but I see it all the time and I I just want to give the first responders some breathing room to do their job. They're certainly working hard tonight. Uh as far as the SkyTracker Dopper radar goes now, again, we don't have any warnings. One of the things I've been working to do is just kind of add some perspective on what exactly happened tonight because we have had damage in defiance. We've had damage in Fillmore, Illinois, Montgomery County. It's been a couple areas where there's been some damage. I don't know exactly how many likely tornado es. This one likely was a tornado but could it two, maybe three. We'll have to wait to the weather service can kind of confirm exactly the amount of tornado es or if there was one long tornado from the Metro East, there's probably at least two is my thinking but one of the things I want to do is do kind of a radar replay. So, we can get back to graphics for me right here. I've gone back in time. I I've just been slapping this together. So, I don't have a time stamp work on that but this is about six o'clock and as I go forward in time, we're going to go about I don't even know the exact time on this but it's it's early when we started to get the tornado warnings coming up around Saint Charles County and the more I'm zooming in, right there, that's the hook at around defiance. That is not the same storm that produced a tornado in Edinburgh. This one's actually going to kind of go up to the northeast through near Saint Charles. Doesn't mean it produced a tornado through that path because we don't have any damage here but we do have damage here but this as it rotates, goes up to the north and then a new one is going to develop and it's going to produce that tornado out around Edwardsville. Let me step outside and kind of click that for you and you'll see another little hook that develops right around Edwardsville, the actual Amazon plant just a little to the southwest of Edwardsville. Um so, it would be right about here and this is 255. This is 270. This was about 830 in the evening. We also lost our BJC Skycam at SIUE. I don't know if it's because it got by hit by tornado or with straight line winds or what. I just know that a really strong storm with likely a tornado came through the Edwardsville area and we lost our camera at SIU. I haven't heard of any damage there so that would it be indication that maybe it was just straight line winds. That's the hook right there. So, that would be winds rotating this way and then there be potential tornado here. See, reason I say potential is because we know there was damage here. I haven't heard any damage in Edwardsville properties. Am I right on that and Cory, Matt? Yeah. So, what could have happened is, you know, this thing touches down, does damage here, and then the rotation, weakens a little bit. It's still rotating. This is still rotating. So, what happens with tornado es is they don't really skip. They rotate, they strengthen, and they hit and then they weaken and they're not strong enough to rotate and lift stuff off the ground but they're still rotating. That's happening right there. Okay, the storm continues to rotate and produces a tornado around Sorrento, Coffeen, and Fillmore here Northern Bond County and the Southern Montgomery County. We've heard of a lot of damage. I don't have as credible evidence as I do around Edwardsville to call that a tornado but pretty pretty close. I I I believe I remember the debris tracker so and so that tornado debris signatures there and there's the hook right there. So, that came through Sorento and into Southern Montgomery County, maybe around Ramsey, there's the hook right there. All of this from Edwardsville to right here is the same storm. Doesn't necessarily mean it's the same tornado. it could be a same storm that's tightening up, creating damage, weakening, it's still rotating. Yeah. But it's weakening. And then all of a sudden, this thing gets out of here and we get another line of storms with tornado warnings on em. Thankfully, we haven't had any reports of damage from that second line but that's kind of big perspective on what has happened tonight and in that big picture, you can see the three areas that I know we have damage around Fillmore, Edwardsville, and Defiance. Big picture for you and that is the live SkyTracker Doppler radar as it moves east through Still Clay County and out of our area. But all clear, the other thing weather wise, you need to know, it's just going to be much colder and windy tomorrow. That's something first responders are going to have to battle. We're going to have some gusts overnight tomorrow morning around 35 to 40 miles per hour. Let's get some new information coming into the anchor desk. Cory, what do you have? Yes, Steve. Uh we are getting some information from Illinois Emergency Management Agency with Governor JB Pritzker activating state emergency operations to assist local jurisdictions respond to the severe weather that we have seen in the Edwardsville and adjacent Pontoon Beach area tonight. Just reading briefly from this press release. Uh they say that the hardest hit areas as we've said and we've seen have been in Madison County where they're responding to this partial collapse of the Amazon warehouse. Uh multiple agencies there on scene in which the state is trying to assist with. They also say and and Steve you touched on this at this time state and local authorities are urging the public to avoid the area until further notice. Please stay clear of areas with damage and allow rescue crews time and space to do their job. So, that's just reiterating what Steve Templeton just said because it's not so much tonight that you have to worry about. It's individuals driving up I 255 tomorrow trying to maybe catch a look of the damage. So, that is what the state is trying to avoid but again, the headline here, Governor activating the state emergency operations center to assist these local jurisdictions, these local emergency response teams that are responding to this severe weather tonight. As we take a live look here, it's a scene that you continue to look at in in some amazement as the wall of this Amazon warehouse and I should say walls because there's other vantage points too that that show walls being down but a roof of the Amazon fulfillment center dozens of people, if not, more than 100 people injured and or excuse me, I shouldn't say injured, trapped. Uh we're still waiting to hear about injuries and any kind of fatalities but we have all those questions out right now but let me clarify again. people trapped, possibly more than 100 people trapped inside this fulfillment center and crews have been on this scene for two and a half, three hours, and more emergency personnel have shown up because you can just can imagine just the extensiveness and how big this scene is for so many of these first responders, Steve. You know, Cory, sometimes in these large span roof incidents where tornado kind of peels the roof away. Um you can get into just sometimes by sheer luck. You get into situation where if you are in there and if there are people that are trapped in there, they can actually like some of the roof can create like a pyramid almost and and and create this little air pocket, this pocket for you where debris hits portions of the siding and the that have fallen on some of the scaffolding that holds up all the products that are in there. Um you know, I'm not I'm not trying to be overly optimistic but I'm trying to be realistic that that can happen and just because you're hearing people, you know, trapped doesn't mean that they aren't okay and maybe they are and I hope that's the case but that certainly can happen in these especially these large span roof, big box areas with all that scaffolding and stuff that keeps products up. It is something that can happen. It's not something we'd suggest to hide in those aisles with all those huge scaffolding and and products but it can happen and so if there's any loved ones watching at home, we offer at least that. Uh as certainly the first responders continue to do their job. As we have your expert eye on this scene, I didn't know if you could tell anything about wind speed. Uh you know, when it hits that building this point, okay. No, you know, the problem with these large span buildings is that they're not really built for tornado es. You can't say, well, if it hits that and it rips the roof off and it had to be EF3 because they're rated to this. Um the the the large span roof can get peeled off by straight line winds at 80 miles an hour. Now, this likely was a tornado What. I can tell you though is that first of all, all the evidence on radar, corroborates that this was a tornado but also seeing that there's multiple sides of the building that were hit or destroyed. That really helps. Even sometimes if you notice mud that's thrown up on one side of the building, then, another side then another side. Indication of a tornado Straight. line winds wouldn't do that. It's the tornado rotating the debris around that building that will create that with either mud on it or create some of the walls to fall off. So, I can't tell you wind speed. That's something the weather service is really going to happen investigate. They're almost like forensic scientists. I mean, they look at how well built. They look at you know, how things are are welded together and they're almost experts on structural integrity so that they know just how strong the winds were and they're going to have to timetake to get out there. No doubt they'll be out there tomorrow doing their hard work to figure that out and answer that question, Cory. This is the first time tonight that we are seeing an ambulance. We've seen ambulances with closed doors but it looks like possibly somebody that they maybe assisting right now. We see the stretcher there outside of the ambulance. We haven't seen a person inside or on that stretcher but you know, Jenna Ray has talked about all the units and ambulances that are there on scene kind of on standby but again, this is the first time that we're seeing one with the doors open possibly maybe somebody inside. We don't know but we'll stay on this picture. Just while we're looking at this, I'm getting some information in my ear about power outages in the metro about 33, 000 people without power in both the Illinois and Missouri side of the metro. Jenna Ray talked about it moments ago. Uh I should say about an hour ago but electric crews there on scene, gas crews there on scene which is normal practice in any kind of situation like this but she has at least seen those crews responding to this particular scene here in Edwardsville. That's a good point about the gas crews too which I I forgot I should have mentioned that earlier that anyone who smells gas, you gotta get out of the area but that's something that they need to take care of right away in those situations. I haven't heard that those reports. Um what I'd be interested to is if if Jenna's hearing me and if she can speak to this, we've heard all these reports of people downstream like like 40 miles downstream that are seeing debris, light debris that can be hoisted in the air. So, it's like a Styrofoam or the stuff that goes up in the attic to insulate insulation. Um I'll get there. I'll get the organization. That type of stuff thrown, strewn, northeast of Edwardsville as much as 40 miles and I just wonder if Jenna has seen any of that, you know, that kind of insulation, fiberglass, light, debris that can be strewn in the area. It's very plausible that it came from this area but we don't know that for sure. Jen mentioned this in one of her live reports and we just saw it there. The medical helicopter that there is on scene. Um and as we look at this stretcher, it's hard to tell. Uh clearly there's a white tarp. Um if there is someone being treated or someone there and I want to be really careful about what we are showing. but you can see the medical helicopter there. It looks like they might be moving that individual to the medical helicopter. Time will tell on that. But yeah, that's good that we've zoomed out from this particular situation. but this is the first time and again, we've been looking at this for three hour, three hours now that we've actually seen medical personnel treating or dealing with somebody at this scene. I don't know if Jenna, can Jenna hear me there on scene? okay? our generator. Uh this is from her camera but she's working to get more information at this point. But it looks like emergency personnel working methodically and again, I it's hard to tell. Uh Adam Randle, our photojournalist there. Adam, what what can you tell us about this? this ambulance just left the facility and went over to the med flight and it looks like they have a person on a stretcher that they're trying to transfer over to the helicopter. Okay. And this is a cross from the actual building is right behind me and it drove pretty quickly over to this helicopter and it looked like I saw a pair of shoes and it looked like a lunchbox and it when they finally brought the person out, it looks like they're transferring them to the med flight and usually. know exactly what else is happening. Alright, Adam, thank you and usually when a medical helicopter is involved, there is urgency behind it. They want to get this person to a hospital as quickly as possible. So, we'll stay on this. Uh Adam, I guess the other thing I have if I still have you, did you see any kind of movement from this individual? Could you actually see the the person that's on the stretcher? No, you and I both saw the individual coming out at the same time and it looked like they were covered with almost one of those silver warming blankets. Sure. So, you really couldn't see what was happening underneath it. Just the the medical people sitting there trying to get them transferred over. Alright, Adam. Thank you and again, he described that the actual warehouse is behind him. So, this is a cross the street from the Amazon Warehouse where emergency personnel are dealing with an individual. Looks like they're going to put him on that or him or her, I should say, on a medical helicopter which again, normally tells us that there is a sense of urgency to get that person to a hospital as soon as possible. The other things that we have seen as far as the Amazon workers that have been taken from this scene tonight, there were two buses that were filled with about two dozen Amazon workers. They had the Amazon worker a tire on. They were taken away from the scene. Our Generator reported that they were possibly taken to a local police station near this area. We saw from inside those buses that the workers seem like they were fine. Uh again, you know, you can only tell from what you were seeing but they were moving around. They were talking. They were on cellphones. This is the video of that right now. As you can see, the lights and then the closer look of but again, as I was talking about, those Amazon workers leaving in those buses possibly to a police department, local local police station I should say to be transported there. So, as we continue to learn more here, we want to go to some new video this actually this is a video from a little bit earlier. The warehouse and just take a look at the extensive the damage. If you're just joining us and you can get a real grasp of the emergency personnel that are on scene from dozens of different areas all across the Saint Louis metro area but that extensive damage, the wall, the roof, everything that has happened at this scene is developing minute by minute as new things either show up to the scene to help with the situation. We saw those excavators not too long ago to possibly take debris out of the warehouse. We've seen drones up in the air to give emergency personnel a better perspective of what they're dealing with inside because as you can imagine, a lot of the walls, a lot of the the roof, it's collapsed. So, you don't have a lot of sound structure there that they have to be really, really careful with and just the extensive the damage of trying to understand what emergency crews are dealing with and our newsroom making phone calls to figure out what are the injuries. Are there fatalities with this? We know that dozens of people are trapped inside, have been trapped inside, possibly more than 100 but the information right now is all coming from us to sources there on scene with our team coverage and our reporters there but we're making phone calls to Madison County Emergency Responders who are very busy right now. So, we understand that but it's trying to get all of this information for you so we get you the very latest as we again take this live where it looks like they're taking this individual to the medical helicopter to be taken and treated at a area hospital. Just heard from our producer in my ear that we are going to be hearing from police soon. So, when that happens, of course, we will let you know and we'll bring that to you. As we look at this individual who is just put on the helicopter, I goes back to the last live report we heard from our reporter, Susan Alcori, who talked to a wife of a husband who who works at Amazon and she described how she talked to her husband before the storms came and now cannot get a hold of her husband. So, you think about those types of things that so many families are dealing with tonight. In your heart, in your prayers, I'll go out to everybody who is having a lot of anxious moments, who don't have a lot of answers to questions right now but those are the types of stories that we have heard from individuals who have loved ones that work at the Amazon warehouse. We've heard from at least two families that have loved ones that work there and they can't get a hold of their loved ones. And it's a unimaginable thing. So as we look at this helicopter that just loaded an individual on board to take to an area hospital. Uh we don't know the circumstances. We actually couldn't even see the end they were covered up by looks like a a white tarp that was about couple minutes ago but we imagine that this or this helicopter will leave very soon. and that tarp my producer talking in my ear if there's these pauses but our understanding is that is a normal thermal blanket that is kind of used time in these times of trauma. So, that is most likely what that was. Uh is that person was then loaded onto the medical helicopter. Steve, feel free to jump in of anything that that you've seen from the building, the damage and any kind of new information that we're getting from these storms tonight. As we watch that helicopter take off, I can tell you that you'll notice in the bottom right corner of the screen that map. It has one purple county when it goes back to the the warnings. It's fades back and forth between the radar which is pretty much almost out of Clay County and not severe and only one purple county which is Clay County. That is a tornado watch, not a warning and that watch really is going to should be cancelled. It it expires at 2 AM but Clay County, we're not seeing any threat. So, the bottom line is a severe threat across the entire area is done with. Um you you know, we've had people mention even going into today that they find it unusual to get tornado es in December. Yeah, it's unusual. It's not unheard of though it turns out if you if you look at the tornado stats for the greater Saint Louis area, the non-big tornado months. So, you know, March, April, May, June, those are the big dominant tornado months. You get a lot of tornado es. Most of them are weak but those are when you get most of your tornado es. In August, September, October, November, December. That's five months at the end of the year that usually have much lower totals. They still have tornado es. October 24th we had the EF3 near Farmington to Chester. It turns out December, out of about those five months has the most. Um so, they're unusual but they happen. Of course, we remember December thirty-1st in 20 ten. That was the New Year's Eve tornado tornado es. Some people call it the New Year's Eve tornado. There were multiple tornado es but there was one that was significant and has that lasting impact and that's the one that went through Fenton. I believe it was Saint Paul's church that was hit and then eventually over towards Limbard in Sunset Hills just south of 44 and actually kind of roll the car. That's what it looked like. That was an EF3 out of zero is the weakest damage in five. the strongest. I gotta be honest from what I'm seeing and hearing tonight, I don't think we're going to see images like this come tomorrow morning. Uh I can't tell you how strong the winds are but it's not quite that bad but this just goes to show December tornado es happen and we need to stay on top of it and let you know about it. Make sure that you have a way to get the warning and a plan when they do hit. Um there was one person that actually perished and they were in a car that was flipped but that that was a pretty significant tornado and EF3 on December 3-1st. The high that day, I'm just doing this off memory. I think it was 64 and I'm pretty sure that was the high today too. So, you don't have to be 75, 80 degrees to get into, you know, tornado territory. It can be kind of like today was a great, mild but not exceptionally warm but mild, 64 degrees and you have the warmth and especially the moisture to set you up for tornado es. We'll see how many tornado es develop. I'm going to guess Defiance in Edwardsville or at least and maybe a third over in the Montgomery County, Illinois. And as we look at now this live picture back in Edwardsville, we are getting some new information from our reporter Susan Alcori there on the scene. She tells us that 46 people were transported on buses to the Pontoon Beach Police Department. Uh so it seems like if they're transported there, that would maybe tell us that they're either not injured or their injuries are not extensive but again, that number 46 individuals that were taken on those those buses over to the Pontoon Pontoon Beach Police Department but we just saw that medical helicopter leave the scene. Yeah. Um normally in those situations, as we said, that's an urgent situation where somebody needs to be transported very quickly to an area hospital. So, that's what they're working on right now. Uh one of the positives and I I try to be optimistic. I try to draw on the positives but I'm also going to be realistic with this situation is that while we're focused on this bad damage right so right here. One of the things that's starkly different than say the EF three from that New Year's Eve was you know, we're not going from this Amazon warehouse into let's say a subdivision or neighborhood nearby and then into downtown Edwardsville, it doesn't seem like it's a long path of destruction. It seems like it's kind of isolated to this area and I I I I'm sorry for the destruction but I hope that it is isolated but that's kind of a positive to draw that you know, we're not although it is dark and we don't know but in that area, you probably start to hear from subdivisions and from police that maybe this path continues over a area. We're not just not hearing that right now at least. I hope that stays the case that it was an isolated, quick hit and then, moved on. I want to go back to what you did say but from what you're looking at and just what you saw on radar, you do believe this is a likely tornado Yeah. We had a tornado debris signature. So, that's radar seeing debris thrown into the air. As you see, one of the first responders. My guess is that they're probably peering down into the structure to try and see who if they're looking for people or you know, they may also be trying to assess the structural integrity to try and figure out what. Yup. How can we get in there safely because they don't want to come in and all of a sudden, something collapses on them. So, who knows exactly specifically what they're doing but I'm guessing it's one of those two things. Trying to assess the safe path for themselves and try to assess if they see anybody. Um but that large span roof, they are they are not ideal. You don't want to be you know, in a big gymnasium, a big box store. You tend to want to be in the small rooms that provide a little more structure integrity when tornado es do hit. And going back to really about ten o'clock, so two and a half hours ago, our crew was there doing live reports. They actually had to break down because there was that second line of storms really it looked like it was about to go right toward this area. So they had to get to safety. And there was a circulation too that will move just north of this area. Didn't produce a tornado that we know of but it was, you know, concerning when you got all these people out there trying to help people who've been in that first likely tornado and then all of a sudden another storm comes in. If you take a look at the radar replay, if you pull up graphics, you'll see what I'm talking about exactly really what Cory's talking about which is that we had this line of storms come through and produce probably at least two, maybe three tornado es and then another line behind it. This is like I think I put it at five-hour loop here. So, it's looping from five hours of data. Okay, there we go. That's the initial one. That's the big one and then, this Cory's talking about. Here comes the second one. You can you can see him. It doesn't take a degree in meteorology to see that that second line is pretty nasty. There's a lot of yellows and reds and when you see that in heavy rain, potential for some strong winds. That was hitting this area near Edwardsville where indeed we've seen that damage and had our crews on the ground at that Amazon warehouse and of course, those first responders are still out there. We saw that firefighter up on the ladder peering down and you know, we're trying to our crews are trying to get to questions but we're also trying to respect the first responders as they try to do their job. They've got more important job. Uh, but I know too that one of the jobs you guys have, Cory, is reporters and anchors as you're trying to answer questions that certainly loved ones at home are wondering as well and we will do our best to get those answers with respect while respecting those first responders in their job. And you just think about how, if there was that another line or there was more rain and wind by behind what happened in Edwardsville that emergency first responders how they would be able to handle that situation dealing with weather elements. So, if there's any, I guess, good news in this is that they, at least, it's calm right now where they're able to get in and really assess and hopefully get some of these people out. Yeah and actually, the cold front hasn't quite passed yet. It's in the 40s in Columbia. It's in the 60s still over in the Metro East but it's coming and as we get that colder air overnight, it's the winds are really going to pick up. So, tomorrow morning There will be some gusts at 35 to forty miles per hour. It'll be all dry but that could hamper them. So, it's kind of good that right now at least it's a little breezy. It's still kind of mild. The chill hasn't settled in and they can do their most important work but they'll probably be out there tomorrow morning battling the elements and that'll be strong winds and cold by tomorrow morning. And if we could take the live shot full, it looks like there are some emergency personnel trying to decide from their perspective. I don't know if that's on the top of the the building or the structure, it's hard to tell. I don't know if our photographer can zoom out. No, it looks like that's on the ground floor. So, doing some kind of work there. and it looks like they're looking at charts. I mean, you know, building this massive in this particular warehouse alone, 1. 1 million square feet. So, you can just think how big that is and and they're looking at floor plans. They're looking at, you know, how the structure was built. There's so many different things that they're trying to assess right now to really get a scope of where possibly could somebody be, where is it safe to enter? And how we can safely get to them. Exactly, buddy. Exactly. Yeah and and that's, I mean, that's a special job in its own right. We say things like first responders and you know, you immediately think of fire and police but there's rescue too and that's a that's a special job by the way. Um by the way, Susan is in touch with someone who is actually in the building. So, our crews are out there kind of trying to find answers, get a little more context on exactly what went down and what people have seen. We want to hear from them and and and probably put them on TV and let loved ones know that they're safe. But we'll have that for you as soon as we can. But Susan's out there. Jenna's out there and they're certainly doing their best to provide as many answers as possible. You just mentioned Susan Alcori. Uh want to get back out to her. She's been live at this scene for the last several hours. Susan, what are some of the latest things that that you're learning and that we are seeing out there? Well, right now, we are at the pontoon Beach Police Department. Merged several people who were inside the warehouse when the storm hit. They were bust out over here. Police tell me that they were just trying to get a headcount on everyone who's in there and I have been able to speak with people who are inside the building and that includes a fell, Duran, and his wife, Kim, who just got here to pick him up. Thank you for speaking with us. I didn't know if you could just tell us a little bit about what happened right before the storm hit. Oh, like I said, this has been Uh I was actually coming from Saint Louis right on 270 on my way here. You know, it was it was raining a lot but once I got over the the highway and came to the towards the job site, I thought the power was out because it was just darkness. I didn't realize, you know, back of the building was gone until I actually got there, pulled up, and where we normally go into, we couldn't get in because it was so much damage that you know, we just parked to the side and just saw was just all the damage. I know it's been difficult just being out there. What what were you seeing just just now as crews were trying to work to get people out? Oh, like I said, a lot of lot of smash cars. a bunch of power lines down. Uh actually, there's a little lake that's behind our building, Burling the water in it. There was cars in there. So, I mean, yeah, it it's a lot, there's a lot to deal with. And Kim, we saw you just very very relieved to be back together tonight. How how did that feel? it was really terrifying. We were just speaking and I had told him last night. I said, you know, babe, I don't want you to close tonight, you know, just, you know, bring your butt on home and it was just kind of eerie and you know, I watched the news, watched the forecast and stuff and I immediately, you know, texted him like, how are you doing? And he called me. He said, babe, the building is gone. It's gone and I'm like, what do you mean? It's gone. He says, it's nothing there and I'm like, what do you mean? There's nothing there. He's like, babe, his car smashes stuff everywhere but there is nothing left. Like, this is crazy stuff all he saw was the other part of the building and that was it and much of what you just saw with the the crane and stuff on there but just to think that oh you know, I wasn't going to see him. I thought, you know, did I hug him tight enough this morning? Did I give him a kiss? You know, the did I tell him I love him? Was I, you know, still sleep. You know, anything and just, you know, make it sure he's here. That's what matters and I I really do. I just, you know, hug and thank the police and stuff and I thank the first responders and everybody that was out there because it was still another wave coming through and they were still out there trying to save people. Yeah. Obviously, just a a lot you have been going through tonight. Were you able to see? Do you know anything about injuries or or what's going on with people in the building? Um not off hand, I sure don't. Mm mm. Like I said, whenever I got there, they assist the damage. Uh police officers came, told us to go to the the restroom inside the building. So, it was about maybe 50 of us in there for the time being til the buses came and brought us over here. Okay. Well, we're happy that you're okay. Right. And you guys are back together tonight. Oh, yeah. This is incredible. And again, this is Pontoon Beach Police Department where people who were inside the warehouse were taken here so that they could be picked up. You just heard about some of the damage that happened at the warehouse. A lot of people lost their cars and again, the building extensively damaged. Again, we're still waiting on more information about people who are inside on any injuries that happened. Alright, Sue and and so glad that he is okay. We do want to get things over to Jenna Rae who has getting some brand-new information and has officials to talk to tonight. Uh Jenna? Sorry. Thank you so much for. Live right outside of the Amazon Warehouse off of I two fifty-five. I'm standing here with Edwardsville Police Chief Mike Philback. Mike, it's been a really busy night for you guys. Just kind of tell me, you know, how this started, when you got the call, and what has transpired since? So, we received the call at approximately 8: 33 PM Um last evening And for a building collapse here at the Amazon Complex which is at thirty seventy-seven Gateway Commerce Center Drive South. Um every single fire department in the Eversville Police Department responded along with multiple jurisdictions, fire EMS, and and police. Um as you can see, have responded to try to lender rescue here. Um at this point, Amrin, here a short time ago was able to get the power turned off to the building. Um so that we could safely, the fire crews could get in there and get the search and rescue. Uh we, there is unknown at this how many people were in the buildings, the time of the collapse, and it's unknown how many people still remain in the building. We did transport a lot of folks out to a safe location to reunite them with their loved ones and and our EMS fire continue to work the scene. Uh it's probably going to be throughout the rest of this morning trying to render it safe and get in there and and see who they can pull out if there if there's anyone left in the And chief, a lot again, as you mentioned, EMS and law enforcement personnel here on scene. I've I've talked with several of them who just said, they haven't seen a catastrophe like this in such a long time, especially here in Edwardsville. What was your initial reaction when you pulled up and and and saw this tremendous collapse in this scene? Yeah, no, this is a fairly new building. Uh so, it's not something that we're used, you know, used to seeing. Um we're fortunate enough we don't get hit by many tornadoes and and those things. So, yeah, it's it's it's devastating to see the amount of damage there and to know that there were people inside when that happened. So, you know, at this point, we just we we put our prayers out to all involved and and and our first responders are in there trying to to do you know, a rescue job and keep everybody safe at the same time. So. And and chief, I know that as you said, people were were transported to Pontoon Beach and you guys at home just heard that from Susan as well. Um tell me the the questions that law enforcement are asking them at Pontoon Beach. Uh you mentioned, you know, trying to see who else was inside, any sort of number, contacting people, explain that process to me. Yeah. So, so police officers, we also have the chaplains out there as well and we're just trying to gather information from it from them to identify them so that we know that they're accounted for that they're safe and also try to get from them any information about who who else that they worked with that was inside that hasn't been identified yet where they might have been in the building so we can relay that information to fire as well so they know where to start looking for for people. As we've talked about, you know, there there are law enforcement agencies on both the Metro East side, the Illinois side of the river as well as the Missouri. Talk about the coordination efforts. There are more than a dozen agencies probably from both sides of the river here. What does it take to coordinate such a massive search and rescue effort in in weather event like this. Yeah. Well, I mean, our fire and our police, they they practice this for when these things happen and and even at that, it still takes a lot of effort. I'm sure as you guys can contest the batteries going down and and phone lines being, you know, tied up and that. So, there's there's a lot of effort that goes into it. Um and and you know, how we eventually end up doing it. Sometimes, you you just don't know but you know, there's a lot of work, a lot of time, a lot of patience that goes in to making it as successful as you can. And something that I think maybe might not be talked about a lot is the emotional toll that this takes on you, on people who are are seeing this up close. What do law enforcement agencies offer to first responders after situations like this to kind of debrief and process the emotional toll that these types of events take on people. So for for us for example we have chaplains for the police and the fire department. Um so, though those chaplains and Pontoon Beach actually has their chaplain over there at their PPD offering assistance to the people that we transported from the scene and then afterwards, we'll follow up with that. Our chaplains will our supervisors will to to see, you know, what what maybe is going through a guy's head. Um our our city, we we offer, you know, employee assistance and and all those things. So you know, it it is a a toll that that weighs on you at times and it's it's one of those things that as a supervisor, you have to be mindful of it but you know, first and foremost, we gotta do this job and then afterwards, we gotta take care of our personnel to make sure that when the time comes again, that they're able to do the job that needs to be done. And chief, last question for you, there are family members on scene here tonight. There are obviously family members outside who who cannot get a hold of their loved ones. What what message do you have for them tonight? Um so, I mean, at this point, we would ask please be patient with us. Our fire personnel are doing everything they can to try to identify everybody, reunite them with their loved ones. Uh stay close to your phones, stay in tune to your local news. Um yeah, reach out to the Red Cross if if you still haven't heard from a loved one. Uh they are they're on scene as well. Assisting and we will we will try to do everything we can to reunite them with them but please don't come down to the scene at this point. It's is an ongoing operation. We need to be able to keep it open for emergency personnel to get in and out. Perfect. Thank you, chief. I appreciate your time. You guys back in the studio, that was Edwardsville Police Chief Mike Philback talking with us. That is the first law enforcement official this evening in the almost four hours that we have been out here that we have heard from someone. Again, there's still no telling exactly how many people are trapped still in that warehouse, the search efforts are well underway where Again, you know, staying out here, trying to get some more information for you guys but hopefully, that was some good information and a little bit of an update for those of you also watching at home. And I don't know, Jenna, if in your pre interview with Chief Philback before we heard from him, did he mention anything about the person who was air flighted out of that scene, the extent of that person's injuries? Uh he did not. Cory, he knows limited information honestly about any injuries inside the fulfillment center. Right now, he said that emergency crews are really just trying to gather the the tremendous scope of this event. Um no word on that specific person as of now. From what you've seen sometimes in these situations just to kind of find where people are in a situation where there's debris everywhere. Has there been rescue dogs brought in to try to search for folks? There have been dogs on scene. To be honest, Cory, one of them had a vest on and others did not. It could have been an emotional support dog. It could also be search and rescue team dogs that are here as well. That's that's very typical for search and rescue efforts. Again, it it's all not that it's similar but when, you know, fire in law enforcement respond to let's say, you know, a boating accident or something like that. All of these crews respond and have each different you know, responsibilities to take on scene and dogs actually play a pretty large role in a lot of that and we we've seen a couple here tonight and they, of course, headed right to the rubble in the scene here at the Amazon Warehouse. Another part of this search that we saw about an hour ago is drones up over that warehouse. We know that technology often with drones, they do have thermal imaging cameras maybe to identify if where people are located in the warehouse. Have you heard anything about at if if that's what the drones were possibly being used for. We have not yet, Cory, I'll have you turn around just to kind of see what else we're seeing here. Again, the drone is not up right now as far as I can see. We can still see some of these cranes and some of these fire ladders up there. It doesn't look like any debris has moved as of yet. Um again, we're not close enough to see what's going on. It is like you said, very common that they use thermal imaging cameras on those drones when they're in an aerial view to see hot spots. You can typically see, you know, people and the body warmth that they're exposing through those thermal cameras as well. That's a great question and a great point that I will reach out and try and get some answers on this evening. Alright, very active. Obviously, still there and as we just heard, the police chief from Edwardsville say they're going to be there throughout the morning and they have some long, long hours ahead of them and they are getting some help from some of the surrounding departments, a lot of departments there on scene. Jenna, thank so much for your reporting. Uh tonight, last night and into this morning. Uh we want to get back to the Amazon statement just in case you did not see this earlier. This is what a partial statement that a spokesperson is saying tonight. Quote, the safety and well being of our employees and partners is our top priority right now. We are assessing the situation and we'll share additional information when it becomes available. Again, that coming from Amazon. As we reset here, working on one AM, 830 tonight. We just heard the chief say 833 to be exact is when they got their first call about a collapse at the Amazon warehouse in Edwardsville. This is the live image that we have seen time and time again tonight but it really speaks volumes. You could just see how extensive the damage is to the warehouse. We have walls that are collapsed. The roof has collapsed as well under this scene. Emergency personnel that are at this scene from all over the metro area from the Saint Louis side, of course, from the Metro East, all responding to this because dozens of people and we've heard reports from our crews there on scene, if not more than 100 people trapped inside of this Amazon facility. Susan Alcori just talked with one of the Amazon workers who was able to be taken to the Pontoon Beach Police Department. That's where any Amazon worker that obviously has not been hurt or needed medical treatment. They've been taken to the Pontoon Beach Police Department Susan talked with one of the workers who just talked about the incredible scene when he rolled up to this warehouse. He talked about just not being able to get inside. Uh that the fact that yes, there are people possibly still inside. He didn't know a number but you just felt the emotion and really the fear from him and the his his wife who is with him of just what they have been dealing with tonight and we know that there's dozens and dozens of families that are dealing with that and right on queue there, I would do want to toss it to some of that sound that Susan got with that family just moments ago. I thought the power was out because it was just darkness. I didn't realize, you know, back of the building was gone until I actually got there, pulled up, and where we normally go into, we couldn't get in because it was so much damage that, you know, we just parked to the side and just saw what was just all the damage. I know it's been difficult just being out there. What what were you seeing just just now as crews were trying to work to get people out? Oh, like I said, a lot of lot of smash cars. A bunch of power lines down. Uh actually, there's a little lake that's behind our building, barely any water in it. There was cars in there. So, I mean, yeah, it it's a lot, it's a lot to deal with. And Kim, we saw you just very, very relieved to be back together tonight. How how did that feel? Well, it was really terrifying. We were just speaking and I had told him last night. I said, you know, babe, I don't want you to close tonight, you know, just, you know, bring your butt on home and it was just kind of eerie and you know, I watched the news, watched the forecast and stuff and I immediately, you know, texted him like, how are you doing? And he called me. He said, babe, the building's gone. It's gone. And I'm like, what do you mean? It's gone. He says, it's nothing there. And I'm like, what mean there's nothing there. He's like, babe, his car smashed. There's stuff everywhere but there is nothing left. Like, this is crazy. He's telling me that all he saw was the other part of the building and that was it and much of what you just saw with the the crane and stuff on there but just to think that, you know, I wasn't going to see him. I thought, you know, did I hug him tight enough this morning. Did I give him a kiss? You know, the did I tell him I love him? Was I, you know, still sleep. You know, anything and just, you know, making sure he's here. That's what matters and I I really do. I just, you know, hug and thank the police and stuff and I thank the first and everybody that was out there because it was still another wave coming through and they were still out there trying to save people. They were talking there from the Pontoon Beach Police Department. We know that forty-6 Amazon workers have been taken to the Pontoon Beach Police Department from this Amazon warehouse tonight. And Chief Philback with the Edwardsville Police Department. Just talked with our Gener Ray about five minutes ago and this is some of the main bullet points from that conversation. It's unknown how many people were inside the warehouse at the time of the collapse when they got that call at 8 thirty-three last and it's unknown how many people are still in the warehouse but again, I just said 46 people, Amazon workers, have been at least taken to the Pontoon Beach Police Department. So, there's still a lot of questions about how many people are still in there as rescue crews are working to identify any individuals that are there and figure out what is the best way to get into this warehouse that the walls have collapsed, the roof has collapsed, the structural soundness is not there of this building. So, they have to be very careful about how they're approaching this building at this time and it's going to be some very long hours ahead for all of the emergency personnel there on scene. what Steve Templeton is talking about tonight is a likely tornado that hit this building going back again to 8 thirty-three is when that happened. Another thing that Chief Philback told our crew there on scene is that Amrin has been here to turn off the power to the building because of course that's just another danger that rescue crews have to deal with is any power or gas that might be jeopardized from this structure. So, Jenna Ray says that Amrin has been there. The the gas company has been there to turn off the gas. So, rescue crews are are dealing with safer in buy for this rescue. And we did hear Chief Philback use the word rescue. So, that is in in full rescue mode now as we have seen some crews there on scene with their hard hats. We know there's a special unit for rescues that are there on scene working diligently to try to get people to safety. However, many people might still be in this building. As far as any injuries that we have seen at this point, about 30 minutes ago, we did see one person taken on a stretcher to a medical helicopter put inside a medical helicopter in that medical helicopter took off to go to an area hospital. We don't know the extent of that person's injuries but that really is the only individual that we've seen taken from this building that was not taken on a bus to the Pontoon Beach Police Department. So, we don't know again, the extent of any kind of other injuries that people might have suffered in this or what is going on inside but we do know that a lot of work is still to be done all of this and Steve, as we take this wide shot of the building, I mean, you can just see how strong those winds were. Uh one of the things I noticed too is they're not pulling away. Yeah. You know, the the first responders aren't packing up. They're not going anywhere. This is still a really active seeing that ladder too. That's what that white thing is that on an angle. It's a tall ladder coming out of a a fire truck that I don't know if they're still on it but you would see a firefighter on it kind of peering down into it. They're still working. Um so, it's still very active scene and by the I want to let you know we're focusing on this because this is a very active scene but there was damage in defiance, Missouri too in Saint Charles County and and that damage looked pretty significant too. So, I think we have at least two tornado es, maybe three, and again, maybe more. The third one will probably be around Fillmore, Coffeen in Southern Montgomery and coming out of Sorrento and Northern Bond County, Illinois. So, those are kind of the three spots that we've highlighted. Defiance looked pretty significant. There were two different storm cells but in defiance, the damage indeed did look pretty significant and so, there's at least, you know, a few areas where they're likely, it was a tornado Speaking. of defiance, that is a video from earlier. News four's Caroline Hecker was out there monitoring the the damage but you know, it one of the things I see from this is you know, you've got partial wall collapse. I don't know if that's a garage. Garages collapse much easier than homes. You've got at least partial roof removed from that home as well and then the other thing you have to consider which I just can't see is how well built this is. Um you know, how was the structure put together and the National Weather Service has experts that, you know, are kind of like forensic scientists that figure out how well built. When I went down to Perryville, that was an EF4 tornado I. followed one of the guys from the National Weather Service and he was actually walking out into a field to find a piece of the wall to figure out how that was nailed together in the home to see if the nails were nailed cross or how they were done and so, I mean, they have this expertise to figure out how strong the winds are and that's why I can't sit here and tell you how fast those winds are. I can't tell you how strong the winds are in Edwardsville. I can't tell you how strong the winds are in defiance but I can tell you that they were significant and it it obviously looks to me like it's a tornado The. other thing too is we've had a lot of reports of people downstream from the Edwardsville tornado that have found debris. Yeah. Um in their yards. In effect, if you take whether graphics. A friend of mine sent a picture of what this debris looks like and I found it kind of interesting because a lot of the reports were coming in Styrofoam. Styrofoam but if you look at it, it's a huge piece. They'll get to it in a second. Um it it's this big black piece. That's missus Mueller, one of my friends who's from Hillsboro, Illinois and that that's Styrofoam but that has black on it. To me, that that looks like a, you know, part of a a roof almost. I I don't know where they came from. I don't know exactly if that's from Edward or not but I can tell you that there's a bunch of people in Hillsborough. Um I put Missouri, that's Hillsboro, Illinois in Southern Montgomery County that have found debris in their yards and it's not out of the question that it came from one of the tornadoes that hit the tornado that hit in Edwardsville right about just in that circle you see Southeast of Alton there. That would be the one SkyTracker Doppler radars live and all dry. That's good but that's the one and then Hillsborough's right about here. Now, This probably was a tornado and that would be strewn that way but it's not on the question that in Hillsborough, maybe you got some debris from here. I just haven't heard any reports. Sorento is here in Northern Bond County. I just haven't heard any damned reports. It's possible that it came from somewhere else but the bottom line, it gives you an idea, some of this styrofoam debris that you see right here and again, it says Missouri but it's Hillsborough, Illinois. that was strewn from likely a tornado Um. some great distance. If it was the Ed tornado We. don't know that for sure. It would be about 40 miles but that's not unheard of. I mean, that's plausible. Sometimes, you you hear reports especially with stronger tornado es. You hear reports of things like pieces of paper or people's checks that have their addresses and name on it. Strewn into other states. Yeah. So, that certainly can happen but it gives you an idea of especially for the people who are in Hillsborough. They're going, what's going on with all this degree? Uh no doubt in my mind at least until it's confirmed by the weather service. Um but no doubt, my mind probably was a tornado. You mentioned some of the process by the National Weather Service of what they're going to do to determine if this was a tornado or not. How quick of process is that? I think determining if it was a tornado is going to happen like that. Yeah. Um I just sent Tanya out there so they're going to actually talk to people who experienced it or saw it. Um they're going to try to source as many pictures or videos and try to figure out which ones are fake, which ones are real, and then they're going to do the actual damage inspection and that's where they they go and like I told you, one of the things I see is when you have not just one side of the building which will be straight line winds but multiple sides of the building hit, that's because the winds are rotating around that building and so that's another key indication and then, I think the hard work begins for them where they really have to put that expertise to work of how fast the winds were and so they have to figure out and look at the damage and say, well, in order for a large span roof to be ripped off and maybe I'm just going to throw out a number. Maybe it's 100 mile an winds but for this type of weld to be damaged, maybe it's a hundred 10 and they're literally like forensic scientists and it takes them a while. So, be patient but they're going to be working tomorrow on that for sure. I don't know how fast the winds are right now. Mentioning continue working is the rescue crews that are at Edwardsville at the Amazon plant tonight. They've been there since 830 when that first call came out. You gotta think that you know, they're obviously spent but they got a job to do and they're doing that job. Yeah and the the adrenaline's probably rushing for sure. Uh they haven't pulled away. They're still there. It's still active. Um but they may be there for a while longer as well. And and we've been focusing on this because it's such an active scene. But again there's been several areas that have had seen some damage tonight. Um one of the things that I think hopefully will come out of this. Um is answering the question where were these people? Did they have a way to get the warning? And is there a plan for safety? Um and if that's not added quick? Can we make that better in the future? Um that's, you know, that that's a question and answers for down the road, not right now but in my mind, I'm always thinking about the next one and trying to keep people safe and creating protocols and safety standards so that you know, when stuff like this happens, people know exactly what to do, where to go, and stay safe. For anybody who's been in and out of our coverage tonight, I kind of want to go over what we do know and what we don't know and this is coming from the police chief there at Edwardsville, Chief Philback. We talked to about 20 minutes ago So, I'll start with what we don't know. People want to know how many people are injured? Are there people that are injured? Are there fatalities? That's what we don't know and that's the questions that we still have but according to Chief Philback, what we do know is that at least from their perspective, they don't really know that how many people were inside of the building. They're still trying to figure all of that out and they're also trying to figure out is how many people exactly were there when all of this happened, when the collapse Happens. So, I guess in that perspective, we heard it from him but it it's also we we still don't know. So, it it is the questions that everybody has on their mind tonight and you think about how busy these crews are working and they've gotta figure out the the safety element of them for themselves but also for the people that they're trying to go in and rescue and there's just a lot to dissect with this scene as we continue to look at these live pictures of you know, the framing of that building just you know, torn apart the walls gone and just the extensiveness of that scene and you can see the ladder truck on your right hand side of the screen. And earlier we did see a firefighter and Stevie correct me if I'm wrong but it looked like he was peering down inside of the building to get some kind of perspective of if they could get a look from from that angle. Yeah and I was just guessing but my two guesses were he was either looking for people or looking at the structure so that first responders on the ground could get in safely like maybe trying to find a path because that's the other thing is you don't want these guys and gals going in there and then all of a sudden something collapses right on them. I mean, that would be a horrific shame. Um so, they've gotta do it safely. My guess is he was doing one of those two things. We're getting some new information in our ear right now from our producers. We know that at the Pontoon Peach Police Department that there was four people transported from that location and Tanya, let me make sure I have this right. You said to area hospitals. and our producer went away now. they were transported to area hospitals, those four individuals, is that we were saying? Uh Okay, I let's, let's reverse that. Uh this information coming to us as we go here. She said that a chaplain has been take or or went to the pontoon Beach Police Department to be with the individuals that were taken there. We know that that number from reporter Susan Alcori, that number was 46. So a chaplain is there on scene with them. Uh as you can imagine, talking through what happened, possibly praying, all of those things that you can just imagine what those folks are going through after being through such a traumatizing experience and the fact that they may still know people who are inside here that that are trapped. So, they're dealing with that as well. Yeah, I mean, you said it. There's there's what we know and there's what we don't know and I'm sure there's some people with loved ones out there that want answers. Yeah. And we're still working but they're still working too and we just don't have the answers and how many people might still still be out there. Hm. Our crews still there on scene. Uh Jenna Ray and photojournalist, Adam Randall, who have been working to get information confirmed and get us some of the images to help tell the story and helping tell the story has been some of the people of loved ones who can't get a hold of somebody that that works there. So, they're going through a lot of anxious moments. Yeah, no doubt. We saw the interview with the individual who works for Amazon and he was with his wife and just talked about how tense those moments were of the the wife talking about how calling her husband or to even telling her husband because she knew that those storms were coming in. She was watching the news, saw that these storms, then she said, I didn't want him to go to work tonight. So, it's just kind of an eerie feeling when you hear some of those first-hand accounts of what those families were dealing with the moments before all this happened. And Susan Alcori talked to someone else who worked at the Amazon Warehouse and that particular person said, she took shelter in a bathroom. Mm hmm. Um and and she was one of the first people pulled from the rubble. That's what we've from Susan Alcori. Wow. Uh and when we talk about those large span roofs, you know, you don't want to be in the middle where the roof gets peeled off and especially all that scaffolding and all that product and there can come down. You want to be in a small room. Sometimes, it's a bathroom that's a good choice. Uh manager's office, something with a small room that has a little more structural integrity and you think about that even if you're in a Walmart or Target, those big box stores that has a large span roof that get ripped off, ripped off. So, you want to be in small rooms and even in homes too, you know, if a roof is ripped off, you want to be the middle. You want to be in the basement but if you don't have a basement, you want to be in the middle of the house where you're putting as many walls between you and the outside and adding some structural stability. Sometimes, the bathroom is great too because the pipes in the walls actually almost like rhubarb actually had a little structural stability but Susan had spoken to someone who was one of the first from the rebel there. Yeah and it looks like Jenna Ray is in her live shot. Uh we wanted to get some information from her. Jenna, can you hear us? Yeah. Hey, Cory. Are we good to go? Alright, we'll start talking. Here we go. We got some new information for you guys. I'm going to talk on the scene a little bit. We've got some trucks that are set up here. Um I mentioned this as they came in. The Saint Clair County, they have a response van and truck actually set up. This is where they are headquartering this entire search and rescue effort. Again, there are dozens of emergency vehicles here on scene. Still going through the rubble. Now, we talked about this drone earlier. We we do have some new information actually via Facebook that we saw and we're going to show this photo to you right now. This is an aerial view that you're seeing on your screen. This is credited to Riverbender newspaper. They flew their drone over the Amazon fulfillment center. You can see the entire roof is blown off. The fulfillment center. You can see the massive amount of damage that is inside. It it's truly mind blowing and almost left me speechless first saw the photo, you guys. Um again, we've been out here for several hours. We talked with the Edwardsville Police Chief who gave us a little more information on exactly what's going on and you'll hear from him right now. So, we received the call at approximately 8: 33 PM Um last evening and for a building collapse here at the Amazon Complex which is at thirty seventy-seven Gateway Commerce Center Drive South. Um Eversville Fire Department and the Eversville Police Department responded along with multiple jurisdictions, fire EMS, and and police Um as you can see, have responded to try to lender rescue here. Um at this point, Amrin here a short time ago was able to get the power turned off to the building. Um so that we could safely, the fire crews could get in there and conduct the search and rescue. Uh we there is unknown at this point how many people were in the buildings, the time of the collapse, and it's unknown how many people still remain in the building. We did transport a lot of folks out to a safe location reunite them with their loved ones and and our EMS fire continue to work the scene. Uh it's probably going to be throughout the rest of this morning trying to render it safe and get in there and and see who they can pull out if there if there's anyone left in the building. And chief, a lot again, as you mentioned, EMS and law enforcement personnel here on scene. I've I've talked to several of them who just said, they haven't seen a catastrophe like this in such a long time especially here in Boardsville, what was your initial reaction when you pulled up and and and saw this tremendous collapse in this scene? Yeah. Uh no, this is a fairly new building. Uh so, it's not something that we're used, you know, used to seeing. Um we're fortunate enough. We don't get hit by many tornado es and and those things. So, yeah, it's it's it's devastating to see the amount of damage there and to know that there were people inside when that happens. So, you know, at this point, we just we we put our prayers out to all involved and and in our first responders are in there trying to to do you know, a rescue job and keep everybody safe at the same time. So. And and chief, I know that as you said, people were were transported to Pontoon Beach and you guys at home just heard that from Susan as well. Um tell me the the questions that law enforcement are asking them at Pontoon Beach. Uh you mentioned, you know, trying to see who else was inside, any sort of number, contacting people, explain that process to me. Yeah. So, so police officers. Uh we also have the chaplains out there as well and we're just trying to gather information from it from them to identify them so that we know that they're accounted for. Uh that they're safe. And also try to get from them any information about who who else that they worked with that was inside. Um that hasn't been identified yet. Where they might have been in the building so we can relay that information. The fire as well so they know where to start looking for for people. As we've talked about, you know, there there are law enforcement agencies on both the Metro East side, the Illinois side of the river as well as the Missouri. Talk about the coordination efforts. There are more than a dozen agencies probably from both sides of the river here. What does it take to coordinate such a massive search and rescue effort in in weather event like this? Yeah. Well, I mean, our fire and our police, they they practice this. Um or when these things happened and and even at that it still takes a lot of effort. I'm sure as you guys can contest the batteries going down and and phone lines being you know tied up in that. So there's there's a lot of effort that goes into it. Um and and you know how we eventually end up doing it. Sometimes you you just don't know. But you know there's a lot of work, a lot of time, a lot of patience that goes in into making it is successful as you can. And something that I think maybe might not be talked about a lot is the emotional toll that this takes on on you, on people who are are seeing this up close. What do law enforcement agencies offer to first responders after situations like this to kind of debrief and process the emotional toll that these types of events take on people. So, for for us, for example, we have chaplains for the police department and the fire department. Um so, the those chaplains in Pontoon Beach actually has their chaplain over there at their feet PD offering assistance to the people that we transported from the scene and then afterwards, we'll follow up with that. Our chaplains will our supervisors will too to see, you know, what what maybe is going through a guy's head. Um our our city, we we offer, you know, employee assistance and and all those things. So, you know, it it is a a toll that that weighs on you at times and it's it's one of those things that as a supervisor, you have to be mindful of it but you know, first and foremost, we gotta do this job and then afterwards, we gotta take care of our personnel to make sure that when the time comes again, that they're able to do the job that needs to be done. And chief, last question for you, there are family members on scene here tonight. There are obviously family members outside who who cannot get a hold of their loved ones. What what message do you have for them tonight? Um so, I mean, at this point, we would ask please be patient with us. Our fire personnel are doing everything they can to try to identify everybody, reunite them with their loved ones. Uh stay close to your phones, stay in tune to your local news. Um reach out to the Red Cross if if you still haven't heard from a loved one. Uh they are they're on scene as well assisting and we will we will try to do everything we can to reunite them with them but please don't come down to the scene at this point. It's it's an ongoing operation. We need to be able to keep it open for emergency personnel to get in and out. So, that was the Edwardsville Police Chief that you just heard from. That was the first law enforcement agent that we have talked to in the four hours that we have been out here. Again, still an unknown number that are stuck inside this Amazon warehouse. behind me. There are dozens of agencies from both sides of the river, both metro, east, law enforcement as well as Saint Louis Metropolitan Area Law Enforcement. It's been an emotional and Corey, you've said anxious that that's probably the best word to describe the scene here tonight. It's a lot of unknown, a lot of unanswered questions, and you know, law enforcement agents and first responders are walking into this not knowing what they're walking into. We have family members here with with a lot of unanswered questions. They're not hearing from loved ones. It's an anxious. It's an overwhelming situation here in Edwardsville tonight. And Jenna, what we do know is that forty-six Amazon workers have been taken to the Pontoon Beach Police Department and we heard that police chief say he doesn't know how many people were in the building at the time of the collapse but did you ever get any indication from him that there is the possibility that noone else is still in there? I don't believe that's true, Cory. Uh as we mentioned earlier, I did get some information from some Saint Clair County officials that said they believed about a hundred employees were in the building at the time and that were trapped at the time as well. So, we don't know if that 42 is part of that 100. We don't know if that's an additional number. We do know or 46 The couple dozen that you mentioned that we saw in those Madison County Transit buses leaving, heading to the pontoon Police Department being debriefed and and part of this process as as the Edwardsville Police Chief mentioned was they're they're actually going to be talking to those Amazon workers to kind of get a better idea of who was working, maybe who they were standing by, who they saw that night, how many people they think may have been in the building at the time. We do know that at this warehouse, workers are working around the clock here. So, it's not like it was possibly end of shift where there were minimal people here. We're we're hearing report there were several dozens of people inside at the time. Yeah, we know obviously around the holidays, it's in a very busy time where they are most likely fully staffed if not having more workers inside of those warehouses processing all of the orders but Jenna, for a time there, there were a lot of Cummings and goings from that scene. We saw to excavators show up at the scene. We saw different emergency personnel from all across the metro show up there unseen. So, over the last half hour or so, have you seen any more of at or is it pretty quiet and that the people on scene are the ones that are on scene and there hasn't really been very many coming and goings. Looks like we might have lost Jenna's audio. About a half hour ago. Can you hear me? Okay. So, so about a half hour ago, we saw that ambulance come out of here and take a potential Amazon worker into a life flight helicopter. That is the only emergency vehicle that we have seen leave the Amazon Workhouse since or Amazon Warehouse, excuse me, since we have been here. Now, there have still been crews going in. We are seeing more additional search and rescue crews. We're seeing like I mentioned that Sinclair, Saint Clair County Special Response Headquarter. It's it's really a bus with a bunch of different sources inside where they can coordinate some of these efforts. They typically bring these out in big situations like this and I asked the Edwardsville Chief, you know, how do you possibly coordinate? There there are probably more than a 100 first responders out here. It's a large, massive scene and he said that it's just communication and and doing things step by step and just having a process and that coordination is is coming from first responders in both Saint Clair and Madison County leading the search and rescue night. And as far as what the chief said, you talked to him. Did he say there was going to be any kind of press conference or any other type of official statements throughout this morning that we can kind of look forward to to get a little bit more answers to our questions. Unfortunately, as of now, that was the only information that we are going to get. Um I'm not sure about moving forward. You know, we're we're asking almost every minute. You know, do you have an update? Do you have an update? There's people, you know, the media doesn't just want to know there are families who have loved ones inside this building that need answers. There are friends that have friends inside this building that need answers and we're working as hard as we can to possibly get some of those details for them. I know that the The Edwardsville Fire Chief is actually leading this and he is set to talk with the media at some point but we don't know exactly when that is going to be. We're told that he's on the front lines right now digging through that rubble. We do have a little bit of action. I maybe want to turn to. I'm hearing some sort of saw some sort of hardware material moving back here. Let's try and zoom in to see if we can see anything. It sounds like maybe they're cutting through some steel or some debri that is inside the Amazon warehouse at this time. Again, we're several hundred yards away. It's it's pretty hard to see with these with it being so dark out as well. And it looks like they might have shovels where they're shoveling some kind of dirt. It looks like there was some maybe dirt flying through the air there briefly from our zoomed in angle that we can see. I know from your your naked eye, Jenna, you won't be able to see that because you're several hundred yards away as you said but from the Zoom game. Yeah, I'm actually, I'm picking in the camera right now. Yeah, and it looks like there was again, some kind of. And I just want to tell you Cory, these people that we're seeing, sorry, go ahead. No, you go ahead, Jen. That's fine. So, the people that we're seeing right now, these are the people that I was telling you guys about earlier. This special response team, those hard hats. You can see they have those harnesses on. Those are exactly the type of people that are prepared to go into these sort of rescues and they almost are the meticulous type of searchers that are going through the debris. Again, as you said, you can see them working in that. It seems to be that there are some firefighters in there as well. Um it's it's really an all hands-on the situation but we are hearing some sort of power tools going on. Possibly cutting through some debris that's that's falling down from this possible tornado and straight line wind action here at the warehouse. I want to go back to a perspective that you showed us from the Riverbender newspaper over there in the Metro East. They were able to get a drone shot above the warehouse. and now if we can throw that back up just to give people a real scale and scope of what rescue teams are dealing with. Look at that. That used to be roof. It's gone. And you can see all the debris inside of the building. I mean, you have vehicles that are inside of the building there but it is hard to really wrap your head around that that was a roof. Cory, it it's really crazy. When I saw the picture, when I saw the picture on Facebook at first, I I honestly had to to blink and double check that I was seeing exactly what I was seeing. It's it's shocking to see the amount of damage from where we're standing. It looks like the roof is still on the building and when you see that picture, the the damage is just absolutely devastating. It's it's it's hard put into words like you said, there are trucks in there. There's heavy machinery in there and it's scattered. There are signs hanging and dangling by a thread in there. It's truly unbelievable what that aerial shot shows us. And it does give you a better idea of what rescue crews are dealing with and the extensiveness of the building, the amount of debris that they're dealing with, and they're very meticulously going through this scene for other safety but obviously for their own safety to make sure that this building that is no longer structurally sound isn't going to collapse or fall anymore than it already has. So, you can just see these rescue teams, this unit, the specialized unit that Jenna just mentioned, they have their hard hats on. They've been working on this. Jenna, it seems like this particular location of where they are. It seems like really for the last hour and a half, they've been focused on this particular area. Can you tell from your vantage point? Is that kind of point of entry to the building or is that just maybe kind of a point where they're trying to access inside? Can can you tell it all? It it's hard to tell Cory At this point, there there's really no point of entry into this building. As you can see, the entire frontal wall on the whole right side of the building is completely gone. Um I want to go back to what you said about those rescue crews kind of being this is a very challenging situation to walk into. Um as you said, the the building is not is not sound. It's not necessarily safe either with all of this rubble it's probably one of the most challenging things that search and rescue crews are having to deal with as well as they're being, you know, potential Amazon workers inside this building at the same time. Absolutely and I know we're zooming out but I I'm sorry, Adam. I don't know if we can zoom back in because I wanted to point out the pulley system that it looks like they have set up and I don't know if that's attached to an emergency worker or if that's attached to a piece of debris that possibly they might be pulling from that but I know Jenna again that that we're looking through the lens of the camera and this super zoomed in view but it looks like emergency personnel and these rest they're they're tossing debris to get that cleared out of the way. Initially, I thought maybe it was some dirt but it looks like their items of debris that they're trying to almost dig out from this specific area and the the pulley system kind of caught my eye as well to figure out exactly what their next move might be and and I'm guessing from your perspective, it it's it's kind of hard to to see all of that. is that right? I will say that you can tell from our zoomed in view on the camera that you guys are seeing and from my vantage point. It does look like they are in the the front of the building. As you said, trying to remove debris from that area. You can see that blue crane in the image. That is one of the the cranes that's most frontal in this kind of excavation process and again, it looks like those workers with all of their gear on their hard hats and their safety gear that they are digging through that debris possibly trying to remove some of it to get, you know, further into their exploration. Alright, Jenna, continue continually telling us, you know, what's going on, trying to get a lot of those answers just such a extensive scene to try to wrap our heads around and really understand and we're going to continue to try to get a lot of those answers throughout the night. Um we want to go to back to that sound. We got an hour and a half ago from an Amazon worker who was there who showed up at the facility right before right after I should say it was hit by that possible tornado So, let's play some of that sound that we got about an hour and a half ago. I thought the power was out because it was just darkness. I didn't realize, you know, back of the building was gone until I actually got there, pulled up, and where we normally go into, we couldn't get in because it was so much damage that, you know, we just parked to the side and just saw what was Just all the damage. I know it's been difficult just being out there. What what were you seeing just just now as crews were trying to work to get people out? Oh, like I said, a lot of lot of smashed cars, a bunch of power lines down, actually there's a little lake that's behind our building. Early in the water and there was cars in there. So, I mean, yeah, it it's a lot, it's a lot to deal with. And Kim, we saw you just very, very relieved to be back together tonight. How how did that feel? It was really terrifying. We were just speaking and I had told him last night. I said, you know, babe, I don't want you to close tonight, you know. Just, you know, bring your butt on home. and it was just kind of eerie and you know, I watched the news, watched the forecast and stuff and I immediately, you know, texted him like, how are you doing? And he called me. He said, babe, the building's gone. It's gone and I'm like, what do you mean? It's gone. He says, it's nothing there. And I'm like, what do you mean? There's nothing there. He's like, babe, his car smashed stuff everywhere but there's nothing left. Like this is crazy. It's telling me that all he saw was the other part of building and that was it. And much of what you just saw with the the crane and stuff on there but just to think that oh you know I wasn't going to see him. I thought you know then I hug him tight enough this morning. Did I give him a kiss? You know the did I tell him I love him? Was I you know still sleep? You know anything and just you know making sure he's here. That's what matters. And I I really do. I just you know hug and thank the police and stuff and I thank the first responders and everybody that was out there. Because it was still other wave coming through and they were still out there trying to save people. Mm. Just hearing those first hand accounts is really something. Caroline Hecker joining us and you spent a lot of time tonight in Saint Charles County. You had live reports of a lot of the damage. What was the most thing that really stood out to you out there? The most stunning thing we saw was along Highway F about a mile from 94 and we saw two homes that were completely ripped off their foundations, unrecognizable, it looked like a war zone. Trees snapped like twigs that were really thick around. Uh we were talking with firefighters on scene. They had us that one of the homeowners were actually in the basement at the time that it happened and survived because of where they were, because the rest of the home was gone. And we were talking about that Steve. Was the basement exposed? Yes. Like debris could fall back down into the basement and we like literally the rest of the house was gone. The basements there. Yeah. So if you'd walked up to the property, you would have looked down into the basement. Wow. Uh that's this is very significant damage. What I don't know is how well built the house is. If it's a well-built house. This is that's some high-end tornado damage. Again, for folks who we just kind of jumped from the Amazon Edwardsville. We're now talking about defiance in Saint Charles County off of Highway 94 and Caroline Hecker spent a lot of time out there serving not just one but a kind of a few scenes you said, right? Yes, at the corner of 90. 4 and F, there were two homes that had just the roof ripped off. Okay. Um and the homeowners I were told were okay. One wasn't home at the time. The other had just built the house are supposed to move in next week and now the roof is gone. Uh we moved farther west down F and found another home who had had its roof ripped off, exposed to the interior. But as you continue down west on F, that's where we saw the serious damage of homes lifted off their foundation. The firefighters at that scene. Yeah, you're seeing it here. Told us that there was a couple inside one of the homes who was thrown about a hundred yards along with the debris landing in the pile of debri 100 yards away from their foundation and they were transported to the hospital. Um so, this what you're seeing right here on your screen was the most devastating that we saw in that defiance area. And we don't know their condition at this point. We just know they were transported. I was told one of them was transferred with life-threatening injuries and the other non critical. And you know, we're spending a lot of time with Amazon because there could there could be people stuck inside there and rightfully so but I don't that to detract from the fact that it sounds like and looks like there's been some really significant tornado damage in defiance in Saint Charles County from a separate storm. And the first hand accounts, were you able to talk to any of those homeowners kind of just to to hear a little bit of the story of being hit by this possible tornado The? the video you're seeing now was from a a home off of F and we spoke with the homeowner and his wife very shaken obviously. They were trying to rescue everything they could out of the house. You can hear the fire or was going off but they were okay. Just shaking. We didn't talk to anyone that was injured. It's it's so crazy Steve because you see one house that's leveled or has the roof ripped off and then across the street unscathed. Yeah. You know what I mean? And so sometimes that happens because of the way they were built. So maybe one's well built, one's not. Uh maybe it's something subtle like the wind once it gets into a garage. Garages aren't as well built. But once you can get into a garage it's a little easier to start lifting the whole roof of the house. And so the it's almost like dominoes. The whole thing starts to collapse at that point. But then there's also something else. I can't speak to that. We don't know this for sure but there's something called a multiple vortex tornado And. what that is is vortex means rotation. So multiple rotation tornado where you have these small areas of rotation around the larger tornado. They. are fleeting. They last for seconds sometimes and they dance around the larger circulation that is. What we think of is a tornado But. it's actually multiple small areas that are faster. And what can is they can create incredible damage. They might go and I'm just going to make up numbers. This isn't related to the damage you saw but they might be 180 mile an hour winds or 150, but the general circulation, the tornado is only 1hundred and so where those little multiple vortex vortexes hit can create more incredible damage and on the other side, not as incredible damage. So, there's kind of a few reasons structural engineering and integrity and also was it a multiple vortex tornado. So, all that kind of into that. And bottom line, as we've said, National Weather Service will be out there to really survey all that and get a grasp on it. They're the, they're the experts and they're already planning trips for tomorrow. Alright, Caroline, Steve, thank you. Uh, we want to get things back out over to Edwardsville, Susan Alcori, continue to following that situation with the Amazon Warehouse, Susan. Well, right now, from where we're standing, you can still see just how many first responders and search and rescue crews are out here. You can see they're still really focused on that center section of the building where we're seeing the most extensive damage of just the walls completely gone. Their roof gone in your looking through to the other side of the building. Now, I was able to talk to a woman who was brought back over to the pontoon beach police department. She works at Amazon a driver and she tells me that things were just chaotic when she got back to the warehouse. This was right before the storm hit. She says, she parked her car. She was getting ready to leave for work like a lot of the other employees there and was told Storm is coming. We all need to go to the bathroom and she says, they tried to take shelter in a bathroom in there and that is when the roof collapsed on them and she says, she was on top of that pile and says that she was one of the first people who was pulled from the rubble She also tells me a lot of people were having issues with their cellphones out here and she told me she believes she's one of the few who were able to get theirs to work and so she was calling first responders trying to get help out here but when we asked her about injuries or anything, she said, just really not clear at this point. Um one of the things we do know though is that people were taken to Pontoon Beach. Police, part of the reason is because they were just trying to get a headcount of exactly who was in the building. Like I said, we were told that employee were in between shifts. They were getting ready to leave for the day and so they were just trying to get a headcount and grasp who exactly was still here, who was returning from a route, and who had already gone home for the day. That's one of the challenges that we've heard now repeatedly, Pontoon Beach telling me that they had upwards of forty people brought back to the police department, all of them okay. We did get to see a husband and wife being reunited but again, when you look at just the skies of the the damage to the building, it's understandable and we're hearing that possibly 100 people were in there at the time. Another thing that we learned, this is kind of one section of the building but on the back side, there is a retention pond and we've heard from employees who are in there saying that cars were actually tossed into that retention pond. Just giving you another scope of some of the damage we're seeing out here and another thing, a lot of people just trying to get information about their loved ones, talking to Pontoon Beach, they're telling me that Edwardsville is taking care of this. So, if anyone Wants to know about where their loved one is. They are the ones to contact. And real quick, Susan, you were at the Pontoon Beach Police Department. For people that didn't hear maybe that sound that you got, can you just give us a sense of what the mood is there from the Amazon workers that were taken to that location? There was definitely a lot of relief. When we saw that worker reunited with his wife, his wife was sobbing. She was just so happy to hear that he was okay. He obviously, very distressed about what he had seen in there. Just talking about some of the damage and and seeing his coworkers and friends being pulled from the rubble just very emotional. A lot of people just trying to grasp what exactly happened here and you hear, heard him talking just saying, you know, it happened so quickly that a lot of people just still trying to wrap their minds around what happened out here and obviously, the extensive, extensive damage that we're seeing. There's still so many questions tonight and we're going to be working through the night to get a lot of those answered. Susan, thank you for your reporting tonight. We are going to wrap up our coverage here on News four. However, we want you to help share this weather story. So, if you do have pictures from your location, whether that be on the Metro East side or the Saint Louis side, please share at KMOV dot We'd like to see your pictures. It really does help us tell the entire weather story. As far as our coverage, we will continue as I said to follow this throughout the night. We will break in with any kind of breaking news, updates, and, developments to this story. It's a great idea to have that KMOB News app. You can download it for free in your phones, App Store. As far as when we will be back on the air, again, we might cut in for any kind of breaking news updates or developments but we can say News four this morning starts at 5 AM. We will have live team coverage of everything that's happening in Edwardsville and throughout the metro. Wanna thank you for staying tuned with us tonight. Have a safe night and we'll see you tomorrow morning. Thanks for watching

Channel: StormSpotterMike

Views: 3,295

Keywords: Tornado, Twisters, Severe Weather, Severe Storm, Breaking News, Amazon, Jeff Bezos, Disaster, KMOV-TV, Building Collapse

Id: 1pxDf5oWNI0

Length: 377min 51sec (22671 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 13 2021