The National Weather Service confirmed that an EF-0 tornado hit Sparta Sunday morning. A damage survey team found a tornado with winds up to 85 mph hit the southeast side of the city early Sunday morning. However, a very wide area of severe straight-line winds up to 95 mph caused much worse damage across the…
No warning siren for twister; mayor has to use hand crank
SPARTA, Mo. (AP) — The tornado siren failed to sound when a small tornado reached the area of Sparta, Missouri, because the small-town mayor couldn’t get to the hand-crank siren. KY-TV reports that the tornado tracked into the Sparta area just after 1 a.m. Monday. Winds up to 90 mph damaged homes and downed trees,…