High Winds Drive Tree Into Roof of Chesterfield Home

The high winds that ripped through the area yesterday created a small amount of choas in Chesterfield, knocking out power and sending a tree crashing through the roof of a home.

Monarch Fire Protection District Fire Chief Roger Herin said the powerful gusts, which were reported at upwards of 40 mph, uprooted a tree in the 1000 block of Woodlake Village Drive. The tree then fell into a two-story townhouse, piercing the structure's roof but not causing any injuries.

Still, it's enough to put the residents out of their house for the night. With the tree still lodged in the roof, Herin said it's too dangerous to let anyone back in until a tree service can come and remove it.

The storm also caused widespread power outages as soon as the system entered the region early Friday afternoon. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that the outages initially reached as high as 6,500 throughout Missouri. By 5 p.m., Ameren spokesman Kent Martin said 1,500 customers remained without power.

Exact data was not immediately available for the Chesterfield area, but an outage map on Ameren's website displayed 384 customers without power in the 63017 and 63005 area codes at around 5 p.m. 

"It's all mother nature related," said Martin. "There are tree branches getting knocked down. With extreme weather like this they can still play havoc with our lines."

Martin said the power utility follows an aggressive tree-cutting program to minimize the hazard and that its repair crews were out in full force on Friday.