Community Corner
Storm Damage and Power Outages in Ladue and Frontenac
Ladue High School and surrounding areas lost power this afternoon.
Today’s storm knocked out power in parts of the area, including Ladue High School. Even though the school year is officially over, some students were in the school taking exams and finishing projects.
“I was taking a Spanish test as the storm hit,” Brian Phan, sophomore, said. “The administrators came by to get everyone in the basement. I finished the test with a flashlight.”
Phan estimated there were around 30—40 students in the basement with him.
“The school lost power around 12:30 p.m. so with the public address system out we went around the building with flashlights to notify staff and students to go into the basement,” Dr. Bridget Hermann, principal, said. Since today and tomorrow are half-days for exams, school had been dismissed at 11:50 a.m. but some students were still around taking tests.
Not far from the school, on Blaytonn Lane, homeowner Scott Zimmerman was examining the damage to his home. He had been notified by a neighbor about the tree limbs and branches on his home so he left work to check it out.
“Nobody was hurt; there’s just structural damage,” Zimmerman said. “The inside of the house looks okay, I can’t yet tell if there is much water damage under the roof. Damage-wise I feel pretty good compared to what I saw in Joplin. If this had been Joplin my house wouldn’t be here.”
Fallen limbs tore the gutters off parts of his home and damaged other parts.
“The back of the house is fine, but there’s a branch from this tree [in the front of the home] that blew over the house and landed in the backyard,” Zimmerman said.
Not far from Blaytonn Lane, Brio Tuscan Grille at Plaza Frontenac lost power for about three hours this afternoon. “We didn’t have any damage,” Ryan Fico, manager, said. “Just lost sales.” He said that the customers who were in the restaurant when the storm hit, finished their meals; no one evacuated to the basement. Electricity came back on around 3:30 p.m.
As of 5:30 p.m., AmerenUE was reporting over 2800 outages in Frontenac and Ladue.