Jeff Fulk, pastor of Shannondale Community Church at Timber, reports being out of electric for several days now, with damage sustained to the camp showerhouse, the camp van, and the basketball court. He also reports significant wind damage in Salem. Most regional electrical outages are in rural areas where restoration will be slow.

Jim Barlow reports that his daughter, who lives in Fredericktown, was at work Friday when “the roof came off”. She was unhurt, but shaken up, according her dad. He headed down there Sunday to help with the cleanup.

A report Sunday from Eleanor Hines, a resident of the Baptist Home in Ironton, and long time family friend, said that facility was running on generator power only, and that large branches were down everywhere.

Tara Flynn, naturalist at Onondaga Cave State Park, reported that the campground was under 8 feet of water on Sunday, but the park did not sustain a lot of wind damage. Rain amounts over the region ranged from a three-quarters inch in 24 hours with high winds over the high Ozarks, with amounts up to 3 inches both to the south along the Arkansas border and Bootheel, and in a band across the state between I-70 and I-44 along the Ozark border counties. We received 1.75 inches here on my deck in Pacific, Franklin County.

With already high levels on the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers (all the Missouri wing dikes between Jefferson City and St. Charles were submerged on Thursday, and that was before the rain) the lower Meramec River is over flood stage from the Mississippi upstream to Eureka, with roads in the low-lying areas flooded. With no more rain, the Meramec is expected to crest on Tuesday, but more rain is expected here Wednesday.

We’re sure many of our neighbors across Traveler Country are in the same, similar or even worse boats.

A couple was killed near Poplar Bluff, when a tree fell on their Ford Excursion on Rt 53. A couple was lifted into the air for about a hundred feet in Dallas County (Bennett Spring) and the man suffered a fatal heart attack as a result, according to the 5/9 edition of the Southeast Missourian.

Thirteen state parks and historic sites are under full or partial weather closures (presumably for downed trees, although some buildings may have been affected: (check with Castlewood, Elephant Rocks, Dillard Mill, Lake Ozark, Lake Wappapello, Locust Creek Covered Bridge, Onondaga, Prairie, Robertsville, St. Francois, Trail of Tears, Washington or Stockton for the next few days if you have plans to visit. ) It’s likely that other recreational areas in the region have also sustained damage, and that some roads may be impassible.
A call on an unrelated matter to Windy’s Canoe Rental in Eminence on the 8th brought news that the owner was out in town with a chainsaw, helping to re-open some streets. An EF1 tornado (one of three in the area) crossed from Springfield airport, lifting just two miles from Fantastic Caverns, according the Springfield News-Leader, and the Fellows Lake Marina was severely damaged. The Fair Grove and Glendale (Springfield) high schools lost portions of roofs, but no one was severely injured.

We will likely get more reports from Traveler Country… check back later.

In the central United States, Randel Cox of the Center for Earthquake Research and Information (CERI) at University of Memphis, and John Baldwin and Robert Givler of William Lettis and Associates, will study seismic hazards from poorly understood faults located near the famed New Madrid Seismic Zone that produced three large earthquakes in 1811 and 1812. Chris Cramer, also of CERI, will analyze the accuracy of ground motion calculations, contributing to an urban hazard mapping project in St. Louis.

Research along the New Madrid is in flux. Academics at Northern Illinois University and Purdue University claim that the fault is dying, and the machine-noticeable shakes generated once every two to three days are the last gasps of the fault. Researchers within the fault zone aren’t so sure. Quakes large enough to be felt by the public happen two or three times a year, but there are no human scientific records of fault activity patterns prior to the 1811-12  approximately magnitude 8 or Halloween, 1895 Charleston, MO magnitude 6 earthquakes. Two other major quakes are known since the year 1000 AD which have left their geological mark.The relationship of the New Madrid zone to the Wabash Valley Fault System at Mt. Carmel, Ill., which generated a magnitude 5 earthquake last year on April 18, 2008, is unknown.

(JS Comment: Whatever you think of the Recovery Act, it’s good to see that some of the recovery money is going to fish, forests, wildlife, parks and federal cleanup projects in more rural areas, and not all of it is staying in the big city.)

Wishing to escape the hassles of the decade, in July 1974, over 150,000 people flooded into Sedalia, MO, for the three-day Ozark Music Festival. Residents living near the Missouri State Fairgrounds woke on July 19 to attendees sleeping in their yards and bumper-to-bumper traffic clogging the roads into town.

At the time, no one knew the Ozark Music Festival would become one of the largest, least remembered music festivals ever held, or that the festival would change Sedalia forever.

Thirty-five years later, an exhibit entitled “Seventies Flashback: A Look Back at the July 1974 Ozark Music Festival” is on display at the historic Katy Depot in Sedalia. Photographs and event memorabilia feature the music, the attendees, and the aftermath.

The Katy Depot, 600 East Third St., is open Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Free-will donations are accepted to offset the cost of exhibits.

For more information or to share your stories about the Ozark Music Festival please call 800-827-5295 or visit www.ozarkmusicfestivalexhibit.com.

This time, it was a beautiful spring day and I was in no hurry to be anywhere, so I pulled in to explore. What a lovely, secluded Ozark vista, just a half-mile off U.S. 34 in Wayne County.

The CA is a 130-acre tract containing shut-ins on six-tenths of a mile of McKenzie Creek, which flows through nearby Piedmont.

The rocks and pools are gorgeous. If you’re a fan of Johnson Shut-Ins, Madison County’s “Pink Rocks” at Amidon CA and Millstream Gardens, better add Lon Sanders Canyon to your list of must-sees. There’s a glade restoration project in place and a half-mile nature trail built as an Eagle Scout project.

More information on Lon Sanders Canyon is available at MDC’s Conservation Atlas. 

EPA will use the $10-25 million to support ongoing excavation, replacement, and disposal of approximately 205,000 cubic yards of lead-contaminated residential soil at approximately 800 residential properties. The long-term cleanup action to address approximately 1,100 residential properties began in late 2008 and will continue for an estimated four years. To date, lead-contaminated soil at more than 800 residential properties has been removed and replaced throughout the county. Also included are education efforts and institutional controls on the lead remediation. The Madison County lead abatement area is 498 square miles.
Similar efforts have been allocated to Cherokee County, KS, and the Oronogo area near Joplin, MO. Both were part of the Tri-State Lead District, as Fredericktown was home to the Old Lead Belt, and Mine LaMotte, the oldest commercially viable lead diggings in the state.

The report, The Economic Impact of Waterfowl Hunting in the United States, is an addendum to the 2006 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation. The report shows more than 1.3 million people, 16 years of age and older, hunted waterfowl in 2006. Waterfowl hunters represented 10 percent of all hunters, 7 percent of all hunting trip-related expenditures, and 6 percent of all equipment expenditures.

According to the report, waterfowl hunters tend to be younger, have higher educational achievements, and are more affluent compared to all hunters. The

The National Survey, conducted every five years, since 1955, is one of the nation’s most definitive sources of information concerning wildlife-dependant recreation. The U.S. Census Bureau conducted the survey in two phases. First, a screening interview identified wildlife-related recreationists. The second phase consisted of multiple interviews to collect detailed information on participation and expenditures for U.S. residents 16 years of age and older.

The waterfowl hunting report in addition to the detailed National Survey report, state reports, and other addenda can be downloaded at: http://wsfrprograms.fws.gov/Subpages/NationalSurvey/reports2006.html

The Missouri House of Representatives on April 8 gave first-round approval to a bill that would lower the age for concealed carry of firearms to 21, allow carrying of concealed firearms on college campuses and expand the Castle Doctrine.

Here’s a summary of the bill from the House website:

This substitute specifies that deadly force may be used against a
person who unlawfully enters, remains after unlawfully entering,
or attempts to unlawfully enter private property by the
individual who owns or leases the private property.  The
individual who owns or leases the private property does not have
a duty to retreat from the property.

The minimum age requirement for obtaining a concealed carry
endorsement is lowered from 23 years of age to 21 years of age.
To process a change of address for a concealed carry endorsement,
the sheriff of the new jurisdiction may charge a fee of up to
$10.  A sheriff may charge a fee of up to $10 to change the name
on an endorsement.

Antique firearms, as defined in 18 U.S.C. Section 921, are exempt
from the definition of “firearm” as it relates to weapon
offenses.

The substitute removes the provisions prohibiting a person with a
valid concealed carry endorsement or permit from carrying a
concealed firearm into any higher education institution.

Currently, political subdivisions are allowed to adopt ordinances
which regulate the open carrying of firearms if they conform to
state laws.  The substitute, removes this authority and requires
political subdivisions to regulate firearms in the same manner as
the state by adopting ordinances consistent with the weapons
offenses in Sections 571.010 – 571.070, RSMo, and with the
justification defenses in Chapter 563, except that political
subdivisions are allowed to prohibit illegal immigrants from
selling, purchasing, transferring, owning, using, or possessing
firearms, components, or ammunition.

FISCAL NOTE:  Estimated Cost on General Revenue Fund of $2,000 in
FY 2010, $0 in FY 2011, and $0 in FY 2012.  No impact on Other
State Funds in FY 2010, FY 2011, and FY 2012.

The bill, HCS HB 668, was introducted by Dist. 117 Rep. Kenny Jones (R-Clarksburg) and is co-sponsored by 12 other representatives. You can follow the bill’s progress at the House Bill List on the House website.