Photo by Todd Weddle / St. Joseph News-Press / Purchase this photo

A.J. Fisher cleans up the Conoco gas station in Wathena, Kan., after a storm tore the roof off the building and rain fell inside of the store. Thunderstorms blanketed the area Thursday night with several reports of damage.

A band of strong wind and rain cut through Northwest Missouri and Northeast Kansas Thursday night, leaving spotted areas of fallen tree limbs, road closings and minor building damage.

The National Weather Service received reports that five tornadoes touched down in Northwest Missouri near Watson, which is east of Rock Port, and near Corning, Craig and Tarkio. A storm management team was dispatched to assess the area Friday.

A burst of severe weather in southern Holt County blew tractor-trailers off their sides. One blew over near mile marker 96 on Interstate 29 at about 8 p.m. as the driver was slowing down and pulling onto the shoulder, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol. Driver Robert Bridges, 51, of Dexter, Ga., was taken to Heartland Regional Medical Center where he was treated and released, according to a Heartland spokeswoman.

Wathena, Kan. residents reported losing power between 10 p.m. and midnight Thursday. During that time the roof blew off of the Conoco gas station. Manager Jenny Chappell said the damage occurred at about 10:15 p.m.

“It was open, I had two employees and a few customers,” Ms. Chappell said. “(The roof) just peeled off of half the store and flew toward the back and was hanging in the wire.”

The station continued business Friday morning as friends of an employee shoveled out loads of ceiling tile and insulation that had been installed just a year earlier. Similar wind gusts across town on Spruce Street left Wathena resident Dorene Gray with a yard full of scattered tree branches. She said the damage occurred shortly after warning sirens sounded at about 10:15 p.m.

“I opened the door and it was just a lot of wind and rain,” she said. “We came back upstairs afterward ... and we couldn’t get the front door open, it was all the limbs.”

Ms. Gray said the storm was the worst she had experienced in Wathena since the early 1980s.

Julie Meng, emergency management coordinator in Doniphan County, Kan., said fallen trees and power lines were reported in Wathena and Elwood, Kan. along a path running between the two cities, and that some Elwood residents voluntarily left the area to seek shelter.

Photo by Todd Weddle / St. Joseph News-Press / Purchase this photo

Kagin Simpson pulls branches out of his front yard after thunderstorms ripped though the area Thursday night. Mr. Simpson said he wasn’t home at the time of the storm and had to climb through the debris to get into the house.

Brown County, Kan., emergency management reports significant damage to homes along with debris from last night’s storms. Some damage also was reported to roads and bridges. Officials are currently doing assessments in preparation for a county emergency declaration.

Mark Manchester, deputy director of emergency management in Atchison County, Mo., said severe weather damaged several power poles, machine sheds and a few grain bins along the south edge of U.S. Highway 59, and flooding caused that road to be closed for most of the day Friday. In Tarkio, the airport and some businesses were evacuated, and a funnel cloud was confirmed southeast of Fairfax, Mo.

Christy Forney, emergency management director of Nodaway County, Mo., reported minor damage Friday morning as well as five state road closings, including U.S. Highway 71 north of Burlington Junction and Missouri Highway 46 at the Nodaway River.

Dispatchers in Andrew County, Mo., and Holt County said no major damage was reported following the storms, though high water had forced the closings of both county and state roads.