Nearly 5-Inch Hail Injures Drivers, Kills Emu at Zoo

Nicolette Zangara, a spokesperson for the Springfield-Greene County Office of Emergency Management, said she had a bad feeling about Tuesday's storm early on. "You could just tell from what we were seeing on radar that the hail was growing in size," Zangara said. Glass shards flew everywhere as Eric Gockel waited out one of the worst hailstorms to hit Missouri, sitting in his car as the windshield was battered. One of the softball-size hunks of ice that hit the Springfield area on Tuesday measured 4.75 inches, the AP reports. The hail killed an emu at the zoo, injured some drivers, knocked out power to thousands, and damaged hundreds of vehicles and even some aircraft.

Severe spring weather is plaguing the South and Midwest, and emergency management officials said the hailstorm was Springfield's worst on record, though it falls short of a state record. Mark Burchfield, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Springfield, said that distinction goes to the 6-inch hail recorded in 2004 near the town of Maryville. "It's very rare," he said of the Springfield storm. "This was a supercell thunderstorm that was able to really have a lot of wind shear with it and a lot of energy that allowed the hailstone to stay up aloft for a lot longer."

At the Dickerson Park Zoo in Springfield, staff members tried to move animals inside, including Adam, a 21-year-old female emu. But an emu's natural behavior is to lie down and take cover, spokesperson Joey Powell said in an email. Adam died of head trauma. Oscar, a 17-year-old type of flightless bird called a rhea, was injured by the hail but was receiving pain medication and doing well Wednesday morning. At Springfield-Branson National Airport, hundreds of vehicles had windshields or sunroofs knocked out. Some passengers had to be bused around 100 miles to the airport in Bentonville, Arkansas, because rental cars were damaged. Employees covered the most badly damaged vehicles with donated tarps. "We think we put 300 or 400 tarps out there," said Ren Luebbering, the airport public information officer. The airport warned online: "Expect damage to your vehicle."