As predicted, a severe storm barreled through the St. Louis region on Friday night, bringing with it heavy winds, hard hail and torrential rainfall and leaving many Monroe County residents without power.

Winds had been picking up throughout the afternoon on Friday, resulting in a busy time for fire departments handling a variety of calls.

The wall of this massive storm cell began to cross the river into Monroe County at about 10 p.m. A semi tractor-trailer overturned on the deck of the Jefferson Barracks Bridge on I-255 in St. Louis County. Shortly after, the Columbia area was knocked out of power as a downpour of hail and rain ensued and the town went out of power.

While many local residents started to see power restored Saturday, but it may still be awhile before all are back online.

“It could still be another 24 hours until Monroe County is fully restored,” Monroe County EMA Director Kevin Scheibe said at about noon Saturday.

Columbia residents were still without power as of late Saturday morning, though Monroe County Electric Cooperative posted shortly after 10 a.m. that Ameren hoped to have MCEC’s substation in Columbia energized by early afternoon. Power and internet service were restored to most Columbia residents by noon Saturday.

MCEC reported early Saturday morning that Ameren had numerous transmission poles down which affected multiple feeds to MCEC’s substations.

“These broken poles and downed lines have taken out our Waterloo, North Waterloo, Fountain, Poe, Columbia and Fults substations,” MCEC stated in a Facebook post.

Bluff Road was also closed on Saturday from Valmeyer Road to DD Road near Columbia.

In Waterloo, several large utility poles were downed by high winds along Route 3 between HH and GG Roads, resulting in a full closure of Route 3 in that area through Saturday afternoon. The detour takes motorists on GG or HH roads west to North Moore Street.

Monroe County EMA Director Kevin Scheibe said 12-14 trucks of utility workers were attempting to clear the poles from Route 3 with a goal to reopen that stretch by mid-afternoon.

A boat dock from a property on North Moore Street in Waterloo was blown over and mangled.

Scheibe said much of the damage in Waterloo was most likely due to straightline winds that were measured to be 82 miles per hour, per Scheibe.

As for power, Waterloo said it was “open for business” on Saturday morning due to its generators being put into action.

“We’re happy to announce that the City of Waterloo is up and running!” the city posted on its Facebook page. “Our restaurants are open, ready to serve you.”

Valmeyer had several reports of damage due to the storm. The village was without power overnight until about 11 a.m., when some residents had power restored.

The home dugout of Borsch Park, home to the Valmeyer Lakers, was completely destroyed by the storm. There was other damage around the park grounds, including downed limbs.

Elsewhere in Valmeyer, a few homes were seen to have exterior damage due to high winds on West Hunters Ridge. Scheibe said several homes at the west end of Valmeyer sustained damage, including broken windows and roof issues.

Scheibe said radar indicated a small tornado in Valmeyer late Friday, but that is yet to be confirmed by the National Weather Service.

The Village of Valmeyer posted on Facebook that it will have two dumpsters delivered Saturday for residents to discard construction/house debris.

“For trees and limbs, please place in a neat pile on the sidewalk near the street and the village employees will pick up over the next couple of weeks,” the village said.

Fortunately, through it all, no injuries have been reported in Monroe County.

“All of that can be replaced,” Scheibe said of the damage reports. “People can’t. We were blessed that noboby got hurt. The majority of this community listened to the warnings and prepared, and for that I’m thankful.”

Check back for more storm aftermath reports as they become known.