NEVADA, Mo. — An early morning tornado has left Nevada, Mo., and surrounding communities in Vernon County, Mo., in a wake of destruction. The National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for the area at 7:16 a.m., Wednesday.

Vernon County Sheriff Mike Buehler noted in a social media post that law enforcement and volunteers were working together to assess the damage Wednesday. 

“First responders have been deployed and we’ve made a primary pass through of everything at this time,” the post read. “It appears there’s no medical need at this time.”

Buehler added that the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army had beennotified and were en route. A volunteer station has been set up at the Vernon County Fairgrounds.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol also closed Business US 54 in Nevada Wednesday due to the storm damage and asked motorists to avoid the area while crews completed the cleanup.

The Nevada Police Department has reported power lines down, trees down and damage to buildings.

Weather system heads east

U.S. government forecasters are using a relatively rare “high-risk” designation — the highest category they use — to warn that a major tornado outbreak appears likely Wednesday in an area that’s home to about 2.5 million people.

That area most at risk of catastrophic weather on Wednesday includes parts of west Tennessee including Memphis; northeast Arkansas; the southeast corner of Missouri; and parts of western Kentucky and southern Illinois.

The Norman, Oklahoma-based Storm Prediction Center says that “multiple long-track EF3+ tornadoes, appear likely.” Tornadoes of that magnitude are among the strongest on the Enhanced Fujita scale, used to rate their intensity.

Historically, the “high-risk” designation has been used sparingly, but it did appear just a couple of weeks ago to warn of a deadly tornado outbreak in mid-March.