Couple shelter in basement while tornado rips away home near Defiance

By Deion Broxton

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    ST. CHARLES COUNTY, Missouri (KMOV) — A St. Charles County man is thankful he and his wife are safe after an EF-3 tornado destroyed his home Friday night. The National Weather Service confirmed the tornado touched down in St. Charles County near Defiance near Stub Road and Highway F.

Authorities confirmed an 84-year-old woman died in the tornado and her husband is injured. Both were found thrown about 100 yards from where their house stood.

Rich Vance and his wife lived next to the house where the elderly couple lived. His house was destroyed while he and his wife were in the basement.

“My wife heard the sirens going off down in Defiance,” Vance said. “Usually, when we hear the alarm we go down in the basement. My wife went back upstairs for a minute, and when she came back down is when the tornado hit. Basically, it sounded like a truck or train was going through our house. We were probably down there five minutes–ten minutes at the most. We looked up, and I said, ‘there’s no house up there anymore.'”

Vance told News 4 his in-laws live down the road from him and his wife. He called them about the storm, and told them to go to the basement, and they did, he said.

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