Severe Storm Causes Damage In Park

A severe storm struck the park and city of Independence with 65 mile per hour winds and two inches of rain over a four-hour period on the morning of July 12th. The storm also caused electrical outages in several city grids. A maple tree which stands directly in front of the Truman Home front yard sustained breakage of several large branches resulting in the loss of one half of the tree’s crown. A professional tree landscape company was hired to remove the fallen limbs and to provide an evaluation of the tree’s condition. Several large branches still attached to the tree which were determined to have large cracks were also removed as a safety measure. Additional storm damage resulted in electrical power to the Truman Home being lost for two and one half hours.  The visitor center carpet suffered extensive water saturation as a result of rain water being pushed underneath two large fire engine bay doors and through the main visitor center entrance door.