Early Thursday morning a tornado warning occurred in the St. Louis area, including counties in Illinois. It caused much damage throughout the region. No injuries were reported in the three counties that were affected.

At 5:23 Thursday morning, a tornado touched down at University City, according to the Associated Press. Trees and power lines were knocked down and out, respectively. About 7,000 people were without power during the storm.

There was also a reported gas leak near McKnight. Because of it, people were caused to evacuate their homes, power polls collapsed, and a wall near the intersection of Delmar and McKnight fell down. Powerful storms are predicted to occur in central Missouri in the afternoon, and will move to St. Louis by the evening. More tornadoes and other damages could occur again Thursday night.

Meteorologist Jayson Gosselin of the National Weather Service said that it was an EF1 with 110 mph winds. Approximately 100 were damaged because of the storms.

“Theses are the most damaging kind of storms because it is not yet fully light out,” said Meteorologist Kent Ehrhardt said.