Hailstorm kills emu at Missouri zoo, cancels flights and damages
hundreds of vehicles
[April 30, 2026]
By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH and SARAH BRUMFIELD
Glass shards flew everywhere as Eric Gockel waited out one of the worst
hailstorms to hit Missouri.
One of the softball-size hunks of ice that hit the Springfield area on
Tuesday measured 4.75 inches (12 centimeters). The hail killed an emu at
the zoo, injured some drivers, knocked out power to thousands and
damaged hundreds of vehicles and even some aircraft.
“I feel blessed that I came out unscathed,” Gockel, whose windshield was
battered as he waited in his car along the side of a highway for the
storm to pass, said Wednesday.
Severe spring weather is plaguing the South and Midwest, and emergency
management officials said the hailstorm was Springfield's worst in
history, although it falls short of a state record. Mark Burchfield, a
meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Springfield, said
that distinction goes to the 6-inch (15.2-centimeter) hail recorded in
2004 near the town of Maryville.
“It's very rare,” he said of the Springfield storm. “This was a
supercell thunderstorm that was able to really have a lot of wind shear
with it and a lot of energy that allowed the hailstone to stay up aloft
for a lot longer.”
At the Dickerson Park Zoo in Springfield, staff tried to move animals
inside, including Adam, a 21-year-old female emu. But an emu’s natural
behavior is to lie down and take cover, spokesperson Joey Powell said in
an email to The Associated Press.
Adam died from head trauma. And Oscar, a 17-year-old type of flightless
bird called a rhea, was injured by the hail but was receiving pain
medication and doing well Wednesday morning, as the zoo remained closed.
Some of the worst damage was recorded at the Springfield-Branson
National Airport, about 5 miles (8 kilometers) northwest of the city
center.
Dozens of flights were delayed or canceled, and hundreds of vehicles had
windshields or sunroofs busted out, said Ren Luebbering, the airport
public information officer.
Some passengers had to be bused around 100 miles (160 kilometers) away
to the airport in Bentonville, Arkansas, because rental cars were
damaged. Luebbering said airport staff spent three hours covering the
most badly damaged vehicles with donated tarps.
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This photo provided by Ren Luebbering shows airport staff placing
tarps over cars that were damaged by hail in a parking lot at the
Springfield-Branson National Airport in Springfield, Mo., Tuesday,
April 28, 2026. (Ren Luebbering via AP)
“We think we put 300 or 400 tarps out there on cars,” Luebbering
said. The airport warned online: “Expect damage to your vehicle.”
Nicolette Zangara, a spokesperson for the Springfield-Greene County
Office of Emergency Management, said she had a bad feeling early on.
“You could just tell from what we were seeing on radar that the hail
was growing in size,” Zangara said. “And then we started getting
pictures from some of our neighboring counties, some of the hail
that they were getting. And from that moment we knew it was going to
be a bad storm.”
She said a few people called 911 to report being injured when the
hail smashed their windshield, but she didn’t have exact numbers.
She said the worst of the damage appears to be to vehicles. She said
her car is so dented that it resembles the surface of a golf ball.
“It just seems like the last week of April is kind of cursed for our
area,” she said, noting the area was hit hard a year ago by spring
storms.
Ever since the hail hit, Gockel has been submitting insurance
claims. The gutters on his house were “blown to smithereens” and a
crew is headed out to evaluate how his roof held up.
He runs a pizza business and a food truck was damaged, along with
work trucks and his teen daughter's first car, which he bought her
around a month ago.
Gockel is used to storm warnings. Normally, he responds to them by
standing on the front porch and watching, rather than taking cover.
“Rarely does anything crazy come to fruition,” he said. “This is the
first time that I really feel like the actual event lived up to the
warning."
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