The impact to some well-known businesses in Jefferson City from Wednesday's tornado will be felt for quite some time.
Some of the worst damage occurred to businesses along Christy Drive and on Ellis Boulevard.
For Kevin Riley and his family, it's still a very emotional time as they work to bring Riley Chevrolet and Riley Toyota back into service. The Riley family has been in the auto business for 83 years.
"On Wednesday night, as I drove up from the south, power lines were down and I had to drive under them to get through on Christy," Riley said. "As I came up the hill, I first thought about the people who live in a house just before you get to our property. That was my first priority to go see about them and unbelievably they had come out of the house and said they were OK."
Riley and other family members then began to start walking around the car lots and saw the devastation.
"I just don't know how I could describe it other than stunning," Riley said. "We got over to the Chevrolet store and probably 80 percent of it was demolished. We're so thankful that there were no employees there when it hit."
When the sun came up Thursday morning, the full realization of the damage and shock hit Riley.
"From that time on its been a whirlwind trying to answer phone calls, talk with employees and trying to put together options for us to be set up," Riley said. "We met Sunday for the first time as managers and we plan to meet with all our staff on Tuesday to see where we are. We've got over 125 people working for us full-time and 25 more part-time."
Riley said he began to think about if they were properly insured so they could take care of their employees and the business and after verifying with his insurance company he said they will be able to take care of them.
"Our collision center was slightly damaged and we believe we could reopen it in the next 10 days," Riley said. "We had 100 total vehicles between the two lots when the tornado hit and probably 80 percent were totaled. There was so much glass that was broken out of them. It's not just the windows and windshields, but the glass in the computer displays as well."
Riley said people have been asking what they'll be doing with the damaged vehicles.
"Some will be taken out and sold as salvage," Riley said. "Others we'll still sell as damaged with the documentation to show what happened to them. We know we have customers that will be willing to buy them and fix them up. There's also companies that could take some of these. What will be sold will have to be safe to be driven. We'll get an area of the lots cleaned off, bring in some double-wide trailers and start selling."
As far as doing work from their parts and service centers, Riley said they may have to put those at different locations, but they would prefer to keep as much of their operations at the Christy location as possible.
"The governor, lieutenant governor and mayor have all stopped by to give their support," Riley said. "The utility companies, Three Rivers Electric Co-op, Ameren Missouri and Central Electric Co-op were all fabulous. They had to install new poles and lines for our electricity. They worked 24 hours to get the job done.
"From the Riley family, we want to say we appreciate all the offers of help and support and the prayers that have been sent to us," Riley said. "We knew we had a lot of friends, but we didn't know we had this amount of love to go along with that friendship."
Up on Ellis Boulevard, Sonic co-owner Harold McDowell said they hope to be back open in approximately 10 days.
"The Sonic Corporation is doing the maintenance with builders they brought in from out of state," McDowell said. "The brick and mortar where the kitchen and service area is located seemed to be in pretty good shape. It was the outside, the overheads and electrical service, that took the brunt of the damage. I'm 85 and I don't know when the last time a tornado hit Jeff City. I can't believe the damage it did."
McDowell and partner Larry Kolb lease the location to Sonic to operate.
"They did $100,000 of work last year to the roof and outside areas around the main building and now that's all gone," McDowell said. "We've been at this location for 20 years and we plan to stay here a lot longer. I've had a lot of people ask me when we'll be coming back because they want a slushy. Well, I want a slushy, too."
Due to the indefinite closure of the Firley YMCA on Ellis which suffered damage from Wednesday's tornado, beginning Tuesday, the Knowles YMCA on Stadium Boulevard will start opening at 4:30 a.m. until Firley re-opens. When Firley re-opens, Knowles will begin opening at 5 a.m. again.
Summer Camp begins Tuesday, so through Aug. 23, the Knowles basketball courts will be closed 6:45 a.m.-5:30 p.m.
YMCA officials do not have a date for the Firley re-opening and this includes their outdoor pool.