The Emporia Gazette

May 28, 2012

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A thunderstorm with high winds and heavy rain rolled through Emporia on Thursday night, causing damage around the city. No injuries were reported.

Several buildings at Emporia Livestock Sales, 502 Albert St., were damaged in the storm, which produced winds above 70 mph before moving north toward Topeka, according to the National Weather Service. Some of the debris from the livestock sales area sailed through the air and crashed down onto nearby power lines, causing sparks to fly in the air. Some of the surrounding area still remained without power this morning.

Employees of the sales barn were at the barn until midnight and again at 6 a.m. this morning cleaning up heavy damage to the buildings, said Brody Peak, owner of Emporia Livestock Sales. Peak said the storm hit around 6:30 p.m., tore the roofs from three sheds and tossed debris around Sixth Avenue and Funston Street. It was reported that pieces of the buildings landed as far away as Mary Herbert Learning Center, 1700 W. Seventh Ave.

With all the damage, Peak said the business didn’t lose any cattle.

Peak said he is not sure if damage on some of the buildings will be covered by insurance because of the buildings’ age and the fact that they discontinued insurance coverage on some of them. Emporia Livestock Sales had damage to a total of five buildings, some of which are not repairable and will need to be torn down and rebuilt, Peak said. The restaurant and sales arena were also damaged and must be repaired.

Country Mart North, 1020 Merchant St., sustained some awning damage when a single section of the metal awning on the front of the store was ripped off. The strip of metal sailed across the alley and punched through the fence behind U.P.’ers restaurant at 1015 Commercial St. Employees working at the restaurant at the time said an eight-foot section of the awning was embedded in the fence. They said the impact sounded like a gunshot.

Other damage around the city included a large tree uprooted in the 400 block of South Market Street. The tree fell on the front of a house. It didn’t appear this morning to have gone through the roof, but the tree is a total loss.

A storage shed at 2034 W. Sixth Ave. sustained heavy damage to its tin roof, several sections of which were torn off. A few sections still attached were blowing in this morning’s wind.

Stop lights in the area were still out this morning and temporary four-way stop signs were being used for traffic control.

The wind also blew panels out of permanent signs at some Emporia businesses. Kwik Shop at 12th Avenue and Merchant Street lost its sign and lost power.

Other power outages were reported overnight, but fewer than 50 people in Emporia remained without power this morning, according to Westar Energy’s Web site. The Web site said a total of 89 people statewide were still without power.