Emporia escapes worst of storm
From staff and wire reports
Originally published 01:42 p.m., June 6, 2008
Updated 01:42 p.m., June 6, 2008
From staff and wire reports
Parts of Kansas were hit hard by a line of severe storms that moved through on Thursday. Emporia, however, managed to dodge the bullet with scattered storm damage around town and in outlying areas.
Much of the damage from the high winds was confined to the west side of Emporia, where tree limbs were downed, windshields broken, a power line knocked down near a home and a wood privacy fence blown down. There was isolated damage in other areas of town. Two power poles were snapped off along Old Highway 50 east of Emporia. The lines were still intact but hanging near the ground.
Jim Sherman, 2107 W. 21st Ave., brought out a chain saw early this morning to cut his neighbor’s fallen tree into manageable pieces and load them into his pickup truck. Before 7:30 a.m., he had the truck piled high with the debris and at least another truckload waiting for him in the yard.
“The whole street was blocked here last night,” Sherman said.
Three police officers helped him move the fallen tree out of the street and into the yard, he said.
The National Weather Service reported a 70 mph wind gust at 7:53 p.m. Thursday evening at the Emporia airport. Winds throughout much of Thursday afternoon had been consistent between 20 and 30 mph with gusts as high as 45 mph. Emporia received about three-quarters of an inch of rain overnight with the storm. Westar Energy this morning reported 143 residents without power. Lyon County is second in the state of numbers of residents out of power. Sedgwick County had 1,114 residents out of power this morning.
Other locations in Kansas weren’t so lucky. The National Weather Service in Kansas City, Mo., said there were 30 reports of tornadoes across the Midwest, with 14 of those coming after 5 p.m. Winds of up to 80 mph and large hail battered parts of Kansas, with Pawnee County reporting hail stones up to 3 inches in diameter.
A tornado briefly touched down near St. Joseph, Mo., and widespread flooding was reported in the northwest part of the state; State Highway 59 closed because of high water and officials were about to close Highway 136, according to Dan Bloom, quality assurance meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Kansas City.
Bloom said there had been no reports of injuries as of 11:30 p.m.
The National Weather Service had predicted a potentially devastating day of twisters and the storms, noting that the weather conditions were similar to those of June 8, 1974, when 39 tornadoes battered the southern Great Plains. One tornado killed six people in Emporia that evening.
Thursday, a large tornado in Atchison County destroyed a grain bin and farm buildings before crossing the Missouri River, where it overturned tractor trailers on Interstate 29 in northwest Missouri, Schwein said.
One of two tornadoes in Clay County destroyed one home, knocked down power lines and trees, and damaged several buildings, according to Clay County Sheriff’s dispatcher Cat Dallinga.
A tornado that touched down three miles southwest of Russell Springs Thursday afternoon dissipated before causing any damage, as did a second tornado that touched down briefly near Preston, about seven miles northeast of Pratt.
Some roofs at the Pratt County airport were reported damaged, though it wasn’t clear if the damage was caused by a tornado, according to Pratt County Emergency Preparedness. An irrigation system was also overturned in the area.
A funnel cloud was reported southeast of Seneca and a tornado was spotted on the ground near the community of Watson in far northwestern Missouri, according to the NWS. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
The first damage reports from the system included large hail about 10 miles west of Goodland, said meteorologist Scott Mentzer of the National Weather Service in Goodland. Some damage was also reported to irrigation pivots in fields 13 miles northwest of Goodland.
Golf ball-sized hail and some damage from 60 to 70 mph winds were also reported in Pratt County, and the roof was blown off a gas station in Doniphan County.