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Tornado brings destruction
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![]() |
Tornado brings destruction
|
The one
thing it didn’t do was kill anyone.
“The
citizenry of Kansas did an amazing job of getting prepared for it,” Gov. Sam
Brownback said Sunday afternoon as he toured tornado damage in Oaklawn and
south Wichita. “People took it seriously, they got out of the way, they
prepared for it, and as a result of that, and the grace of God, and we had no
fatalities.”
The
National Weather Service said the tornado that tore through the area was an
EF-3, with maximum winds of 165 mph. It was part of an outbreak that saw nearly
100 reports of tornadoes, though it’s still unclear how many tornadoes there
were.
No deaths
or critical injuries were reported in the state, which many credited to weather
forecasters warning of impending severe weather 24 to 48 hours in advance.
Seventeen
injuries were reported in Sedgwick County, according to the Sedgwick County
Emergency Operations Center. Only four of those were serious enough to require
hospitalization.
“We knew
well ahead of time that this was going to be ugly,” Sedgwick County
Commissioner Tim Norton said. “People listened. They sheltered in place, and we
are very fortunate it didn’t go through some major residential areas and that
there wasn’t any loss of life.”
In the
Wichita area, the most significant damage was in Oaklawn, specifically the
150-unit Pinaire Mobile Home Park. More than 90 mobile homes sustained damage
of more than 50 percent.
Six other
homes in Sedgwick County were reported destroyed, three were damaged, and a
condominium was damaged.
County
and city officials had originally estimated damage at $283? Million but said on
Sunday the total might be lower.
“You just
really appreciate the destructive power of a tornado when you see an I-beam
wrapped around a tree,” Brownback said after his tour of the area.
He
promised residents and recovery workers that their needs will be a priority for
state government. He said an assessment is under way to determine whether the
damage is severe enough to trigger federal disaster aid.
Brownback
issued a declaration of a state-of-disaster emergency for 39 counties.
All
buildings at the Spirit Aero Systems facility received some damage; six
sustained significant damage. Spirit, the city’s largest private employer, is
closed until at least Tuesday.
The
company is putting together a plan to resume operations, said Spirit CEO Jeff
Turner.
“It will
be a couple days before we have a good, solid plan,” he said.
Boeing
and Hawker Beech craft had minor damage, as did McConnell Air Force Base, which
reported small power outages and minor damage to fences, buildings and trees. Planes
at the Kansas Aviation Museum also were damaged.
Approximately
30 area residents were sheltered overnight by the American Red Cross at the
Derby Rec Center. Officials expected a similar number to spend the night
Sunday.
The Derby
and Wichita school districts each closed two schools and said they couldn’t
provide bus transportation from the affected areas because of street closings.
About
7,300 homes and businesses in Sedgwick County were still without power Sunday
evening, down from a peak of about 25,000. Crews from throughout the region,
including about 75 crews that are independent contractors, were working to
restore power and replace power poles that had snapped in two. It may be
Tuesday before power is fully restored, said Leonard Allen, a spokesman for
Westar.
Westar
said heavy traffic from curious sightseers is slowing down power restoration.
Sedgwick County emergency dispatchers asked people to stay out of southeast
Sedgwick County unless absolutely necessary.
The sound
of chain saws buzzed all day in Oaklawn as family, friends and others showed up
to help clear limbs and twisted trees.
“We’re
working together,” said David Parker, one Oaklawn resident. “We have to help
each other.”
Many of
the residents were working on very little sleep, if any at all. Law enforcement
officers and Kansas National Guardsmen had made a house-to-house check to see
whether everyone was OK, often knocking on doors as late as 3 a.m. Sunday. Once
they were checked, houses were marked with spray paint.
In the
mobile home park on Sunday, with all residents cleared out, there was an eerie
quiet. The little neighborhood lacked the usual sounds of cars moving, doors
opening and children playing. Living rooms lay open to the sky, walls shattered
around them. Trees were broken and stripped of leaves, but some limbs were
festooned with shreds of aluminum or foam insulation.
It was
easy to see that David Smith and his family had lost everything in the tornado;
the five of them stood outside the closed Kwik Shop near 47th South and Clifton
in Oaklawn, wearing shorts in the breezy 60-degree weather. Only one of them,
6-year-old Sarah, was wearing a jacket.
They were
mud-spattered, and tired, and it was obvious to anyone who saw them that
everything they owned in the world was what they were wearing. They had their
clothes and the dog named Gizmo, the only one of four beloved pets they were
able to save before their house was destroyed.
When the
tornado struck, David’s soon-to-be wife, Dawn Gunter, had just come home to the
Pinaire Mobile Home Park from Sonic. At the Kwik Shop 12 hours later, she was
still wearing her sonic shirt, and the wet socks she wore when she waded
through the storm water before and after.
David and
Dawn got the three girls into the trailer park storm shelter with only minutes
to spare before roofs and walls exploded. In the shelter, people yelled and
screamed as the wind tore things apart outside. After the wind stopped howling,
David Smith went out among the broken mobile homes, looking for survivors.
The loss
of the missing pets had the kids feeling down; though Smith assured them he’d
do his best.
“I will
look for them,” he told the kids. “But if I can’t find them, I can’t find
them.”
Their
home was destroyed. A neighbor had told them she saw what she thought was their
backyard trampoline in a roadway three miles to the north.
Smith
said he had no idea where they might sleep on Sunday night. They’d gathered with
other survivors at the local recreational center, though none of them slept
much. The girls — Kristen, 11, Pearl, 9, and Sarah — appeared to be in an
upbeat mood, though Kristen said she’d had what she thought was a panic attack
after the storm hit.
Smith
made phone calls and stood outside in the cool air. He grinned.
“Things
happen for a reason,” he said.
Other
communities counted themselves lucky.
Butler
County apparently suffered light damage, even with the tornado on the ground.
“We’re
sitting here going, ‘Wow, how did that happen?’?” Butler County Emergency
Management director Jim Schmidt said Sunday.
A tree
blew onto a house near Andover, he said, and another tree blew over onto a car
in El Dorado. Other than that, officials were finding only minor tree damage.
“Boy, you
would have thought there’d be a lot more damage,” Schmidt said. “It’ll be
interesting to see what the weather service’s damage survey teams find.”
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