Tornado slams Wichita, ‘uncontrolled chaos’ reported: Damage May Top $283M
Sedgwick County officials say damages could be as high as $283 million after a tornado hit the southeast part of Wichita.
The storm that struck late Saturday night caused damage to a mobile home park and McConnell Air Force Base. A Boeing Co. spokesman says the Wichita plant took a “direct hit.” Emergency management officials said that at nearby Spirit AeroSystems, most buildings were damaged. Flash flooding and fires also were reported.
Sharon Watson, Kansas Division of Emergency Management spokeswoman, said there were reports of damage to housing in the southeast part of Wichita, as well as widespread power outages.
There also were reports of flooding in the downtown area.
Westar Energy said more than 22,000 people were without power Saturday night, with all but 2,000 of them in Sedgwick County where Wichita is located.
During the storm, the National Weather Service in Wichita briefly turned over its forecasting duties to the Topeka office while the meteorologists took shelter. The tornado is one of possibly 20 that have been reported to hit the state as part of a powerful storm system.
Meteorologists say one tornado narrowly avoided Salina. Another was on the ground for about half an hour north of Dodge City.
The large outbreak of tornadoes across Kansas hadn’t resulted in any reported injuries as of 9:30 p.m. because the twisters struck mostly rural areas in central and northeast Kansas, officials said.
However, there was damage, some of it severe, to several isolated homes and structures.
Watson said the State Emergency Operations Center in Topeka was activated and monitoring the developments for several hours.
These damage reports came into the emergency operations center prior to tornadoes striking the Wichita area: