Tornado cuts a destructive path through city in Kansas; no deaths

A tornado that tore through a city outside Wichita, Kan., on Friday night caused significant damage, ripping through houses and power lines, uprooting trees and heaving cars onto buildings. No fatalities were reported.

Earlier reports put the number of damaged structures in the city, Andover, at 50 to 100, but additional field reporting from emergency crews on Saturday revealed that as many as 1,000 structures may have been damaged, as officials continued inspections to determine the full impact.

The damage path extended about 4 miles north of where officials thought it ended Friday night, said Mike Roosevelt, deputy chief of Andover Fire and Rescue, in a news conference Saturday afternoon. He added that the number of damaged structures would probably “continue to rise as the day goes on.”

Numerous photographs posted on social media showed homes flattened and cars flipped upside down on lawns.

Emergency management officials said only a few people suffered injuries, and most were minor, although one firefighter was taken to an area hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Residents received warnings from the National Weather Service 8 minutes before the tornado struck. Their quick response to the warnings prevented more severe injuries and fatalities, said meteorologist Chance Hayes. “They sheltered in homes, they sheltered in businesses, they sought shelter any place they possibly could to get out of harm’s way,” he said.

Jalynn Michler, 31, was trying to coax her 5-year-old daughter to practice for a weekend dance recital when warning sirens started blaring. Within moments, she said, a friend called to tell her a tornado was heading her way. The friend texted her a video showing a dark, twisting cloud that appeared to be just behind Michler’s home.

“She said, ‘Get your girls in the basement now,’” Michler said. “By the tone of her voice, I knew it had to be close to the house. We get tornado threats all the time and normally you just walk down to the basement, but this was completely different. This one was real.”

Michler rode out the storm with her husband and two daughters in a basement bathroom. They emerged to find their home intact, but Michler learned that Prairie Creek Elementary, where she works as a special education teacher, had been hit. There, windows and parts of the roof were blown out, according to residents. School officials were assessing the damage Saturday.

Jaime Green / Associated Press Flattened homes and flipped cars were a common scene after a tornado barreled through parts of Kansas, damaging multiple buildings, injuring several people and leaving more than 6,500 without power.