TOPEKA — People in the Great Plains are cleaning up after a monster storm system spawned hundreds tornadoes in Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Iowa this weekend and damaged hundreds of businesses and homes, McConnell Air Force Base in wichita and caused power outages. The National Weather Service said that at one point, there were so many tornadoes dropping out of the clouds that meteorologists’ warnings and advisories couldn’t keep up. The only deaths reported so far occurred in Woodward, Okla., wHere five people, including three children, were killed when a tornado slammed into a mobile home park. In Kansas, at least 97 tornadoes were reported and about half of the state was under severe storm warnings at one point, the Kansas Department of Emergency Management said. Seventeen people were reported injured in Sedgwick County, and four remained hospitalized this morning. The weather service said Kansas saw one month’s worth of tornadoes over the weekend. Although damage was reported throughout the state, Rice and Sedgwick counties were the hardest hit among the many counties that reported damage. Rice County officials reported several buildings were damaged, including the sheriff’s office and the jail in Lyons. Prisoners were transferred from Rice County to other counties’ jails after the jail roof was blown off. Rice County’s 911 dispatch center has been transferred to the regional 911 back-up center, state authorities said. Nearly 100 mobile homes were destroyed or severely damaged in a mobile home park in Sedgwick County near Wichita. State authorities and National Weather Service forecasters said it’s a near miracle that no one in Kansas has been reported killed They say it’s too early to tell if the new scary weather warnings had an impact. But Gov. Sam Brownback said residents took the storm warnings seriously. Although the storms lost some strength, the system is expected to ravage states to the east, the weather service said.
Monday, April 16, 11 a.m.
