January 14, 2025

The storm that blew through Franklin County last night packed quite a wallop. Straight line winds up to 80 miles per hour snapped tree limbs, brought down power poles and lines all across the county. Power was out to most of the city of Ottawa for several hours but is starting to come back in parts of town. Last night, several semi trucks were blown over on I-35 as the storm went through and the tornado sirens sounded at one point, although no tornado has been confirmed. Several homes in the area received damage from the storm. The bleachers at the OHS soccer field were overturned by the wind. Also, a house fire at 1103 South Main Street had Ottawa firefighters out shortly after the storm. Chief Tim Mathias saying he believed the fire was caused when a tree fell and snapped the power lines, igniting the fire. Upon arrival, he says the house showed heavy flame on the back side. Firefighters went to work, and were able to knock the fire down fairly quickly, but as of 10:00 last night, they were still working on getting hot spots out. There were reports of three other fires in the county also, but no detail on those are available.

In surrounding cities, much of the same. Pomona, Wellsville, Rantoul, Lane and Baldwin City all without power after the storm rolled through, one official saying all the lines were down in Baldwin, and power outages and trees down have been reported in Osawatomie also.

Right now, power crews are working round the clock to get power restored. If you have an outage and have not reported it, you are urged to call 785-229-3710 or 785-229-3750. The key is patience. Remember power crews and city crews have been out all night working to clear debris and get power restored, it’s just that with so many areas affected, it will take a while.