By TIM UNRUH, MIKE STRAND, and DUANE SCHRAG
Salina Journal
Law enforcement officers and firefighters were responding to reports of tornado damage, fires, street flooding, hail and downed power lines and trees blocking streets late Wednesday in Salina, and people in Chapman were starting to assess the damage after a tornado tore through that town, causing “massive” damage, including to the town’s school.
Journal reporter Duane Schrag, reporting from Chapman late Wednesday, said the tornado had destroyed the east wall of the high school auditorium and scattered bricks in the street.
At 11:40 p.m., he said authorities were starting to go door to door. You could hear gas hissing and water running as you went through town, he said.
“It’s a huge part of the town that’s suffered massive devastation,” Schrag said.
Schrag said people at the school were making lists of names so they could determine who survived the tornado. The school was being used as a tornado shelter. It was not known if anyone was injured.
In addition, while the stone church to the east of the high school was standing, but its windows were gone and it appeared the roof was gone, too.
The back half of the Londeen hardware store was gone, as was the Londeen Funeral Chapel.
Damage assessment was difficult because of the darkness.
Schrag said it appeared the tornado entered the town at the point of the school.
Jim DuBois, emergency services director for the Red Cross in Salina, said his agency was sending a team to Chapman.
In the 3100 block of S. Holmes Road, at least two homes were heavily damaged by the tornado.
Cecelia Sanchez and her 11-year-old grandson waited out the suspected tornado in the basement at 3103 S. Holmes, emerging to find the garage, kitchen and part of the back of the house in the backyard.
The pair had already gone into the basement once earlier in the evening, as the first of three storm systems passed over. They decided to go back when the second system passed through.
“We were under the stairway, and all of a sudden my grandson said his ears were popping, and mine were, too,” Sanchez said. “I knew that wasn’t good. It just took seconds.”
But once the apparent tornado was passed, it took them quite a while to get out of the basement.
A back door was blocked by a fallen water line, Sanchez said, and they
couldn’t pry it open, and the basement stairs were also partially blocked by debris.
“There was a tree branch in the stairway, and all of my teapots were scattered all over,” she said, as she stood in her backyard about 11 p.m. with a flashlight, looking at belongings scattered across the yard. “We clawed our way up the stairway.”
As she looked around, she was surprised to find the French doors that had been on the back of the house, and now were partially buried in the debris, had all the glass intact.
Helping her poke through the rubble was next-door neighbor Jim Lennox. The tornado had taken his garage, and also heavily damaged a couple of his antique cars.
Before hitting the homes on Holmes, the tornado also apparently hit Crestwood cabinet company near the intersection of Water Well Road and South Ninth, and pushed in a couple of doors and took off part of the roof. No injuries were reported.
Just after 10 p.m., firefighters were going through a mobile home on Water Well Road in south Salina. The mobile home was heavily damaged, but there was no one home at the time.
Red Cross volunteer John Degand was monitoring the storm from the emergency operations center in the basement of the law enforcement center, mobilization volunteers helped.
“We’re getting our operation under way,” Degand said.
At 10:25 p.m., he said there were no known injuries.
Heavy rain and large hail, at least 3 inches in diameter, pounded neighborhoods in Salina, including Degand’s in east Salina.
“There are a lot of limbs down. You can hardly get around on Ninth and Eighth streets. There are trees blocking at least half of the roadway, over around Ninth, north of Walnut. The street is closed,” Degand said.
Late Wednesday, it appeared that a good portion of west Salina was without power.
At 12:15 this morning, there were 3,100 customers without power in Salina, primarily from 10th Street west, said Tom Sydow, Westar regional director, but power had been restored to 3,200 customers.
Northern Chapman was without power, and there were 47 customers out in Abilene.
In Manhattan, which was also hit by a tornado, Westar reported 3,800 customer without electricity.
“Obviously there were scattered outages everywhere,” Sydow said. “A tornado went through major lines between Salina and Abilene. We’re assessing that, and troubleshooting in Salina.”
He said crews were on their way to storm-stricken areas.
Some tents were damages and tree limbs were downed in Oakdale Park, where the 32nd annual Smoky Hill River Festival is set to begin tonight with the Festival Jam.
“It’s a little bit of an impediment, but not anything that’s going to cause us to go off schedule,” said John Highkin, executive director of the Salina Arts & Humanities Commission, which puts on the festival.
Emergency workers were looking into reports of damage along Water Well Road, east of Interstate Highway 135.
At the Red Cross office at 145 S. Broadway, DuBois said he was organizing teams of volunteers in the dark.
“In the north end of town, we are without electricity,” DuBois said.
“All I know is what the (police) scanner is reporting,” he said. “I’m just trying to get teams in and assess the damage.”
©Salina Journal