Homes and trees in Wamego suffered damage Thursday afternoon after severe weather — including reports of tornadoes in the area — hit the town.
Louisville and St. George reported similar damage. There are no reports of any serious injuries.
The full extent of the damage is unknown at this time. There are reports of 1,200 people without power in the Wamego/Louisville area.
The Wamego Police Department informed KMAN that police officers, sheriff’s deputies, fire fighters and other emergency responders observed the wall cloud as it traveled over south-central Wamego and an apparent tornado touched down in the area. While damage is still being assessed at this time it appears fallen trees onto structures and power lines encapsulates the damage. The WPD said there were no structures that were directly hit by the tornado.
Emergency personnel have gone and continue to go door-to-door to ensure that residents are safe. There are no reports of injuries at this time.
At least five reports of twisters touching down in the northeast part of the state were recorded according to the Associated Press.
The National Weather Service began issuing tornado warnings early Thursday afternoon and the first sighting was near St. George in Riley County around 2 p.m.
By 3 p.m. five tornadoes were reported in a cluster of counties in northeast Kansas, where law enforcement reported baseball-size hail that caused damage to cars and homes in Meriden northeast of Topeka.
At the same time, four counties in southwest Kansas were under tornado warnings, but none had touched down.
These photos sent to KMAN taken by Wamego resident Adam Tyner show some of the damage. Andrea Besthorn, Manhattan Broadcasting Sales Consultant, and Joyce Mermis, KMAN reporter, also contributed their own images.
