Officials across Kansas were digging out and cleaning up Thursday, a day after hurricane-force winds ripped through the region, along with severe thunderstorms.
Riley County officials say several grass fires were sparked, primarily the result of downed power lines. The largest fire was north of Randolph, on Hilltop Road. Those fires have all been extinguished. No injuries were reported.
Riley County Emergency Manager Russel Stukey spoke with KMAN regarding storm damages in the area.
Stukey stated he encourages everyone to avoid any areas with power lines down. He says it’s likely to be several days, if not weeks before an official damage estimate is known.
Pottawatomie County is working to get severe weather damage under control. Emergency Manager Jennifer Merrow spoke with KMAN regarding the steps they’re taking to get things cleaned up after extreme winds caused some damage Wednesday evening.
Merrow says she cant say what the exact status of the power outage is because they’ve been out doing further assessments. To her knowledge about 16 residents in Pott. County were still out of power as of late Thursday.
Merrow stated, other than some barns and farming equipment sheds going down, there was no extensive damage within Pott. County.
Manhattan city crews also worked Thursday to repair a number of traffic signals throughout the day which either lost power or were partially blown down.
