A tornado developed from a severe thunderstorm that moved through Sedgwick and Butler counties Friday evening.
The tornado touched down near Andover around 8:15 p.m. and video from storm chasers showed debris kicked up by the storm as it moved across the area. Tornado warnings were issued across Sedgwick, Butler and Greenwood counties as storms moved across the area.
The tornado touched down west of Andover, north of Highway 54 and moved to the east. Damage has been reported to a number of homes and buildings and power lines were knocked down. There have been no reports of serious injuries
A tornado was also confirmed near El Dorado shortly after the Andover storm, and another tornado was confirmed around 9:15 p.m. near Rosalia. A large tornado was confirmed about 15 miles east of El Dorado around 9:30. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries
Sedgwick County activated its Emergency Operations Center to provide assistance to Andover and also assess damage in southeast Wichita and southeast Sedgwick County from the severe weather.
A shelter was set up at St. Vincent DePaul Church at 123 North Andover Road for people displaced by the tornado. The United Way of the Plains said people who need shelter can call 211 to find out where to go.
Kansas Governor Laura Kelly has declared a state of emergency for the storm damage in Kansas, allowing state resources to be used with the recovery efforts.
Evergy reported more than 11,000 customers without power in the Andover area, and there were scattered outages across east Wichita, with a large outage affecting over 1,200 customers northwest of the intersection of Central and Hillside.
[ photo: KWCH – Josh Wells – Twitter ]
