The tornado that damaged over 1,000 buildings in south-central Kansas had winds of up to 165 mph and carved a path of destruction nearly 13 miles long.
The tornado that caused extensive damage Friday, mostly in the Wichita suburb of Andover, and injured several people, was rated an EF-3 on the Enhanced Fujita scale, which the National Weather Service uses to assess tornadoes.
According to Andover Fire Chief Chad Russell, the storm destroyed at least 300 to 400 buildings, with a total of 1,074 buildings damaged. The tornado was on the ground for 21 minutes, according to the National Weather Service on Friday evening.
During the storm, four people were injured, including two firefighters responding to a call in Andover, but their injuries were minor.
Andover will take years to recover from this storm, according to Russell.
“This will have a long-term impact on the city of Andover,” he said. “We still bear the scars of 1991.” (EF-5 tornado). I’m grateful that this tornado was not as severe, but we’ll be doing this for years.”
By Sunday, nearly all of the more than 15,000 customers who had lost power during the storm had had their power restored. According to Evergy, less than 1,000 people in the Wichita area were still without power as of Sunday morning.
In addition to the storm damage, the Oklahoma State Patrol reported that three University of Oklahoma meteorology students were killed in a car accident about 85 miles north of Oklahoma City on Friday evening on their way back from storm chasing in Kansas.