Twister damage tops $6 million
Cleanup begins in ravaged area
Hit and miss.
That’s the best way Ann Riat can describe the destruction from Thursday night’s tornado.
Inside her home, her daughter’s porcelain angel collection was untouched, while other items were tossed about the room.
Outside, pages 109 through 136 of a novel were lying on the sidewalk. The book’s cover was nowhere to be found.
Riat, though she was sorting through trash strewn about her yard at 4717 W. 26th St., was counting her blessings.
“I have the kids, and we’re all safe,” she said. “A house is replaceable.”
As the sun shone Friday, residents of a southwest Lawrence neighborhood cleaned up after the city’s first tornado in more than 20 years.
The National Weather Service said the tornado was an F2, with winds from 113 to 157 mph. The storm produced three or four tornadoes as it moved toward Lawrence from near Pomona.
In Lawrence, the storm caused an estimated $6.4 million in damage to 31 duplexes and 58 single-family homes and nine apartment buildings at Aberdeen South Apartments, 4700 W. 27th St., according to Teri Guenther, assistant director of Douglas County Emergency Management.
No one was killed in the storm. Lawrence Memorial Hospital officials reported treating only six patients for tornado-related injuries, all minor.
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who toured the site Friday afternoon, vowed to seek federal assistance for residents who need to rebuild. She said she would help eliminate red tape so people can more easily re-acquire lost documents such as driver’s licenses and birth certificates.
“We are eager at the state level to do what we can in partnership with the city and county to provide relief as quickly as possible, and to get people rebuilt as quickly as possible,” Sebelius said.
She also chatted with residents of Aberdeen South. The governor was accompanied by a cadre of city, county and state leaders.
County Commissioner Bob Johnson, who with his fellow county commissioners declared Douglas County in a state of disaster Friday morning, said the storm could have been worse. No one was killed, he said, and injuries were minor.
“I don’t know if that’s a reassurance to people who had damage,” Johnson said. “This, too, will pass. Today is a nice day. Hopefully tonight will be a nice evening.”
Move-out options
The storm was fresh in victims’ minds Friday as they sorted through the rubble left in the tornado’s short path.
Ashley Christman, a Kansas University senior from Olathe, said the first thing she did after the storm Thursday was to check on her neighbors’ safety. They weren’t home, so she began mourning the loss of her 1994 Mazda MX3, which she had driven through 42 states. The car’s passenger side was bashed by a projectile apparently carried away by the storm.
“I loved this car,” she said. “I have a lot of memories.”
The windows were blown out of Christman’s apartment, and ceiling fan blades were protruding from the roof. She said glass and debris covered the floor.
Like most displaced residents, Christman was staying with friends until she could find another apartment.
Tim Stultz, a manager at Aberdeen South and son of owner Mike Stultz, said four to six apartment buildings would be bulldozed, though an insurance adjuster was still surveying the damage Friday afternoon.
He said residents had the option of being relocated to other apartments owned by Swan Management. They also could get their deposits back and cancel their leases, he said.
Access to Aberdeen South was limited to residents Friday night, though roads in the area were re-opened. National Guard troops that had blocked off a perimeter in the area during the day shut down their posts and departed.
City cleanup
Most of the remaining severe damage was limited to the 4700 block of West 26th Street, just north of Aberdeen South, and in the Aberdeen Townhomes in the 2300 block of Wakarusa Drive.
Mike and Vicki Hegeman, 4713 W. 26th St., were in the front yard picking up debris. White, shredded insulation covered the ground like snow.
A rafter from Aberdeen South had impaled their back bedroom. Windows were blown out, and debris littered the inside of their home.
“I was out on my deck,” Mike Hegeman said. “People were coming out to look from the apartments, and I was yelling at them to go inside. I watched it up until the time it touched the ground, when it was peeling the roof off the apartments.”
“It was a little late to come in, as far as I’m concerned,” Vicki Hegeman said.
City crews from Public Works and Parks and Recreation began cleaning up debris from the public right-of-way at 6 a.m. Friday. They had completed it by the end of the day.
Parks and Recreation will be picking up limbs and branches in areas damaged by Thursday’s storm. Residents are asked to put broken limbs at the curbside for pickup on Monday or Tuesday.
| Estimated damage: $6.4 millionDamaged: 58 single-family homes, 31 duplexes, nine apartment buildings.Injured: Six people treated at Lawrence Memorial Hospital.Homeless: About 100 people.Outages: About 1,800 customers were without electricity, and 100 without gas immediately after the storm. 1,100 customers lost cable and/or phone service. All were restored late Thursday or Friday.Tornado class: F2, or strong, with winds 113 to 157 mph.Sources: Douglas County Emergency Management, National Weather Service, Red Cross |
Nervous waiting
Throughout the day on Friday, residents of Aberdeen South, many of them KU students, walked out of their apartments with enough personal belongings to last a few days.
Mandy Walters, a KU graduate student from Aberdeen, Idaho, waited nervously to be escorted into her apartment Friday morning. She didn’t know if her apartment — which contained three musical instruments, her study papers for finals and the guest list for her wedding — had been damaged.
When she came out, she breathed a sigh of relief.
“Everything was exactly like we left it,” she said. “It’s pretty unbelievable.”
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Twister damage tops $6 million