Storms knock out power, leave trail of damage

A fallen tree smashed two parked cars but injured no one Friday night in the 1100 block of Indiana as a line of strong storms moved through Lawrence.

The storm dumped an inch on the Lawrence Municipal Airport between 9 p.m. and 10:30 p.m., according to the National Weather Service. And rain continued overnight.

Weather service meteorologist Darrel Smith said he expected the Lawrence area to receive as much as two inches after the storm moved through.

The heavy rainfall caused the weather service in Topeka to issue its second flash flood warning for the area in less than one week.

By 9:30 p.m., police had already blocked the Second Street underpass in North Lawrence to warn drivers from the flood-prone area, which became a trouble spot that stranded motorists last Saturday.

At the scene in the 1100 block of Indiana, Kansas University junior Anne Weltmer tried to exit her sport utility vehicle after parking it. Then, a large tree smashed her windshield and another car, forcing her to exit the back door of the vehicle, she said.

“It all happened really fast,” Weltmer said.

She was uninjured, and the incident did not require a fire and medical response.

Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical responded just after 9:30 p.m. to a call in southwest Lawrence, when a homeowner suspected his house was hit by lightning, but the call, along with another of a tree pulling a power line from a house, generated quick returns for the fire and medical team with no injuries or major damage, Battalion Chief Bill Stark said at 10:15 p.m.

No injuries resulted from multiple downed power line calls, Stark said.

A spokeswoman for Westar Energy said at 9:30 p.m. that 1,600 customers were without power in west Lawrence.

As of 10:30 p.m., 700 were without power scattered throughout the city, according to Westar.

A dispatcher with Lawrence-Douglas County said at 10:30 p.m. officers dealt with the power outages, which affected a few traffic lights, some flooded roadways and the tree incident on Indiana.

Besides heavy rainfall that made conditions ripe for flooding, the storm featured some lightning and thunder.

– 6News reporter Casey Deines contributed to this report.