Hail pummels Kansas towns south of KC, damaging vehicles & homes after storms
Sitting at a table in Osawatomie’s Whistle Stop Cafe Thursday morning with his best friend and sister was Steven Benner, looking at photos he took from recent storms that pummeled rural Miami County.
Sipping on coffee and sharing stories, Benner, the owner of the establishment, calls himself the “senior light bulb changer.”
“Tell the Lord to send these storms some place else,” he said.
Over the past few days, several cities in the county were hit with damaging winds, torrential rain, baseball-sized hail and a tornado earlier this week.
The tornado left a trail of damage in Hillsdale, Kansas, Monday night, wrecking an RV park, toppling power lines, leveling homes and destroying a storage facility near West 255th Street. Also Monday night, another storm system birthed a tornado in Ottawa, Kansas, that damaged businesses and left much of the city without power.
At least two other tornadoes reportedly touched down in Clinton, Missouri, Wednesday.
Vehicles parked on Main Street in Osawatomie were seen still covered in grass the following morning. The brunt of damage there Wednesday came from a downpour of hail and powerful winds.
According to data from the National Weather Service, hail sizes ranging from 2.5 to 4 inches in diameter fell Wednesday in areas between Osawatomie and Paola.
Using weather service data, The Star created a map showing where the largest hail fell, including areas closer to Kansas City.
According to Miami County residents, the ice fell like bullets from the sky, leaving dents in vehicles, busting out windows and siding, and causing leaky roofs.
The Osawatomie School District canceled classes for both Thursday and Friday due to hail damage affecting school buildings.
Benner said so much hail fell Wednesday that he had trouble opening the door to his cafe as it collected on the sidewalk.
Working together with his wife Dixie Benner after the storm, they helped shovel hail out of the way so a customer could leave the restaurant.
When they returned home from work, they found that seven of their home’s windows were broken from hail.
“I’ve seen a lot of storms, but I’ve actually never seen hail like this,” Dixie Benner said.
Hail damage in Miami County
Osawatomie resident Karissa Perez posted photos of the storm on Facebook Wednesday. She was also one commenter on a National Weather Service post asking the public to share photos with their time and location.
She said in a phone call that her vehicle is left with a busted out tail light and is dented all over after the hail storm.
“It started coming down and as soon as I opened the door, the wind just picked up and it went crazy, like I could not even see across the street,” Perez said in a phone call.
“The hail just completely covered our deck and the house felt like it was shaking,” she said.
Other commenters on the National Weather Service Facebook post shared photos of hail ranging in size across the Kansas City metro. One commenter showed blueberry-sized hail in Lee’s Summit, another showed a cracked windshield from hail in Bethany, Missouri.
The wide range of locations in the comments indicated damage from the hail was widespread across the path of storms.
Perez said when she came outside after the storm in Osawatomie, she saw steam coming up off the hail on the ground as it started to melt.
Paint was stripped from the side of her home and her neighbor had her windows busted out, she said.
“It warmed back up, and it was just steamy everywhere,” Perez said. “It was pretty surreal to see.”
With another round of severe storms forecast for Friday, Perez said she is nervous about the days ahead. However, she said she has been overcome with emotion seeing how people are working to support one another during hardships caused by the storms.
“It’s been great to see how quickly the community and first responders have worked to ensure everyone is alright and taken care of, across the board — our neighbors in Hillsdale, Ottawa, Spring Hill… it’s a beautiful thing to see that humanity,” Perez said.
The Star’s Robert A. Cronkleton contributed reporting.
