Strong storms pummel Kansas City; high water closes several roads

Severe storms pummeled the Kansas City area Thursday, setting off tornado warnings and leaving behind the threat of flash flooding.

The storms moving east through Kansas and into Missouri dropped hail, downed trees and flooded roads in parts of the Kansas City area. A tornado touched down near Weatherby Lake, north of Parkville, about 4:15 p.m., but residents there saw little or no damage.

Roads closed in Kansas because of flooding include:

Kansas Highway 5 near 7-Mile Creek in Leavenworth CountyK-92 over Stranger Creek, in Leavenworth County

K-192 over Stranger Creek in Easton

And K-18 from K-99 junction to K-177 in Wabaunsee CountyBy Thursday night, the threat of tornadoes had passed, according to the National Weather Service. But the area remained under a flash flood warning and more storms were expected Friday.

As the storms moved through the Kansas City area Thursday afternoon, the weather service issued multiple tornado warnings for surrounding counties.

Travelers at Kansas City International Airport were briefly evacuated to garage tunnels, but the “all clear” was given a short time later and passengers were allowed to return to the terminals.

The tornado warnings covered parts of Leavenworth, Wyandotte, Platte and Clay counties, including Liberty, Gladstone, Riverside, Smithville, Parkville, Riverside, Claycomo, Platte Woods and Pleasant Valley.

The weather knocked out power in the area. Kansas City Power and Light reported 10,452 homes affected by outages in Clay, Jackson, Johnson, Platte and Wyandotte counties around 9 p.m.

Baseball-size hail was reported in Sibley. Golf-ball-size hail was reported in North Kansas City. Hail about 1.25 inches in diameter was reported at the Wheeler Downtown Airport in Kansas City.

The areas with the highest potential for severe weather were primarily in central Kansas. Very large hail, damaging winds and a few tornadoes were possible.

For the Kansas City area, the main threat continued to be straight-line winds, large hail and some possible flooding as the rooms move east.

The rain was expected to continue to fall through Friday, but the threat for additional severe weather was limited, the weather service said. A few strong storms were possible Friday evening or night across eastern Kansas and far western Missouri.

This story was originally published May 26, 2016 at 9:34 AM with the headline "Strong storms pummel Kansas City; high water closes several roads."