Straight-line winds, not a tornado, caused damage in Manhattan, officials say
Nearly $10 million in estimated damages from storms near Manhattan, Kansas, over the weekend was caused by straight-line winds, not a tornado, Riley County officials said Monday.
Severe thunderstorms on Saturday tracked across eastern Kansas and damaged at least 41 homes and businesses in Riley County. The National Weather Service issued several tornado warnings for the area throughout Saturday night.
Authorities declared five buildings condemned and unsafe to occupy Saturday evening in the McCain neighborhood, just east of the K-State campus. The buildings included the Chi Omega house at 1516 McCain Lane and the Kappa Alpha Theta house at 1517 McCain Lane. Both were unoccupied, officials said.
Three single-family homes in the neighborhood also were severely damaged. The residents were displaced but did not need immediate assistance.
The National Weather Service determined Monday that the damage was not caused by a tornado, but by straight-line winds of up to 100 mph.
“We are very fortunate the rotation signature stopped before it reached Manhattan,” Riley County Emergency Management director Russel Stukey said in a news release Monday. “The damage was significant, but could have been worse with a direct tornado hit.”
Straight-line winds of that speed are equivalent to an EF-1 tornado without rotation, Stukey said.
“Most of the storm damage we get in Kansas is actually caused by straight-line winds, so they should always be taken very seriously,” Stukey said.
A preliminary storm damage assessment for the county estimated that the damage exceeds $9.7 million, county officials said in a news release on Sunday. No injuries have been reported.
Marysville damage reported
In Marysville, north of Manhattan, police chief Matt Simpson, said that while there was damage in the city’s downtown area from the storms, no injuries were reported.
Evergy said the storms caused more than 25,000 outages in its service area with Manhattan and Marysville being the areas with the most outages. Crews were able to restore 80% of the power by Sunday morning, the power company said.
A long-lived super cell thunderstorm developed over southeast Nebraska Saturday evening and tracked south across the entire state of Kansas, the National Weather Service in Wichita said on Twitter. The storm produced tornadoes, damaging winds and large hail as it dove south through the state.
Riley County officials said anyone whose property sustained significant structural damage should call the county appraiser’s office at 785-537-6310 before 5 p.m. on June 15 to request an assessment.
This story was originally published June 13, 2022 at 12:44 PM.
