‘Quite a mess’: Kansas church damaged by tornado
A small tornado severely damaged a church in Miami County, Kansas, early Monday morning.
Trinity Lutheran Church in Paola announced on Facebook that a microburst about 4:15 a.m. struck the southwest corner of the church, blowing off parts of the roof and destroying its youth room.
The National Weather Service later said it was an EF-0 tornado and estimated that wind speeds reached 80 to 85 mph.
No one was injured.
The church’s main restrooms were unusable because of a cracked pipe. A “large number” of gravestones were overturned in the cemetery, the church said. Debris was scattered nearby, while a flag pole and the church’s sign were damaged.
“Quite a mess here,” a man could be heard saying in a video of the aftermath posted by the Miami County Sheriff’s Office.
“Yes, it really is,” another responded.
But the church’s “irreplaceable items,” such as its pipe organ and stained glass windows, were not harmed. There was also no damage reported in the the sanctuary area, the parsonage, the teacherage or the shelter house, the church said.
Church personnel were working to secure the building from expected rain, according to the Facebook post. And church officials plan to worship as usual Sunday morning.
This story was originally published April 29, 2019 at 11:16 AM with the headline "‘Quite a mess’: Kansas church damaged by tornado."
