ANDOVER, Kansas — First responders were working on a secondary search of the area northeast of Andover on Saturday morning, after tornado touched down in the south-central Kansas area on Friday night, leaving damage in its wake, but few injuries, officials said.
Andover fire Chief Chad Russell said during a Saturday news briefing that crews have already finished a secondary search of homes in Andover. There are homes knocked completely off their foundations and entire neighborhoods wiped out, but no serious injuries, he said.
“It’s a miracle,” Russell said from the Dillons parking lot in Andover, which had dozens of emergency vehicles from surrounding counties. “I’m just praying it holds out. We still have searching to do.”
Homes in a housing development just southeast of Highway 54 and Andover Road were leveled. The garage and other rubble of one destroyed home held a car suspended in the air. Part of the roof at the nearby YMCA collapsed, and multiple vehicles were thrown against the building.
“It got stronger as it went north,” he said, adding there was “really severe damage” across from the YMCA and then there was “severe damage up by 13th street and Prairie Creek and that area.”
He said they were “still really concerned” about other areas in the fire district, outside of Andover, including around 70th and 80th and Meadowlark. He said crews were doing a secondary search this morning and had a drone up in the area.
There were 966 structures in the path of the tornado, but it’s unclear how many were destroyed. First responders are still working to determine that.
“We have entire neighborhoods that are destroyed so I think 50 (homes destroyed) is probably low,” he said.
Four injuries have been reported in the Andover area. All are adults with minor injuries. One person was injured by debris, two emergency responders and one person during an evacuation.
Russell said he heard four people were injured by the tornado in Wichita. Two, he said, had serious injuries and two were minor.
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