Overnight winds equal to EF-0 tornado

Trees down in Ellis. Photo by Scarlett Deutscher

1,500 electric customers remain without power

Update 11:35 a.m. from Midwest Energy

Roughly 1,500 customers, mainly in Ellis Co., remain without power at this time. Crews from Hays, Colby, WaKeeney, Oakley and several contract crews are working on this, primarily in NW Hays near Celebration Church, the Highway Patrol office on the bypass, the Fairgrounds, and in east Hays off Victoria Road. We have roughly 50 poles down in the Hays district.

Additionally, we have five service crews in Hays and Ellis responding to dozens and dozens of calls about downed yard lines, limbs on wires, etc. Thanks for being patient – the guys are working through these as quickly as possible, and will stay on the job until all are done.

Great Bend area crews are busy working on 20 poles that were downed there.

Please continue to call in your outages to 1-800-222-3121 if you’ve not done so, or if you spot a dangerous condition like wires on the ground. Thank you!

Update 10:38 a.m. Cristina Janney/Hays Post

Some county roads closed due to downed trees; most to reopen today

Feedlot Road and Antonino Road were closed temporarily Tuesday night due to downed trees as where other county roads.

230th Road was closed Wednesday morning at the request of Midwest Energy as crews worked on overhead power lines.

Bill Ring Sr, Ellis County Public Works director, said all county roads should be reopened today with the exception of road that may have to be closed temporarily for work on power lines.

Although roads were closed due to downed power lines and limbs and trees in roadways, no county road had to be closed due to wash outs, Ring said.

Road signs are down throughout the county. Ring said the county is still receiving sign damage reports. Stop signs will be replaced first. He said there is a list in the works of repairs that need to made.

RPM Speedway and the Ellis County Fairgrounds received substantial damage. Watch the Hays Post for more information on that story as it becomes available.

Update 10:27 a.m. Cristina Janney/Hays Post

Limb pick up to start Monday in Hays

The Hays Public Works Department will begin picking up limbs on Monday. Limbs must be placed at the curb. City officials urged residents to keep limbs out of streets and off of sidewalks. Limbs will not be picked up from allies.

Update: 9:39 a.m. Cristina Janney/Hays Post

Old Ellis High School damaged; trees uprooted in Ellis

Although the old Ellis High School building received substantial damage, the Ellis High/Junior School and Washington Elementary School buildings were not damaged.

School will start on time on Thursday, Aug. 22, a school official said this morning.

A school officials said a portion of the brick from a wall came down at the old high school and the wall was now bowed. She said insurance adjusters will be on site today, but it is too early to determine what will become of the building.

Limbs were also down over the school’s track and in the football practice field.

Dan Wickham, Ellis Public Works foreman, said trees were down across town, but especially on the west end of town. Some roads were initially blocked, but are open now and power is back up to the city, he said.

Memorial Park had power poles snapped and cleanup was continuing today at the Ellis campground.

Wickham said the limb burn site will remain open throughout the week and into next week. The city will pickup limbs, but they must be placed at the curb.

Update 8:50 a.m. Cristina Janney/Hays Post, video by Amy Burton

Hays Fire Department

The Hays Fire Department responded to 12 storm-related calls Tuesday night. The bulk of these calls were related to arching power lines and tree limbs on fire in power lines, Shane Preston, Hays deputy fire chief, said.

The HFD was called to a structure fire in the 2200 block of Fort Street. That ended up being a downed power line that was causing appliances in a home to short out and filling the home with smoke. No fire was discovered. No one was hurt.

The HFD responded to one person stranded by flood waters in a car on Canal Street. That person was able to escape their vehicle unhurt by the time the HFD arrived.

Preston said they had a report of water inside at least one apartment in town, but Preston did not have the exact address.

Preston said the HFD responded to no major injuries as a result of the storm. He described Tuesday night as a “fortunate night.”

Preston urged residents to be cautious during cleanup in the coming days. He encouraged property owners to be vigilant that tree limbs they are removing are not touching power lines.

“Wear long pants and gloves. Look up as you are removing trees to make sure you are not around power lines,” he said. “It is still wet. Look above as you carry off limbs to make sure you don’t get in power lines.”

UPDATE 8:30 a.m. Midwest Energy power outage report

From Midwest Energy’s Facebook page

Crews worked through the night and got power back to Ellis, most of Hays, and many rural areas. From 7,000 down at the storm’s peak, we currently have 1,800 meters without power.

If you still don’t have power, please call that in first thing today at 1-800-222-3121. We have crews from WaKeeney, Oakley and Colby coming to help, as well as several contracted crews.

As always, treat any downed wires as live; don’t move them yourself, and keep people and pets away. If you have tree branches on wires, call us and we will come assist. Stay safe, and thanks for your patience! We’ll update again later this morning.

Update 8:31 a.m. Cristina Janney/Hays Post

Ellis County Emergency Management

Darin Myers, Ellis County Emergency Management director, said no one was seriously hurt in the county in the storm last night that he was aware of.

County first responders extracted a person from a semi that was blown over o Interstate 70 near Ellis, but that person was not seriously hurt.

Myers confirmed that the multiple semis where blown over on the interstate last night, but an exact number had not yet been confirmed.

Myers said power outages in the county were widespread. County public works is compiling a list of rural rod closures. County officials said Wednesday morning that multiple stop signs had been toppled by winds that peaked at 78 miles per hour, according to the National Weather Service Tuesday night.

Although last night’s storm was reported to have only contained straight-line winds. 78 mph winds rival an EF-0 tornado, which includes winds of 68-85 mph. The winds would also be equal to a category one hurricane.

Weather information from the Hays Regional Airport shows the squall coming through with a peak wind gust of 77 mph at 7:56 p.m. Tuesday.

The official weather report from K-State Extension was of 1.34 inches of rain Tuesday night.

Rainfall at the Hays Regional Airport was measured at 0.92. Other reports from Hays residents range from (1.55 to 2.5 inches)