Deadly Tornado Ravages Westmoreland, Kansas: One Dead, Homes Destroyed

Monday afternoon, a tornado struck Westmoreland, Kansas, killing one person and leaving three others with minor injuries, according to officials.

Pottawatomie County authorities said in a statement that the tornado was one of almost 200 reported across the Plains and Midwest since Friday. It was detected at 4:40 p.m. Until the family could be informed, Sheriff Shane Jager stated during a news conference, that the identity of the deceased person was being withheld.

County spokesman Becky Ryan stated during the news conference that the injured did not need to be hospitalized. She said first responders were still looking over the area in a grid pattern to see whether anyone else had been killed or injured.

Ryan said that twenty-two residences in Westmoreland, roughly 55 miles west of Topeka, were deemed uninhabitable, thirteen more suffered damage, one commercial building was damaged, and five outbuildings, including sheds and detached garages, were destroyed.

The U.S. Census Bureau reports that the town, which has 641 residents and covers around half a square mile, was struck by the tornado at its northernmost point, according to Jager.

That took half the town, he declared. It did.”

At an RV park, Jager reported, six trailers were either demolished or severely damaged, a “significant loss.” Still, he said, no injuries had been reported.

Officials said that late Tuesday, the town was still without power.

County Emergency Management Director Jennifer Merrow reported that as the storm cell approached Tuesday afternoon, National Weather Service meteorologists sent updates to county officials. Merrow added during the news conference, “They did confirm it was just a matter of whether or not it was going to drop a funnel, and we had activated the storm sirens at that time.”

The weather agency reports that since thunderstorms tortured the Plains and Midwest, shooting vortexes into the earth in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Michigan, the death in Westmoreland is at least the sixth.

Tornadoes thrive in the cauldron of unstable air created by the collision of warm Southeast air with waves of cool, low-pressure fronts from the Pacific Northwest. Tornado watches were still in effect late Tuesday across portions of western Iowa and eastern Nebraska, including Omaha and Des Moines. Though they don’t say any are about to happen, the watches advise locals to be ready in case one does.

On a 1–5 potency rating, a tornado that struck Marietta, Oklahoma, on Saturday was rated as EF4, meaning it produced sustained winds of at least 166 mph. It was the nation’s first EF4 tornado of the year and the strongest thus far.

National Weather Service statistics show that 198 tornadoes have been recorded in the Midwest and Plains since Friday. More than half have been verified by the weather service thus far.

Only April 2011 surpassed this as the second busiest month for tornadoes ever recorded in American history.