Eight and possibly more tornadoes hit one Kansas county

Friday, May 14th 2004, 11:48 am

By: News On 6

HARPER, Kan. (AP) _ The violent storm that ripped through a section of south-central Kansas this week touched off at least eight tornadoes in one county alone, but while homes and a school were damaged or destroyed, there was only one minor injury.

Chance Hayes, of the National Weather Service in Wichita, was in Harper County on Thursday surveying the aftermath of Wednesday night's outbreak. On Friday, officials were still trying to come up with a dollar estimate on the extent of damage.

Hayes said he could confirm eight tornadoes in the county, but believed reports that there were several others, although he could not find concrete evidence of them.

``It's rare to have that many in one county,'' Hayes said Friday. ``Most of the time they are spread across many counties. But this was centered in an area extending about 13 miles from west to east and five or six miles north to south.''

``It was a very narrow area with several short track tornadoes, but very powerful ones,'' he said.

One of the tornadoes was an F4 on the Fujita scale, one that has wind speeds in the range of 207 to 260 miles per hour. That's one level below the highest point on the scale. Hayes rated three of the tornadoes as F2s, one an F1 and three as F0.

Harper County Sheriff Kirk Rogers, a longtime resident of the county, called Wednesday night's outbreak ``the worst in my lifetime.''

``I think we were very fortunate that almost all these tornadoes touched down in rural areas that are sparsely populated,'' he said. ``If not, we've got a lot more damage, people sure to be injured and probably killed as well.''

Mike Loreg, the county's emergency management coordinator, said the communities of Harper, Danville and Attica were fortunate that the tornadoes missed them by ``a few hundred yards'' and primarily had only tree damage.

Loreg said the tornadoes destroyed six homes and damaged six others in the county. At Chaparral High School, where classes resumed Friday after being off the day before, there was damage to the roof, a skylight and light poles at the football field.

Loreg said county officials got about 45 minutes lead time from the National Weather Service that a violent storm was heading their way and quickly activated a network of about 23 spotters.

``There were numerous sitings and touchdowns of funnel clouds and tornadoes,'' he said.

Hayes said the F4 tornado that hit about three miles southeast of Harper was 500 yards wide and traveled only about a mile on the ground, which he said was rare for a tornado of that magnitude.

``Most of them have a much longer track,'' he said.

Also unusual, Hayes said, was that there were two instances of separate tornadoes following paths within a mile of each other. An F2 tornado south of the F4 was about 300 yards wide and on the ground for perhaps a mile and a half.

Hayes said the F4 tornado completely leveled a home, took three or four exterior buildings and five cars. He said the couple who lived in the home sought refuge in the basement, which was left cluttered with trees, an engine, and a refrigerator.

``Debris just basically filled the basement,'' he said. ``You couldn't see the floor.''

He said the woman was hit in the head by some of the debris, but had only minor injuries.

And although he grew up in Oklahoma and now lives in Kansas, two states that always rank among the leaders in tornadic activity, Hayes has yet to see a twister himself.

``I'm usually in the basement taking shelter,'' he said. ``Then I have the unfortunate task to have to go out and see the devastation and assess the damage. It's very humbling.''