CHAPMAN, Kan.—About 20 homes were damaged Wednesday night in a rural area of northern Kansas after a large tornado passed through but there were no immediate reports of injuries, the state Highway Patrol said.
Trooper Ben Gardner, a spokesman for the patrol, said troopers were checking a rural area in Dickinson County where it was believed 20 homes were damaged, some significantly.
Troopers were going from home to home to make sure everyone was OK and so far hadn’t found or heard of anyone who was hurt, Gardner said.
The tornado formed just after 7 p.m. near the Ottawa County community of Niles and stayed on the ground continuously for about an hour and a half, National Weather Service meteorologist Chad Omitt said. Estimates are that it was a quarter- to a half-mile wide at times, he said.
The weather service warned people to take cover as the tornado it called “catastrophic” approached Chapman, about 75 miles west of Topeka.
Omitt said “the heart” of the tornado at one point was just about a mile south of Chapman, a town of about 1,400 that was devastated by a deadly tornado in 2008.
