Trees, power lines damaged during storm

Loretta George/Tribune photo A portion of a cedar tree lies on graves at the Fort Scott National Cemetery on East National Avenue as the result of a storm early Thursday morning. No headstones were destroyed, according to Stacey Dawson, cemetery technician. The cemetery crew was attempting to get the site cleaned up prior to a veteran's funeral service that was scheduled Thursday.

A thunderstorm that brought high winds and lightning caused scattered damages throughout the county early Thursday morning.

Bourbon County Emergency Management officials said Thursday the storm brought down some trees and power lines in various parts of the county.

Bourbon County Emergency Manager William Wallis said he and Deputy Emergency Manager Shane Walker conducted an overall review of damages in the county Thursday morning.

"And basically it was a lot of strong winds that took out a lot of trees," Wallis said. "It mostly broke them off. It didn't topple big trees but it did break off some big limbs and there were some smaller trees broken off. There were also a couple of power lines (damaged)."

Wallis said the damage is "reportable" but "not significant to the point of qualifying for a declaration or anything like that."

Walker said most of the damages he viewed were on the east side of Fort Scott. He said it was "mostly trees down" in certain areas "but not the whole town."

"It was a quick little storm," he said. "A couple of barns had tin peeled up on them."

Walker said a power line was shut off at 12th and Judson streets that crews were working on Thursday.

There were several reports on social media Thursday of broken limbs, downed power lines, power outages and damages to houses and vehicles.

Amanda Hughes, spokesperson for Westar Energy, said as of 2 p.m. Thursday, 14 customers were still offline in the area of 23rd and Main streets and crews were on site working to fix a broken pole. Hughes estimated power to be back on in that area by 4 p.m. Thursday.

Hughes said power outages occurred when two lines snapped, burned and caused a pole to break about 1:25 a.m. at 23rd and Main streets. She said the situation started with 1,533 customers without power. By about 5 a.m., all power had been restored with the exception of the 14 customers left to have power restored Thursday afternoon.

Fort Scott Fire Chief Paul Ballou said he saw "at least one tree down on a house on National," as well as "numerous limbs down" in streets and other areas that city public works crews worked to remove Thursday.

"It was kind of all over," Ballou said. "The east side of town was the worst."

Ballou said there were no fires caused by the storm, however, the main fire station in the Hawkins Public Safety Facility on National Avenue was without power from about 1:30 to 5 a.m.

"I heard about some lost shingles on houses," Ballou said, adding he lost shingles off the roof of his house due to the storm.

"I think it (storm) kind of came as a surprise," he said.

Doug Cramer, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Springfield, Mo., said the only damage reported to the NWS office were "some home damages" about four miles west of Garland.

Cramer said the local damage experienced in Fort Scott and Bourbon County is "very typical of 60 to 65 mph winds." He said some structural damage was reported south of Fort Scott. There were no reports of hail during the storm, he said.

Cramer said Fort Scott received about a half-inch of rain "in some spots" during the storm. An area from Uniontown to Garland received three-quarters of an inch to potentially two inches of rain.

"Parts of southern Bourbon County had about two inches," Cramer said.

In looking at the weather forecast Thursday, Cramer said a thunderstorm near Pleasanton that was "not severe" was crossing into Missouri Thursday afternoon. Cramer said he was "more concerned" with severe storms developing east into Missouri than storms forecast for Southeast Kansas.

A city of Fort Scott news release said Thursday the city's tree brush dump site was scheduled to be open until 6 p.m. Thursday due to tree damage from the storms. The site will resume normal hours on Saturday and next week, the release said.

A phone message to Heartland Rural Electric Cooperative, Inc., to confirm any power outages in its service area in Bourbon County, was not returned Thursday. The company serves more than 11,500 locations in portions of 12 counties in Southeast Kansas, according to its website, www.hearland-rec.com.