Chase County residents recall Wednesday’s storm, assess damage

CHASE COUNTY, Kan. (KSNW) — Chase County residents are assessing the damage left by a storm that rolled through multiple towns Wednesday night.

Many are saying it was an eye-opening experience.

“Watching it unfold, and you just assume it’s going to miss you and it’s coming down on you, it’s a completely different experience,” said Katie Jo Mushrush.

Mushrush’s barn, which was located in Elmdale, was one of the structures destroyed Wednesday by a tornado.

“Hay barn is only four years old. So, it’s not like it’s something that’s an old structure,” Mushrush said. “So, I mean all of that and all of the equipment, the sale barn. We don’t know … we just did some renovations to that. Thankfully, it’s obviously standing, so it’s probably just roof work.”

The storm not only passed through Elmdale but Cottonwood Falls and Storm City too.

“We saw on radar it looked really strong,” said Ken Cook, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Wichita. “We see a lot of big supercell storms in this part of the country, and this is certainly one of them.”

The storm also damaged part of Chase County High School’s athletic facilities.

“Both dugouts are gone, and, you know, there’s an outhouse out in the outfield, and our pit was gone,” Chase County High School Teach and Coach Derick Budke said. “And there’s a couple of hurdles that are messed up. And so, you know, the gravity of the thing kind of set in.”

Homes in the path of the storm were also damaged.

“It seemed like our house got basically the worst of everything,” Dominic Cauthers, a student at Chase County High Schoo, said. “Definitely shocking.”

Friends and neighbors stepped up to help first thing Thursday morning.

“There was a lot of people here already working,” said Cottonwood Falls resident Delores Conley. “I could hear chainsaws running.”

“Everyone just came over and just started cutting trees up, piling things in trailers. It was awesome to see,” Chase County High School student Micah Cauthers said.

Clean-up is expected to take several days to complete.