Web posted
Monday, March 3, 2008
Strong winds cause damage in area
By FOSS FARRAR
Traveler Staff Writer
reporter@arkcity.net
A wind storm Sunday night hit the northwestern part of Cowley County, blowing down tree limbs, fences, power lines and a tornado siren mounted on a pole.
Meanwhile, the Arkansas City area was under a wind advisory today with winds expected to gust to 40 miles an hour, said Bob Frazee, Ark City's emergency management coordinator.
The Cowley County emergency management coordinator, Brian Stone, said he had called the Wichita office of the National Weather Service to get an assessment of last night's storm damage.
"This is the first big storm of the season, and we'd like an assessment to track and see what happened," he said.
Stone said some of the damage occurred in areas where there were no storm spotters. Spotters in other areas made only one estimate of wind velocity, 55 miles per hour.
"That's pretty high winds but not to the severe level," he said. "We'll have a better chance to get a good report on damage with the help of the National Weather Service."
The storm also damaged a grain elevator on U.S. 77 just south of the K-15 junction, and it knocked over a parked airplane at an airport south of Udall, officials said.
The Udall Fire Department was assessing damage this morning, Stone said.
Most of Udall was without power for about two hours last night, but power had been restored by this morning.
South Haven was also without power this morning
The NWS forecast for the Ark City area today: A 30 percent chance of snow, mainly before noon. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 35. Windy, with a north wind between 23 and 32 mph, with gusts as high as 45 mph.
Tonight: A 20 percent chance of snow. Partly cloudy, with a low around 22. Blustery, with a north wind between 10 and 20 mph.
Frazee said the bad weather was expected to clear off later this week. A slight chance of rain or snow is forecast for Wednesday afternoon.
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