Officials say a tornado that barreled through parts of Kansas destroyed or damaged hundreds of homes and buildings, injured several people and left more than 15,000 people without power.
In addition to wreckage from the tornado itself, three University of Oklahoma meteorology students traveling back from storm chasing in Kansas were also killed in a crash Friday evening. Authorities say more than 1,000 buildings were affected when a strong twister swept through Andover on Friday evening.
In the daylight Saturday, emergency crews found a more widespread path of destruction than was earlier estimated. There were no fatalities or critical injuries from the twister itself, despite the widespread destruction.
Meteorologist Reed Timmer posted some incredible video on social media from a drone showing the destruction of the tornado, writing, "EXTREME 4k tornado footage from Dominator Drone showing erratic vortex breakdown evolution with rapid formation of damaging jet-like vortices. Sadly, extensive damage was caused on the east side of Andover along this narrow path."
“We now know that our damage path extended approximately 3 1/2 to 4 miles (5.6 to 6.4 kilometers) to the north of where we believed it to have ended last night,” Andover Deputy Fire Chief Mike Roosevelt said at a briefing.
Aldo Delgado a resident of the area said, “The lights started flickering and eventually went out, and within a minute from that the whole house started shaking and it was so loud. We started feeling water hitting our faces, and there was just dust everywhere. It lasted for what felt like a minute that it was right above us,”
“In the moment I realized there is absolutely nothing we could do. I knew my husband felt it too because he was calm and comforting me, but at one point he just starts losing it and crying. I could hear his voice cracking as he’s praying,” Flor Delgado, another resident said.