The spokesman says all staff members and 1,200 inmates have been accounted for. Crews are evaluating the damage Wednesday after tornadoes destroyed several homes in.
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“(The tornado) did what we sort of call threading the needle: “it looked like it was going to make a direct hit on both the towns, and then just because – a fluke of nature or someone was looking out for them – it wobbled a little bit and ended up missing most of the towns that it hit”, Allan said.
The twister that hit June 11, 2008, tore a path of destruction six blocks wide through the town.
Preliminary reports indicate that at least one of the Kansas tornadoes was a half-mile wide.
On Friday, the bad weather shifts southward into Oklahoma and Texas, bringing an end to a stormy week that included tornadoes in parts of the Plains on Monday and Tuesday and flooding in Arkansas and Oklahoma on Tuesday.
Local media reported people were being taken to parking garage tunnels after a tornado warning was issued about 4 p.m. McBride did not report any damage to the airport or surrounding area. He says a large propane tank also tipped over. Police Cpl. Jason Chester tells television station KAIT that the boy said he clung to a pole.
And there could be even more come Thursday.
Further rounds of severe thunderstorms are expected across the Plains and the Midwest. A tornado watch is in effect for eastern Colorado. No injuries were reported. Most of the damage was done by winds up to 115 miles per hour and hail that pelted buildings and vehicles.
Weather service meteorologist Andrew White in Dodge City said multiple tornadoes struck Ford and Hodgeman counties during a two-hour span Tuesday night, including an EF-2 twister that caused damage in western Ford County.
On Tuesday, after four days of tornado warning, several tornadoes tore through Kansas, but a particularly large and unsafe tornado (an EF-3) touched down near Dodge City, a town with a population of 27,000.
The tornado lifted south of Junction City around 9 p.m.
The storm moved eastward, setting off tornado warnings in Morris and Wabaunsee counties. One of its passengers drowned, reported for The Weather Channel.
The tornado formed just after 7pm near the Ottawa County community of Niles and stayed on the ground continuously until around 8:35pm when it dissipated, National Weather Service meteorologist Chad Omitt said.
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U.S. disaster relief officials have been working to improve warnings for many kinds of storm systems, including the storm and flooding patterns plaguing the Midwest and Plains states. Some storms could also form in northwestern Oklahoma.
