The tornado touched down in Sedgewick County earlier than touring to Andover in Butler County, town’s fireplace chief Chad Russell stated throughout a information convention. Greater than 950 buildings had been within the pathway of the twister, he stated.

“We had many buildings in Andover take very robust harm,” Russell stated, including that some properties had been “fully blown down.”

The restoration will take years, Russell stated. “Sadly, we have been by means of this earlier than,” he added, alluding to the devastation brought on by an F-5 twister that struck Andover on April 26, 1991. Seventeen folks died in that twister’s wake.

Andover, a metropolis of round 15,000 folks, is about 14 miles east of Wichita, Kansas.

Some of the damage caused by the tornado in Andover, Kansas.

Resident Alaina Adkins informed CNN that she took shelter in her neighbor’s basement throughout the road from her condominium complicated because the twister swept by.

“I simply could not consider. It simply did not look actual,” the 26-year-old stated. “We stepped out of our entrance door, and it was coming straight to our place,” she stated.

The twister missed her residence by a block, however energy in her neighborhood was reduce off, Adkins added.

Greater than 20,000 properties and companies in Kansas had been with out energy within the speedy aftermath. By 4 a.m. ET, that quantity had declined to round 8,500, in accordance with poweroutage.us.

Movies and pictures confirmed gutted properties, flipped automobiles and storm particles littering streets and entrance yards.

In an early estimate, Jim Jonas, the Wichita director of communications, stated between 50 to 100 constructions had been broken by the twister.

A kind of buildings was a YMCA neighborhood heart in Andover, which suffered vital harm, metropolis administrator Jennifer McCausland stated.

14 tornadoes reported in Kansas or Nebraska

The Nationwide Climate Service in Wichita despatched groups Saturday to conduct harm surveys.

Russell stated there have been no further reported accidents, no fatalities, and no excellent rescues in Andover.

“We’ll be persevering with to work on getting the ultimate assessments achieved on all of the search and rescue points, and that is our main purpose for this ops interval for right now,” he stated.

As cleanup work will get underway Saturday morning, Russell stated, the first goal is to get crews out to energy strains down throughout the street on Freeway 54 in Andover. “They have a ton of labor on the market. But when we will get that street clear, then we will open it,” the hearth chief stated.

A number of tornadoes touched down Friday in Kansas, in accordance with Gov. Laura Kelly, who declared a state of catastrophe emergency.

“We’ve realized from previous expertise that we won’t look forward to the storm to hit earlier than we reply,” Kelly stated. “By taking these steps early we’re capable of extra rapidly react when the counties ask for help.”

Over 40 million people are under severe storm threat this weekend

A complete of 15 tornadoes — 14 of which had been throughout Kansas or Nebraska — had been reported Friday, in accordance with the Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Storm Prediction Heart. The opposite twister was in Florida, the middle stated.

Moreover, there have been greater than 70 reviews of wind harm and over 50 reviews of hail.

In Enterprise, Kansas, there was hail as much as 4 inches in diameter.

On Saturday, the storm is anticipated to maneuver east, the place greater than 40 million persons are beneath the general risk for extreme storms.

A stage 2 out of 5 danger for extreme storms has been issued and consists of Chicago, Indianapolis, St. Louis and Little Rock.

“Extreme thunderstorms related to a risk for wind harm and enormous hail are attainable on Saturday from the decrease Mississippi Valley northward into the western Nice Lakes,” the Storm Prediction Heart stated, “A pair tornadoes can also happen.”

CNN’s Rebekah Riess, Paradise Afshar, Andy Rose, Taylor Ward, Allison Chinchar and Sharif Paget contributed to this report.