Rains drench area
By MIKE CORN
In a dramatic change from days past, today dawned cloudy and cool, and without the forecast of dangerous weather.
There was a chance for storms this afternoon to the east of Hays, but not with the intensity of what has taken place since Thursday. In that time, tornado after tornado pounded much of northwest Kansas, damaging homes and injuring several people.
The storm system that held the area hostage since Thursday didn't leave on a whimper.
It instead dropped at least one tornado in Rush County on Sunday and tried to form others.
Rush and Ness counties were the focal points for the storm, buffeted by hail and heavy rains, enough to cause problems throughout the counties.
"I know they had to shut down (U.S. Highway) 183 at La Crosse for a couple hours," said Rush County Sheriff Ward Corsair.
In that situation, water about a foot deep was flowing over a bridge on an unnamed creek at the south end of La Crosse.
Rainfall varied Sunday, but there were reports of at least 2Ôªø1âÑ2 inches north of La Crosse, Corsair said. That was topped by the 4.65 inches reported by an observer 2Ôªø1âÑ2 miles northwest of Loretta.
Water was flowing over roads and highways in several places elsewhere in Rush County, Corsair said, including Kansas Highway 4 and U.S. Highway 96.
County roads were covered by water in several locations as well.
Walnut Creek at Nekoma rose above 24 feet, but that still is below flood stage by about 2 feet.
At least one tornado touched down Sunday south of Timken, Corsair said, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
Initial reports had put the tornado near Rush Center, but Corsair said it was closer to Timken.
Another tornado tried to form north of La Crosse, he said, but never came down. A similar situation occurred near Nekoma, southwest of La Crosse.
In addition to the rain and tornado, Corsair said Rush County received plenty of hail.
"I know we had hail damage," Corsair said. "We had golfball size plus."
In fact, a farmer northwest of La Crosse told him about two-thirds of his crop in one field was mowed by the hail.
Heavy rains moved through Ness County on Sunday as well, but in a shift from previous days, only tracked through the southeast part of the county, according to Ness County Sheriff Bryan Whipple.
Ness County had been a focal point for many of the storms Thursday and Friday, as they were forming there and moving north.
On Friday, the Ness County-formed storms caused damage between Ransom and Brownell.
At least one home, Whipple said, will be a complete loss and a couple of others are questionable -- once appraisers get the chance to take a look.
County roads also had to be barricaded Sunday as the storms moved through the area, he said.
This morning, Jeff Hutton, the warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Dodge City, was heading out for another series of assessments from the stormy weekend.
Today, he hopes to visit Lane, Ness, Trego and Rush counties.
"We had so many tornadoes," he said of trying to track them all.
As a result, he's taking radar data and then going to the areas where the tornadoes hit.
In some case, Hutton said, he's receiving reports of tornadoes at least three-fourths of a mile wide.