A large, violent tornado narrowly missed a central Kansas town Wednesday night as another round of severe weather rolled across the Plains.
Storm spotters and radar data confirmed the large twister was in progress near the town of Solomon Wednesday night. Near Solomon and Abilene, homes were reportedly damaged and at least one car was overturned, according to National Weather Service storm reports.
The NWS surveyed damage and determined the tornado was an EF4 with winds as high as 180 mph. It's just the second EF4 tornado to hit the United States in 2016.
The Kansas Highway Patrol told WIBW between 15 and 25 homes were hit, with damage ranging from minor to total destruction.
"Some ... are no longer in existence," state trooper Ben Gardner told KSN.
According to KWCH, a tractor tire was thrown through a house just northwest of Abilene. The residents made it out, but according to a tweet from a relative, "the whole back side of the house is gone."
County emergency management director Chancy Smith described the scene near town as "chaos."
Seventy-five to eighty firefighters and Kansas Highway Patrol troopers were out checking homes, he said. They found four or five people were hurt, but also said those injuries were minor.
The tornado formed just after 7 p.m. near the Ottawa County community of Niles and stayed on the ground continuously until around 8:35 p.m. when it dissipated, National Weather Service meteorologist Chad Omitt said. Estimates are that it was a quarter- to a half-mile wide at times, he said.
The weather service urged people to take cover as the tornado it called "catastrophic" approached Chapman, about 75 miles west of Topeka.
Omitt told the Associated Press "the heart" of the tornado at one point was just about a mile south of Chapman, a town of about 1,400 that was devastated by a deadly tornado in 2008 but spared on Wednesday.
Despite fears that Chapman would suffer a direct hit from the tornado, the twister jogged just south of the town. Shortly after the storm passed, chaser video showed power remained on in downtown Chapman, and little damage was reported in northern and central parts of the town.
"It's amazing how this tornado missed those centers of population," Paul Froelich, Dickinson County fire district one chief, told the Associated Press. "And we had outstanding early warning on this. ... People knew well in advance of this storm. Consider also, this is Kansas. This is Tornado Alley."
According to WIBW, a shelter has been set up in Abilene at their Community Center, 1020 NW 8th, and the American Red Cross has been mobilized to assist.
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