Andover is opening an extra storm shelter for residents Monday. Here’s where they are
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Tornado cuts through Sedgwick County and Andover, Kansas
An EF-3 tornado touched down in south-central Kansas on April 29, 2022, leaving damage in its wake, but few injuries. Residents in the Wichita area, Andover and Sedgwick and Butler counties are picking up the pieces.
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The city of Andover is opening its storm shelter at City Hall for residents who need a place to hunker down if weather gets severe.
Public shelters at the concession stand restrooms at the 13th Street Ball Diamonds and at the restrooms in Central Park are also open, the city said in a Monday email and Facebook post.
The announcement comes in the wake of an EF-3 tornado that tore through the town on Friday, damaging hundreds of homes and buildings. Officials have said the twister cut a more than 12-mile path, starting in rural southeastern Sedgwick County and traveling through Andover, for the roughly 21 minutes it was on the ground.
The city of Andover, in its email and Facebook post, urged residents to have storm shelter plans worked out in preparation for severe weather forecasted for Monday afternoon and evening.
The National Weather Service in Wichita is predicting dime- to tennis-ball-sized hail, 60- to 70-mph winds and the possibility of EF-2 or stronger category tornadoes for areas of south-central Kansas, beginning as early as 3 p.m. Monday.
The Wichita area is at some risk.
“This is not the norm, but because of the situation we are currently in, the City Hall Storm Shelter will be open if residents need a place to go. There will be a shelter manager from the city onsite to manage the shelter until the storm passes,” the city of Andover’s email and post says.
“Animal Rescue has provided 15 kennels for pets if needed. Please be sure to put your dog in a kennel when you arrive and you can sit right beside them.”
The city added: “If you have neighbors who don’t have a spot to go, please make sure to pass along this information and help them out.”
Not all cities and towns in the area have public storm shelters where residents can go to escape severe weather. Neither Wichita nor Derby has public shelters.
Sedgwick County government also does not maintain any, according to the county’s emergency management web page.
The county recommends residents in small towns in the area contact their local city halls to see whether and where public shelters are available. Churches, businesses, neighborhood gathering spots and the homes of relatives and neighbors who have basements might be options. An interior room on the lowest level of a home might also work.
Motorists and others caught outdoors during a tornado should seek shelter in a reinforced structure or, if none is available, lie in the lowest spot around, such as a ditch, and hang on to anything sturdy, the emergency management web page suggests.
This story was originally published May 2, 2022 at 3:23 PM.
