For those who remember Andover’s 1991 tornado, Friday felt eerily similar

For longtime residents of Andover — and for all the people who remember the photos of the devastating tornado that hit the city in 1991 — Friday night brought some unwelcome deja vu.

The tornado that devastated a swath of Andover on Friday had more than a few things in common with its famous F-5 predecessor, which killed 17 people and injured hundreds more. The latest storm hit on a Friday night, just like in 1991. And it landed on the calendar just three days after the the April 26, 1991, storm, which packed 260-mph winds and destroyed 350 homes

Retired meteorologist Mike Smith, who in 1991 was the chief meteorologist for KSN-Channel 3, was chasing a tornado near Durham on Friday night and didn’t hear about the storm in Andover until he got back into the city limits and heard about it on the radio.

“The best word I can think of is chagrined,” he said of his initial reaction. “My first thought was I’m hoping it wasn’t as bad in terms of injuries and deaths.”

It wasn’t — at least based on initial reports coming out of Andover on Saturday. So far, Butler County emergency personnel say, they’ve discovered no fatalities. And 1991’s tornado was clearly far more destructive, cutting a 69-mile path and growing to more than 500 yards wide.

But the similarities have many making comparisons between the two events, three decades apart.

Andover hasn’t been completely spared from tornadoes since the big one in 1991, Smith said. On April 14 2012, the town suffered light damage when an EF-3 tornado caused $280 million in damage, hitting Spirit Aerosystems and a mobile home park in Wichita’s Oaklawn neighborhood. No one was killed, and the worst Andover appeared to suffer was tree damage.

Friday’s storm, though, though, felt eerily familiar and hit not far from where the bulk of the destruction landed in 1991, when the tornado ripped through a mobile home park along Andover Road just south of Central. Friday night’s was about 2 1/2 miles south, near Kellogg and Andover Road.

But the outcome was much different, Smith said, and he thinks warning systems played a part. Unlike in 1991, people this time had days’ worth of warning and appeared to have taken the warnings seriously.

Still, people on Friday were wondering why Andover was targeted by Mother Nature yet again.

Though it does feel like the same areas get hit by tornadoes, weather researchers haven’t found any scientific explanation for the phenomenon, Smith said.

“We can’t find a reason except bad luck,” he said.

This story was originally published April 30, 2022 at 12:19 PM.

Denise Neil

The Wichita Eagle

316-268-6327

Denise Neil has covered restaurants and entertainment since 1997. Her Dining with Denise Facebook page is the go-to place for diners to get information about local restaurants. She’s a regular judge at local food competitions and speaks to groups all over Wichita about dining.