Neighbors begin cleanup after Eureka tornado

For the first time after a tornado ripped her house apart late Thursday night, 74-year-old Gayle Samuels surveyed the wreckage in full daylight.

Her daughter, Dawn Knox, held her arm as they walked around the house Friday.

“It’s awful – our whole house is gone,” Knox said, holding back tears. “We didn’t realize it last night, but this morning it hit us.”

Much of north and northeast Eureka took a hit from the tornado late Thursday, though no serious injuries were reported.

According to the Greenwood County Sheriff’s Office, 92 homes in Eureka were affected by the storm. Sheriff Heath Samuels said six were total losses, 13 have major damage, 29 have minor damage and 44 others “were affected in some way.”

Eureka has about 2,500 residents.

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Gov. Sam Brownback declared Greenwood County a disaster area, according to a news release from the Adjutant General’s Office.

The declaration authorizes the use of state resources and personnel to assist with response and recovery operations.

Progress made

By late Friday afternoon, many streets that had been closed in the morning were reopened. Neighbors and friends came to the aid of their neighbors whose homes were hit the hardest.

“That’s what Eureka does; when people are in need, that’s what we do,” said Amanda Reynolds, who was helping her father clean up after a tree fell through his roof into a bedroom.

“We get together, and we take care of each other.”

U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., came to Eureka for a couple of hours Friday afternoon to survey the damage and to express condolences to people who had lost their homes.

“I wanted to be in Eureka today to express my gratitude to the people who are here working to try to get recovery on its way, to express concern for people who have lost property in this devastation, and to make certain that I saw with my own eyes what had happened in case there is a request by the governor for federal emergency disaster declaration,” Moran said.

“People are doing what we do in Kansas: roll up the sleeves, go to work and make things better.”

A storm survey team from the Wichita branch of the National Weather Service evaluated the damage in Eureka and northwest of the city in Greenwood County.

The two-man crew found three distinct tornado tracks and issued preliminary ratings Friday afternoon:

▪ The first tornado touched down at 9:15 p.m. at Otis Creek Reservoir in northern Greenwood County. It was an EF-1 with estimated top wind speeds of 110 miles an hour.

▪ The second tornado touched down at 9:25 p.m. about 7 miles northwest of Eureka. It was on the ground for nearly 30 minutes and grew to nearly 3/4 of a mile wide. It was an EF-3 with winds of up to 165 miles an hour.

▪ The third tornado, which caused most of the damage in Eureka, touched down at 9:41 p.m. about 1/2 mile northwest of the town and was on the ground for nine minutes. It was an EF-2 with winds of up to 135 miles an hour.

Samuels, the sheriff, praised the efforts of the first responders, who quickly and efficiently organized in the hours immediately following the tornado.

“I expected that it was just going to be devastation for a few days,” Samuels said. “We can see the light at the end of the tunnel. We’ve got a lot of cleaning, a lot of rebuilding to do, but as far as having everything in place and having a plan to how we’re going to do that, it fell together really well.”

Michelle Jantz, executive director of the American Red Cross Midway Kansas Chapter, said three people spent the night in a Red Cross shelter set up in Eureka First United Methodist Church.

Throughout the day, Eureka residents cooled off in the shelter and received food and water there, Jantz said.

“We have been focused so far on doing feeding operations for first responders and also making sure anyone who’s affected that’s hungry has food,” Jantz said. “We will be keeping our shelter open again tonight (Friday) just in case there’s someone who needs a place to stay.”

Picking up the pieces

Gayle Samuels, Knox, her husband and two children took shelter in the house’s basement Thursday night. Everything started to shake, and above them the roof peeled away, Knox said.

They retreated to a corner of the basement and waited out the duration of the tornado, after which a reporter from an Emporia radio station helped pull them out of the basement, Knox said.

“Thank God everybody was OK,” she said. “Property can be replaced, eventually.”

The heaviest damage was reported around School and 10th Street, where the tornado reportedly took out mobile homes.

A portion of the Ranch Aid building, which used to be a grain elevator, was toppled in the storm, and a wall at the Eureka Nursing Center was demolished. The tables and chairs in the room behind the wall were undisturbed.

Toby Hennessey’s mobile home across from the nursing center was destroyed.

Not all was lost, though. He recovered his grandfather’s guns from the wreckage, which his roommate said was all he talked about Thursday night into Friday.

“This is a relief,” Hennessey said, standing in the wreckage of his home. “It’s all in one pile, and we don’t have to pay next month’s rent.”

This story was originally published July 8, 2016 at 2:14 PM with the headline "Neighbors begin cleanup after Eureka tornado."