By Lucky Kidd
McPHERSON COUNTY, Kan. — A compact but strong thunderstorm brought heavy rain and 70 mile an hour wind gusts along with some hail to parts of McPherson County late Tuesday afternoon.
The slow moving storm developed in the Hesston/Moundridge area and moved slowly to the northwest, prompting a severe thunderstorm warning.
Wind gusts were estimated by an off-duty National Weather Service employee at 70 miles an hour just southeast of McPherson, where tree limb damage was reported, with tree limbs downed and pea sized hail reported in the Moundridge area.
The storm also brought with an abrupt cooldown in McPherson, where temperatures dropped 21 degrees and the heat index a little more than that over an hour’s time.
At 4:59 p.m., the City of Moundridge shared damage from the storm and gave updates as crews worked to fix power lines from a large tree falling on the 100 Block of West Galle. They also reported a large tree that fell down across the roadway at Schmidt and Thornton.
The city later reported that several large trees fell on power lines breaking cross arms on several poles, severing a line and pulling services out of buildings. The city crew worked through the evening to get the power back on and at 9 p.m. the city updated on social media that the crew had been working over 14 hours today, working through the dangerous conditions of the rain, hail and high winds. At 9:45, they said the crew was almost done connecting the last line. Three customers north of Galle had service lines yanked out from their buildings, and that takes longer to repair.
