One person died and three others suffered minor injuries when a tornado ripped through Westmoreland, Kansas, on Tuesday afternoon, authorities said.
The tornado, one of nearly 200 reported on the plains and O Midwest as of Friday, it was reported at 4:40 p.m., Pottawatomie County officials said in a statement.
The identity of the person who died was being withheld until family could be notified, Sheriff Shane Jager said at a news conference.
The injured did not require hospitalization, county spokeswoman Becky Ryan said at a news conference. First responders were still conducting a search of the area to determine if anyone else was killed or injured, she said.
Twenty-two homes in Westmoreland — about 55 miles west of Topeka — were deemed uninhabitable, another 13 sustained damage, a commercial building was damaged and five outbuildings, such as sheds and detached garages, were destroyed, Ryan said.
Jager said the tornado hit the north end of the city, which has a population of 641 and occupies about 8,000 square feet, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
“It took up half the city,” he said. “It really happened.”
Six trailers at a mobile home park were damaged or destroyed, Jager said, calling it a “significant loss.” However, no injuries were reported, he added.
Power remained out throughout the city Tuesday night, authorities said.
County Emergency Management Director Jennifer Merrow said National Weather Service meteorologists updated county officials on the storm cell as it approached Tuesday afternoon.
“They confirmed that it was just a matter of whether or not to launch a funnel, and we had activated the storm sirens at that time,” Merrow said at a news conference.
Death in Westmoreland is at least the sixth since the stormIt is to have tormented plains and midwestsending vortices to the ground in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin and Michigan, according to the weather service.
Waves of cold fronts and low pressure from the Pacific Northwest have been moving east and colliding with heat from the Southeast, producing a cauldron of unstable air that is ideal for tornadoes.
Parts of eastern Nebraska and western Iowa, including Omaha and Des Moines, remained under a tornado watch Tuesday night. The watches urge residents to be prepared if a tornado forms, but do not indicate that one is imminent.
A tornado Saturday in Marietta, Oklahoma, was rated at EF4 on a power scale of 1 to 5, meaning it produced sustained winds of at least 166 mph. It was the country’s first EF4 tornado of the year and the strongest to date.
Since Friday, 198 tornadoes have been reported across the Plains and Midwest, according to data from the National Weather Service. The meteorological service has so far confirmed more than half of them.
It was the second most active April on record in the US, surpassed only by April 2011.
This article was originally published in NBCNews. with
