Tornadoes skip across Marion County
By ROWENA PLETT
Staff writer
Marion made national news Sunday evening and Monday as The Weather Channel, Fox News, and other networks broadcast a video of a funnel cloud moving along close to the ground in eastern Marion County.
Numerous funnel clouds or tornadoes were spotted within a brief period of time Sunday afternoon. Only minor damage was reported.
According to Shelly Abbott-Becker of Marion County Emergency Preparedness, the activity began at 1:20 p.m. when a thunderstorm warning was issued.
The first reported sighting of a funnel cloud was at 1:44 p.m. A minute later, it was reported on the ground three miles southwest of Pilsen.
At 1:47 p.m., the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for Marion County.
"Marion County Emergency Communications received 11 phone calls reporting sightings of funnel clouds or tornadoes," Abbott-Becker said. "This was in addition to nine radio reports from trained spotters."
A white funnel cloud was spotted to the north by Dave and Nancy Tharp, who live four miles south of K-150 on Bluestem Road.
It crossed over K-150 and struck the farmstead of Vickie Smolik near 220th and Bluestem.
She said she was resting in her house when she heard a terrible noise.
"Surely an airplane isn't coming down on my house!" she thought.
She heard something hit the house. When she looked out she saw leaves swirling wildly, and a roof lifted off an old barn. Damage also occurred to other outbuildings.
"I was depressed when I first went out and saw the damaged buildings, but when I thought about it some more, I was glad my house was OK," she said. "I was lucky."
Barry Montgomery, a storm spotter from Lincolnville, later saw the funnel cloud to the east of the Lost Springs/U.S.-77 junction. He estimated it to be about four miles away.
Marcel and Irma Benda, who live on 280th one and one-half miles northeast of Pilsen, looked out their front door and saw a black tornado three or four miles to the south of their farm. They watched it for a minute until it receded into the clouds.
Another one was seen traveling north-northwest from the Pilsen area.
Tornado sirens were sounded in Lincolnville and Lost Springs. The funnel was spotted by several people along the way as it bobbed up and down, sometimes touching the ground and stirring up debris.
Ron and Leona Hajek live two miles west of Lost Springs. They saw a funnel come down out of the clouds south of their place. They said it stayed on the ground for about a half mile before going back into the clouds.
At 2:08 p.m., the tornado warning for Marion County was allowed to expire. In just 24 minutes from the time the first funnel cloud was sighted, the threat had passed through Marion County to points farther north.
A blizzard was raging in western Kansas, bringing cooler temperatures and hopefully an end to the 2005 tornado season in Kansas.
