Severe storms wreak havoc in Lawrence and Douglas County

Post last updated at 5:44 p.m. Friday, July 14:

Severe thunderstorms dumped rain while heavy winds wreaked havoc throughout Douglas County Friday afternoon. 

Trees, electric poles and wires were down all over town, emergency radio reports indicated. Evergy’s outage map showed power out for thousands of customers in multiple areas of Lawrence and Douglas County. 

“Line crews across our service area staying on shift and out restoring outages caused by the severe storms Friday afternoon,” according to Evergy’s website. “We expect restoration in the areas most severely impacted to be a multiday restoration effort. In events with widespread outages, individual estimated restoration times are not available.”

Following a short-lived midafternoon tornado warning, flash flood warnings and thunderstorm warnings remained in effect through the evening. The worst of the storms are over, however, according to a meteorologist from the National Weather Service in Topeka. 

“We have lots of damage around Douglas County,” meteorologist Isaiah Montgomery said. “We suspect winds probably reached 70 to 80 mph.” 

North Second Street was temporarily closed at Locust Street in both directions in North Lawrence because of flooding under the railroad overpass, according to the Lawrence Police Department.

The Dillons supermarket on 23rd Street was forced to close in the late afternoon because of a power outage.

Saltwell Farm Kitchen, the farm-to-table restaurant southwest of Lawrence, reported on social media that the storm winds tore the restaurant’s canopies down, and “swamped the dining grove.” Dining reservations were canceled for tonight, but the restaurant hopes to reopen Saturday.

The rain and severe winds moved across the Kansas City area and into Missouri after hitting Lawrence and Douglas County.

“You have more heavy rain and thunderstorms developing behind this initial wave, but these are not expected to be severe at this time,” Montgomery said. 

Tornado sirens wailed around Lawrence in mid-afternoon, and tornado warning was in effect from around 2:30 to 3 p.m., but it expired.

The City of Lawrence said in a news release just after 5 p.m. Friday that crews would be working to clean up the trees and debris all over town.

“If you do not need to be driving this afternoon, please stay home as crews continue to clear debris,” the release said.

City crews will collect yard waste on people’s normal trash pickup days. Residents can also take yard waste to the city’s compost facility.

“Depending on the severity or amount of debris across town, residents may experience delays in yard waste and debris pick-up,” according to the release.

You can report limbs down or tree debris in the right of way to the forestry hotline at 785-832-7979, according to the city. If anything is blocking a roadway or if there are dangerous limbs overhead, call dispatch at 785-832-7509 for immediate service.

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