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Severe storms pop up across Plains

An elephant wanders through a WaKeeney, Kan., backyard on Thursday.The elephant was one of two that escaped a traveling circus in WaKeeney, apparently frightened by a severe storm.Associated Press (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Roxana Hegeman Associated Press
An elephant wanders through a WaKeeney, Kan., backyard on Thursday.The elephant was one of two that escaped a traveling circus in WaKeeney, apparently frightened by a severe storm.Associated Press (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

WICHITA, Kan. – Tornadoes dropped onto the Great Plains on Thursday after forecasters warned of a potentially historic outbreak, causing some damage and spooking a pair of circus elephants in Kansas that escaped their enclosure and roamed a town before being captured.

One of the animals entered a backyard less than a mile from the fairgrounds in WaKeeney and was blocked off by fire trucks until trainers could coax it onto a truck, Trego County Sheriff Richard Schneider said.

“I guess it got tired of walking around,” he said.

The second elephant was tranquilized in another backyard, coaxed into a truck and returned to the circus, which was already packing up to head to the next town, Schneider said.

At least four tornadoes touched down in western and central Kansas. Tornadoes were also reported in Nebraska and Missouri, and a funnel cloud was spotted in Colorado.

A twister in Clay County in north-central Kansas destroyed a home, damaged several other buildings and toppled trees and power lines, sheriff’s dispatcher Cat Dallinga said. Storms also damaged roofs at the Pratt County airport in south-central Kansas and overturned tractor-trailers along Interstate 29, officials said.

Wind and hail caused extensive roof damage in Collyer, near WaKeeney, Schneider said.

Computer forecasting models for Thursday resembled those on June 8, 1974, when 39 tornadoes raked the southern Plains and killed 22 people. The National Weather Service on Tuesday took the unusual step of giving advance warning of a possible tornado outbreak based on the conditions.

By late evening, no storms had caused major damage or injuries, though Noreen Schwein of the National Weather Service in Kansas City cautioned there was still potential for strong storms.

“We’re certainly not out of the woods yet,” she said.

Wichita State University canceled evening classes because of the weather predictions.

Storms soaked the region Wednesday and then moved across to the mid-Atlantic region.

Four deaths were blamed on the storms, in Illinois, Indiana, West Virginia and Virginia.