A storm described as “brief but violent” that moved through Topeka on Thursday left 200 downed power lines, streets littered with trees and limbs, and damage to area businesses.
Friday became a day of cleanup and repair. Businesses were left without electricity, including the North Topeka Walmart and Dillons stores, which had to close but reopened for business about 3:30 p.m. Friday.
“We do have backup generators, and then we also follow some practices inside the store to cover cases and then apply dry ice as necessary to help hold temperature,” said Dillons spokeswoman Sheila Lowrie. “It’s all about maintaining the integrity of the products. We had no product loss.”
Topeka Civic Theatre also lost electricity and was forced to cancel its evening performance of “Newsies.”
“With the brief but violent storm that moved through, we had about 200 reports of downed power lines, in addition to other storm damage,” said Westar Energy spokeswoman Gina Penzig. “This was a very damaging storm for the short duration. The damage that it did to the power system was pretty remarkable.”
(Read more: News – The Topeka Capital-Journal)