A strong summer storm blew through Wednesday evening, with Sedgwick receiving the brunt of the damage. The National Weather Service stated that the storm had winds between 60-70 miles per hour. The Sedgwick Area reported uprooted trees as well as downed power lines. “It pretty well rained down fury over here,” Sedgwick City Administrator Kyle Nordick said. Once the storm moved through the city crews as well as the fire department got to work putting up barricades and dealing with damage. “We got to town at 10:30 and didn’t stop until 3 a.m.,” Nordick said. He added that they got about three hours of sleep and continued cleanup in the morning, with plenty of help from residents. All of our community members have done a phenomenal job,” he said. “It was absolute civic pride and community and that is exactly what we shoot to build here in Sedgwick.” The storm left many without power including businesses as well as the school, which canceled classes for Thursday. The doors to the Sedgwick Dollar General were also damaged and the store was closed Thursday morning for repairs. Power was restored to much of the town in the morning and early afternoon. As of 3:50 p.m. Aug. 15, Evergy reported 205 customers without power in Sedgwick. Nordick said that power lines and limbs were still in the process of being picked up.
“I’ve got two different contractors working here,” Nordick said. He added that Halstead also sent a crew of workers to assist the Sedgwick. Nordick asked anyone willing and able to take limbs down to the city burn pile. He also said that the contractors would be picking limbs up from the curb Friday. He said they would pick up limbs placed on the side of the road. The storm was part of a long line of weather to move through the area. At the peak, the storm had knocked out power for 37,000 customers, and there remain outages in small areas throughout Harvey County. This is the second windstorm this year to do major damage locally. A May storm tore down trees across Harvey County and hit Halstead and Newton especially hard. Nordick said that the storm had spared Sedgwick from major damage. “I guess it was our turn,” he said.
Source: Harvey County Now