Governor Laura Kelly declared a state of catastrophe emergency for Kansas on Monday after a brutal weekend of storms left southeast Kansas shattered, a person buried in rubble, practice automobiles overturned, and almost 2,000 houses nonetheless with out energy as of Tuesday morning.
What the EF-2 Twister Did to Sycamore
The twister’s path was half a mile vast and minimize 4 miles throughout Montgomery County, impacting as many as 170 properties — together with important harm to a number of houses, barns, and outbuildings.
It was rated EF-2 by the Nationwide Climate Service, which means most winds reached as much as 125 mph. Fourteen businesses responded, together with the State Fireplace Marshal’s workplace and a number of hearth departments.
One survivor’s account captured the dimensions of the loss. “Your home is gone, and your store’s gone, your boat’s gone, camper’s gone,” mentioned space resident Rettmann, who had simply moved to Montgomery County in February and had spent months renovating the property. “She spent all of her spare time portray, redoing all the things. We laid new carpet, put up new blinds all all through the home. All new home equipment. Our plan was simply to be right here till we weren’t right here, I suppose.”
One particular person — a 71-year-old Sycamore man — was pulled from rubble by first responders and handled at a hospital in Neodesha. A member of the family confirmed he’s anticipated to recuperate and plans to rebuild.
The Wider Storm System: Flooding, Rescues, and Overturned Prepare Automobiles
The EF-2 was just one half of a bigger, violent storm system that rolled by way of Kansas over the weekend.
In Labette County, the city of Oswego noticed empty practice automobiles knocked fully off their railroad tracks. Within the Kansas Metropolis space, flash flooding triggered a dozen water rescues by the Kansas Metropolis Fireplace Division in a single day as rainfall charges reached one to 2 inches per hour throughout the area.
The storm snapped 9 energy poles alongside US Freeway 75, chopping electrical energy throughout southeast Kansas and complicating in a single day restoration efforts. The Columbus faculty district in neighboring Cherokee County cancelled lessons Monday attributable to hazardous situations.
What the Catastrophe Declaration Means
Governor Kelly’s catastrophe declaration makes state sources out there to native communities for cleanup and restoration. As of Tuesday morning, as many as 1,800 Evergy clients stay with out energy, largely within the Kansas Metropolis space, with crews nonetheless engaged on greater than a dozen lively outages.
Residents can monitor present outages on the Evergy Outage Map at evergy.com/outages. Anybody needing storm help ought to contact Kansas Division of Emergency Administration at kdem.ks.gov.
“Residing in a rural space positively makes that simpler, as a result of persons are neighbors, and everybody desires to assist,” mentioned Rick Whitson, Montgomery County Emergency Administration Director.
Sources: Kansas Public Radio — KWCH Wichita — FOX 23 — KTUL Tulsa — WIBW Topeka — April 27–28, 2026
