Heartland Rural Electric Cooperative
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Heartland Rural Electric Cooperative
P.O. Box 40
110 North Enterprise Dr.
Girard, Kansas 66743
Members of southeast Kansas’ Heartland Rural Electric Cooperative, sustained
devastating damage to lives and property from a series of tornado’s during
the evening hours of Sunday, May 4th. Throughout the day, weather alerts were
announced from local radio and television stations stating that the National
Weather Service had issued a severe thunderstorm watch for much of the southern
area served by the cooperative. By 4:00 p.m. that afternoon, the thunderstorm
watch was upgraded to a Tornado Warning.
The series of storms began when a tornado touched down East of Parsons,
Kansas. Initial speculations made by storm chasers considered the tornado's
damage to be measured between an F3 and F4. Described as between a 1/4 and
1/2 mile wide, it carved a path north of McCune, south of Girard and concentrated
on the town of Franklin (click here for streaming video) before continuing
into Missouri. A short time after the first tornado was reported, a second
tornado touched down south and east of Columbus, Kansas. This tornado continued
through the towns of Crestline, Kansas and continued on its way to Carl Junction
and Pierce City, Missouri. Reports of tornado sightings continued throughout
the evening, while crews from Heartland REC worked throughout the night and
morning to restore power to the effected areas (click here for streaming video).
"Extensive transmission line damage is making progress difficult. Our crews
are back-feeding electric service in many areas, but we continue to wait
on transmission repairs to many other areas," said Tom Spurgeon, member services
and marketing manager for Heartland REC.
While the co-op’s efforts resulted in electric service being restored to
rural Greenbush, St. Paul, Walnut and Brazilton, Kansas areas, as of Monday
morning, southern counties that were effected by a separate tornado remain
without power. "Our system repairs have been made. We’re being informed by
the neighboring utility that the transmission line repairs should be made
by late Monday, said Paul Norris, Heartland’s Operations Manager.
"We need to emphasize the importance of power line safety," continued Spurgeon,
"as of Monday morning, miles of power lines remain on the ground. We want
everyone to stay away from downed lines and to treat them as dangerous." Heartland
points out that if the utility is in the process of restoring power, or a
generator is operating near a downed power line, it can create a dangerous
situation from voltage being carried in that downed power line. Once the first
tornado made its way into Missouri, Heartland crews began assessing the damage
to the system. Cooperative employees were called-in from Iola and Mound City
to assist with restoration efforts, while incoming calls were answered at
Heartland's office in Girard.
Governor, Kathleen Sebelius declared many Kansas counties emergency disaster
areas. Some of the counties included in the list are Cherokee, Crawford, Labette,
Miami and Leavenworth. The Kansas National Guard was called in to the town
of Franklin to assist in rescue efforts, while controlling traffic and possible
looting.
Initial death toll estimates were place at 7, however Crawford County Sheriff,
Sandy Horton reduced the initial count by one in an announcement late Monday
afternoon, May 5th. The total number of fatalities in southeast Kansas now
stands at 6.