By: Peyton Shields
Last Friday, Andover, Kansas, faced heavy damage caused by a category three tornado. It stayed on the ground for 21 minutes, enough time to demolish buildings and homes. This storm, just days after the 30th anniversary of a category five tornado, caused damage in the same area.
The tornado not only took a toll on buildings but also on mental health. Cheree Encapera, a resident who lives on the Wichita-Andover line said, “the Andover tornado really shook everyone up. I think we had all started to believe that a tornado wouldn’t hit here again. It has been so long since we had experienced a bad tornado. Since the tornado, everyone feels anxious and unsettled. The local universities are even doing some seminars to help groups due to the large number of people suffering from anxiety after the tornado. There's a lot of physical and emotional work that's going to have to be done to get us back to where we were.”
An EF3 tornado has high wind speeds from 136-165 miles per hour. There are six EF ratings overall from 0-5, five being the most violent and zero being the mildest. EF5 tornadoes are extremely rare but cause 70% of tornado deaths.
Rarely does a tornado just appear in a blink of an eye. Signs of an oncoming tornado include “dark, often greenish clouds/sky, wall clouds- an isolated lowering of the base of the thunderstorm, debris cloud, large hail, funnel cloud, and a roaring noise” (National Weather Service).
It is very important to stay safe during a tornado. Safety tips include getting to shelter immediately, staying out of large auditoriums or facilities, and staying away from all windows. If you are in the car when a tornado appears and you can’t get to shelter once the debris is starting to fly, pull over, put on a seat belt, cover your head, and duck below the windows. If there is a noticeably lower area near the road that you can safely get to, lay down with your head covered in that area. Also, always know the name of your county since many weather stations will put out warnings specifically for different counties.
Source: https://www.weather.gov/mkx/taw-tornado_classification_safety