On Friday (April 29), a large tornado tore through parts of the United States’ Kansas, destroying homes and buildings, leaving thousands without electricity.
Videos of the huge tornado are making the rounds on the internet and the shocking video has left users flabbergasted.
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Watch it here:
Highest-res drone footage of the Andover, KS #tornado which has received a preliminary rating of EF3. Note how the tornado propagates via vortex dynamics and likely terrain. Incredibly, no lives were lost by this tornado pic.twitter.com/FJDBH8TAv6
— Reed Timmer (@ReedTimmerAccu) April 30, 2022
As of now, no fatalities or serious injuries have been reported from the tornado itself, although three college students lost their lives storm chasing.
19-year-old Gavin Short; 20-year-old Nicholas Nair; and 22-year-old Drake Brooks, meteorology students at the University of Oklahoma were killed in a car crash as they were returning from storm chasing.
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As per authorities, more than 1000 buildings were affected when the strong twister swept through Andover, Kansas, leaving behind a trail of destruction far worse than what was estimated.
The YMCA in Andover was severely damaged, as seen in social media videos. Cars can be seen being thrown against walls by the sheer intensity of the storm in these citizen-shot videos.
However, as per a Facebook post by the Greater Wichita YMCA, none of the staff that took shelter inside the building were injured.
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Deputy fire chief Mike Roosevelt while addressing the press said “We now know that our damage path extended approximately 3.5 to 4 miles (5.6 to 6.4 kilometres) to the North of where we believed it to have ended last night.”
According to a Reuters report, the tornado was part of a storm system that has been wreaking havoc in Kansas and Nebraska, two states that are part of “tornado alley,” a region of the United States known for its high frequency of tornadoes.
(With inputs from agencies)
