Emergency management press release
Geary County Emergency Management Director Garry Berges said after consulting with the National Weather Service in Topeka, they are putting the wind speed in the Junction City area during Friday night’s storm in the area of 80-90 mph. They reviewed their radar imaging along with photos of the damages in the area that was provided to them. An EF-1 tornado has winds between 73-112mph.
They believe it was straight line winds that caused the damage. There was some rotation in the upper part of the storm when it was west of Junction City but nothing down lower that would have produced a funnel or tornado.
Rainfall in the area on Friday evening was between 5½ inches to 7 plus inches. Areas to the north and south of Junction City received considerably less. So far on Monday as of 8:30am, rain fall in Junction City was about an inch with up to 3 inches to the southeast of Junction City.
An area of concern for emergency responders during Friday night’s storm was the number of vehicles that were out immediately after the storm. There were several streets and intersections that were flooded with water 1-2 feet or more deep. Vehicles were driving through and getting stuck. This resulted in several individuals needing to be rescued and cars being abandoned in the roadways.