‘It looked like an umbilical cord.’ Residents clean up after deadly Kansas tornado

WESTMORELAND — With a tornado headed directly toward their Westmoreland home, retirees Barry and Beverly Toburen sought refuge Tuesday with their three dogs in their bathroom.

The lights flickered off, came back on, then flickered off again, Barry Toburen told The Capital-Journal on Wednesday.

Then the tornado hit.

“My ears popped real loud, and everything went sideways there,” Toburen said. “It blew the door in on me, knocked me over on top of the wife, and then all of a sudden, it got real light. Obviously, it got light because the roof was gone. And then the sheetrock and everything came down on top of us.”

The Toburens’ home was in or near ground zero of the area hit by Tuesday’s tornado, which Pottawatomie County public information officer Becky Ryan said killed one person, caused minor injuries to three others, destroyed 22 homes and left 13 homes damaged but livable.

The name, age and gender of the person who died wasn’t being immediately released.

‘It looked like an umbilical cord’

Leslie Campbell said her husband videotaped the tornado on his cellphone as they watched it from a large hill.

The tornado “didn’t look like a tornado,” Campbell said. “It looked like an umbilical cord.”

“It was really long, and it didn’t touch down for a long time, and finally we saw it touch down,” she said.

Campbell said the homes damaged in Westmoreland included that of her mother-in-law, Linda Campbell.

Father and son sought shelter in hallway as tornado destroyed home

Ashley Van Gilder, a Westmoreland resident whose home was among those hit, described what happened as being “just devastating.”

She said she wasn’t home at the time, but her husband and their 8-year-old son Joseph were.

Joseph said he and his father sought shelter in a hallway of their home as the tornado loudly passed though.

“It was very weird,” he said. “We heard it touch down. It was cracking and stuff.”

Joseph’s father held him down as the tornado passed through, he said.

The family’s hallway has always been its “safe place” during times of potential severe weather, though members had talked earlier this week about potentially finding an alternative, Ashley VanGilder said.

Westmoreland family digs out from destroyed home

Barry Toburen, whose house was destroyed, said he had stood outside watching as the twister approached.

“The wife said, ‘Get your butt in the house!” he said.

Later, after crawling out from the wreckage, Barry Toburen said he realized that a large limb had been coming toward his head but stopped just short of it.

The tornado destroyed items that included Barry Toburen’s brand new lawnmower.

“I mowed the yard twice with it,” he said, with a laugh.

Barry Toburen said he managed to recover other items that included medals he’d been awarded while in the military.

He said he and his wife had gotten a motel room in nearby Wamego and were boarding their three dogs with a veterinarian there.

Another Westmoreland family is trying to salvage ‘sentimental things’

Jason Resser said he was away when the tornado went straight down the middle of the house where he has lived for 24 years.

“Everything in the core of the house is completely gone,” said Resser, who is manager of Westmoreland’s Dollar General Store.

He said he and his wife and children were looking Wednesday for “sentimental things” and furniture they could reuse.

Spokeswoman: 175 people turned out to help clean up debris

A team from the National Weather Service’s Topeka office was in Westmoreland on Wednesday assessing the damage and determining Tuesday’s tornado’s rating on the Enhanced Fujita scale used to measure tornado intensity, said Nathan Griesemer, a meteorologist for that office.

Storm surveys were also being conducted in Shawnee, Jefferson and Nemaha counties.

In addition to the houses that were hit, the tornado destroyed five outbuildings, including one each owned by Pottawatomie County and housing its recycling processing and noxious weed operations, said Ryan, the Pottawatomie County public information officer.

Pottawatomie County offices, which are based in Westmoreland, were closed to the public Wednesday.

More than 175 people were in Westmoreland on Wednesday helping clean up debris, Ryan said, describing that turnout as “amazing.”

Those helping clean up included at least 30 teachers and other employees from local schools.

The American Red Cross on Tuesday evening provided a temporary shelter at Rock Creek High School, Ryan said. That was being moved Wednesday to the Westmoreland Community Building, she said.

The Salvation Army was on hand providing meals, she said.

Tuesday’s tornado fatality was the first in Kansas since Richard D. Slade, 53, was killed Feb. 28, 2012, by a EF-2 tornado that struck his home at Harveyville in Wabaunsee County.

Contact Tim Hrenchir at threnchir@gannett.com or 785-213-5934.