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NATURE'S FURY: Shocking videos capture Kansas tornado that ripped apart over 1000 homes

'The city of Andover will be affected by this for years. We still have scars from 1991 (EF-5 tornado),' said Andover's Fire Chief Chad Russell

A number of videos shared on the Internet are highlighting the damage caused by a tornado in south-central Kansas. The EF-3 tornado wrecked havoc as it reportedly triggered winds up to 165 mph while ripping apart over 1000 homes. According to the Weather Service, on Friday, April 29, the tornado, while being on the ground for 20 minutes, devastated the neighborhoods it blew through.

It also affected the Andover YMCA. Morgan Hamlin, a 25-year-old service desk technician, said: “The whole main lobby foyer area is completely destroyed. Anything that wasn’t . . . concrete or steel was completely destroyed,” as he continued: “The Y really did a very excellent job of making sure that people got to safe places and didn’t go outside. It could have been a lot more catastrophic if they didn’t.”

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YMCA spokeswoman Shamain Bachman added: “We are extremely proud of our employees at the Andover Y, who saved lives by reacting quickly in this crisis situation last evening. Employees who were both on and off duty, had only minutes to react and get everyone to safety before the tornado hit the building. Our leadership team is currently assessing the damage and will provide more updates as that becomes available. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the community of Andover as we rebuild from this disaster.”

Meanwhile, it has been reported that four people, including two firefighters, got hurt due to the bad weather but their injuries are non-life-threatening. However, three meteorology students from the University of Oklahoma reportedly died in a car crash while coming back from a storm-chasing mission in Kansas. Andover Fire Chief Chad Russell said, “The city of Andover will be affected by this for years. We still have scars from 1991 (EF-5 tornado). I'm so thankful this tornado was not as bad as that, but we will literally be doing this for years.”

Besides, it has been said that the harrowing winds will expectedly threaten eastern New Mexico and Colorado, before going eastward into Texas and Oklahoma. The footage of the natural calamity has been widely shared on Twitter, attracting a lot of attention. A clip shared on Twitter by Mike Scantlin, a storm chaser enthusiast, showed the tornado looming over as vehicles passed. The video also showed debris flying in the air. Scantlin wrote: “#INCREDIBLE up-close #tornado suction vortices crossing US-400 in #Andover #Kansas #KSwx @breakingweather @ReedTimmerAccu @MikeCollierWX.”

A tweet below Scantlin’s post read: “Praying for everyone in Kansas 🙏🏽🤍✨ Praying that God’s hands of protection is upon everyone🙏🏽🤍✨.” “This is bringing back bad bad memories of the aftermath of 1991. Same place. Ugh,” another tweet read.

Meteorologist and storm chaser, Reed Timmer, also took to Twitter to share a video of the tornado as he wrote: “Destructive tornado tearing through Andover KS minutes ago.” A user sharing a clip said: “Another view of the destruction. Heard no lives lost but look at those homes fly!” Another user commented: “Damn….I think it’s the same Kansas town where another destructive tornado hit years ago, a la Tuscaloosa, AL and Moore, OK.  I don’t know how the residents of those towns manage to survive that many tornadoes touchdown so many times in limited amount of years.” “Omg. If everyone lived through that it will be amazing. Prayers to all in Andover,” the third one added.