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EF2 tornado in Pottawatomie County, Kansas
Tornado June 11, 2008 · Pottawatomie County, Kansas
NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Pottawatomie County → Jackson County → Nemaha County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.
The path drawn at its surveyed width of 200 yards (0.11 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.
What the National Weather Service wrote
This is the first segment of an EF-2 tornado that began in Pottawatomie County, moved northeast into Jackson County and continued northeast into Nemaha County before dissipating. This is segment 1 of 3 for the tornado path. In Pottawatomie County the tornado touched down near a farmstead south of Havensville and compromised some of the external walls of a residence as well as tearing a large portion of the roof off of the residence. Extensive damage was noted to outbuildings and trees near the residence. The tornado continued northeast damaging mainly rural areas of northeastern Pottawatomie County damaging trees and power poles.
The wider storm
Two long lived supercells wreaked havoc across portions of north central and northeast Kansas on the night of June 11th. Three significant tornadoes touched down, caused millions of dollars in damage, killed two, and critically injured three citizens. The town of Chapman saw the most extensive damage. Approximately three-quarters of the town were damaged by the tornado that passed through. Numerous homes were demolished, as were both the middle school and high school. One death occurred in Chapman, as a result of flying debris striking a young woman while she protected her child. The most severe, but more localized damage occurred in the Miller Ranch neighborhood in Manhattan, where several homes were completely destroyed. The Soldier, Kansas tornado was responsible for the other death. A man was killed in his mobile home when it flipped several times and was found a few miles from it's original location. The unoccupied home a few hundred feet from the mobile home went virtually untouched. Thousands of citizens turned up over the next few weeks to help with the clean-up effort in both Chapman and Manhattan.
Began near Onaga (39.4531, -96.1103).
Other tornadoes from the same storm system
4 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 120006. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.
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