F4 Tornado — Sedgwick, Kansas

1999-05-03 · near Peck, Sedgwick, Kansas

Event narrative

The same tornado that initially touched down 4 miles north of Wellington in Central Sumner County, SKYWARN reports indicate the tornado crossed the Sumner/Sedgwick County line at 1930, 1 mile west of Peck. Moving northeast at 30 kts, the tornado hit Haysville at 1935, destroying a subdivision just southwest of the South Seneca-South 87th Street intersection where the first 2 fatalities occurred in a mobile home park when a woman and her grandson were killed while running for shelter. (A 6th fatality resulted when an elderly man died from his injuries at a Wichita hospital on May 23rd.) The tornado then moved north along South Seneca Avenue, entering the Haysville Central Business District at 1938. The 3rd fatality occurred at this point when an elderly man was killed in a mobile home at South 75th Street. At the South Seneca/South 71st Street intersection, most of the businesses were heavily damaged or destroyed. Damage summary for Haysville (damaged or destroyed): 150 homes, 27 businesses, 3 churches, 1 library, 4 historic buildings and 1 lodge. The tornado entered South Wichita at 1943 when it crossed South 55th Street. The tornado then veered slightly toward the northwest. At South 47th Street it reassumed a northeast track. Crossing MacArthur Avenue, the tornado leveled the Lakeshore and Pacesetter mobile home parks located just northeast of the South Seneca/MacArthur intersection where the 4th and 5th fatalities occurred, one at each mobile home park. At 1945, the tornado crossed the East Harry Street interchange on I-135 and continued to move northeast, lifting in the College Hill District in Northeast Wichita. Along this entire track, the tornado left a path of destruction 14 miles long and 1/4 to 1/2 mile wide. Damage summary for Sedgwick County: 8,480 buildings (all types) damaged or destroyed. Of these, 2,456 were at least 50% destroyed and 1,109 totally destroyed.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (37.4800, -97.3700)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 5690169. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.