Two sorority houses among Manhattan homes and businesses damaged by Saturday storms

Robert A. Cronkleton
·2 min read

Two sorority houses at Kansas State University were among the 41 residential and business properties in Riley County damaged by severe storms that tracked through eastern Kansas, officials announced Sunday evening.

The preliminary storm damage assessment for the county is estimated at more than $9.7 million. No injuries were reported, county officials said in a news release.

Authorities declared five buildings condemned and unsafe to occupy Saturday evening in the McCain neighborhood, just east of the K-State campus. The buildings included the Chi Omega house at 1516 McCain Lane and the Kappa Alpha Theta house at 1517 McCain Lane. Both were unoccupied, according to the news release.

The Kappa Alpha Theta (pictured above) and Chi Omega houses east of the Kansas State University campus were two of five buildings authorities declared condemned and unsafe to occupy Saturday evening after storms tracked through Manhattan, Kansas. Both sorority houses were unoccupied. Three single-family homes in the neighborhood on McClain Lane were also severely damaged.

Three single-family homes in the neighborhood also were severely damaged. The residents were displaced but did not need immediate assistance.

Teams from the Manhattan Fire Department’s risk reduction division and the Riley County Appraiser’s Office on Sunday assessed the damage left behind by the storms. Downed power lines and large tree limbs were the most reported damage.

Crews from the National Weather Service office in Topeka also were surveying the damage to determine whether it was caused by tornadoes or straight line winds. No determination had been made.

The Riley County Public Works Facilities also sustained significant damage. The Tuttle Creek River Pond campgrounds were closed Sunday because of damage from the storms.

The Chi Omega house near the Kansas State University campus in Manhattan was damaged as severe storms passed through the area Saturday.
The Chi Omega house near the Kansas State University campus in Manhattan was damaged as severe storms passed through the area Saturday.

In Marysville, north of Manhattan, police chief Matt Simpson, said that while there was damage in the city’s downtown area from the storms, no injuries were reported.

Evergy said the storms caused more than 25,000 outages in its service area with Manhattan and Marysville being the areas with the most outages. Crews were able to restore 80% of the power by Sunday morning, the power company said.

The company’s outages map showed only 795 customers in Riley County and 407 customers in Marshall County remained without power Sunday evening.

A long-lived super cell thunderstorm developed over southeast Nebraska Saturday evening and tracked south across the entire state of Kansas, the National Weather Service in Wichita said on Twitter. The storm produced tornadoes, damaging winds and large hail as it dove south through the state.

The Star’s Anne Spoerre provided some information for this story.