Severe weather moved through the Topeka area Monday night, leaving damaged homes and uprooted trees in its wake as residents woke to debris and cleanup crews began moving in. For people searching for a power outage near me, the immediate impact was less about lights going out than the damage the storm left behind.
Courtney Sterbenz said the sirens on the WIBW app started going off a little after midnight, and her 16-year-old came running in to say tornado sirens were sounding. About five to 10 minutes later, she said, the house was hit by a strange pressure and a train-like noise. She said she ran to the top level of her home and looked out her 18-year-old daughter's bedroom window, where she saw a tree that was not normally there.
Sterbenz said the scene only got worse once the rain let up and the family could get outside. Marvin Rues said a neighbor's tree had been ripped all the way off. He estimated the winds at 90 miles per hour, although no official wind speed was provided in the available information. The damage was visible enough to leave little doubt that the storm had hit hard, even if the full extent across Topeka and Shawnee County was not yet clear.
Debris pickup services with city and county crews are now underway, giving residents a place to start if their yards and streets were littered by the storm. The City of Topeka and Shawnee County are both offering services for post-storm cleanup, a sign that officials have moved from warning mode to recovery mode. Hunter Balsmeier said the moment also showed neighbors pulling together in a difficult hour, but the bigger question now is how much of the city was affected and how long cleanup will take.
