Severe thunderstorms blow power lines across Kansas interstate, falling trees kill person in Missouriclose
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A truck driver in Kansas was forced to swerve into the median of an interstate after severe fatal thunderstorms left power lines strewn across a major highway Monday.
The Kansas Highway Patrol said that a 15-mile stretch of Interstate 70 was closed between Manhattan and Wamego for several hours after the storms left power lines dangling across the roadway.
KHP Trooper Ben Gardner said on Twitter that the semi-truck swerved in an attempt to miss the downed lines across the highway.
Photos released by the KHP show the vehicle came to a stop just short of the wires.
A semi-truck nearly hit power lines that were knocked down by a severe thunderstorm in Kansas on Monday. (Kansas Highway Patrol)
The storms that impacted Kansas were part of a system moving out of the Central Plains into the mid-Mississippi River Valley. Scattered strong thunderstorms moved across the region from Monday into Monday night.
A semi-truck nearly hit power lines that were knocked down by a severe thunderstorm in Kansas on Monday.
The National Weather Service (NWS) office in Kansas City, Missouri, said a line of thunderstorms had the potential to produce winds of 70 to 80 mph along the Interstate 35 corridor.
Forecasters said that 80 mph winds were reported at the Olathe Johnson County Airport, and there were reports of power lines down. A semi-truck rolled over.
Storm reports on Monday across the Midwest. (Fox News)
Severe thunderstorms that tore through Missouri Monday also were blamed for the death of one person after trees fell on a home.
The Bates County Sheriff's Office told FOX4 the incident was reported around 10:30 a.m.
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Deputies along with the Butler Fire Department, Amsterdam Fire and the Bates County EMS responded to the scene where authorities used chainsaws and a large excavator. Sutton Construction Company of Butler also responded with an excavator to help in rescue efforts, FOX4 reported.
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Officials said the person in the home eventually was found dead. The victim's name has yet to be released.
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Forecasters said the system behind the severe weather in the Midwest will move east, bringing rain and the possibility of snow to inland locations as Arctic air rushes in.
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"The system that brought hail and the damaging winds across portions of the Midwest is on the move, and that's going to bring the potential for showers and thunderstorms for the Appalachians up towards the Northeast," Fox News senior meteorologist Janice Dean said Tuesday on "Fox & Friends."
