BonnerSprings.com

The wind was blowing, trees and power lines were falling and trampolines were flying, but Bonner Springs and Edwardsville escaped with only minor damage and some inconvenience after a powerful storm swept through the region last week.

According to Westar Energy, about 100 Bonner Springs residents and 700 to 800 residents outside the city limits were without power Friday morning in the aftermath of the storm.

Erin La Row, communications representative for Westar Energy, said a total of 4,400 Westar customers in the Wyandotte County and Southern Leavenworth County area were affected by the storm.

The majority of customers in Wyandotte County had their power restored by 11 p.m. Friday, La Row said, with the last customers in Bonner Springs getting their power back by 6 a.m. Saturday.

In Edwardsville, a large trampoline at John Eickhoff’s house, 11320 Riverview Ave., was picked up by the wind and blown about 200 yards to the east.

Eickhoff said the trampoline measured 12 feet in diameter and weighed about 700 pounds.

The trampoline, which Eickhoff’s children play on, cost about $700, he said, and is ruined.

“We’re thinking about getting another,” he said. “It’s the third time it’s happened. Usually it just flips over,” Eickhoff said.

Eickhoff’s wasn’t the only trampoline hit by the storm.

“Our trampoline ended up in our neighbor’s little tree,” Bonner Springs Elementary School principal Kim Mitchell said. She lives with her family on 157th Street in Glenwood Estates, Bonner Springs.

“It is dismantled in our side yard and we need to figure out where to dispose of it. It was a large tramp – I am not sure what they cost now,” Mitchell said.

Still, she said, she felt lucky.

“Our neighbor’s shed ended up across the street mangled up,” she said.

One Bonner Springs resident who saw the fury of the storm, which was reported by the National Weather Service in Pleasant Hill, Mo., to have winds reaching as high as 70 mile per hour, was Tom Everley, at 413 Insley Ave.

A tree in Everley’s yard was uprooted and knocked down into his house in the middle of the night. At about 1:30 a.m. he said he heard the loud bang of the tree falling.

The tree knocked off gutters, smashed 30 feet of fence, damaged the roof and knocked off the pipe to the furnace.

Everley said he was waiting for an insurance adjustor to estimate the amount of damage.

Bonner Springs City Clerk Rita Hoag said that a traffic light at Kansas Highway 7 and Interstate 70 was out but had reportedly been repaired. The main concern was the intersection of Emerson and Murphy streets, Hoag said. At that location, poles were knocked over by the wind, as were power lines and tree limbs, Hoag said.

Other than those problems, she said isolated reports of trees being blown down were coming in around the city said overall, the city fared well compared to places that were hit harder, such as Grandview, Mo.

The Bonner Springs Public Works Department was called out about 2 a.m. Friday to help with the cleanup process.

Hoag said that fallen trees on private property were the sole responsibility of the property owners. Trees and limbs cut into pieces 4 feet or shorter and in bundles weighing 75 pounds or less can be left for trash pickup, Hoag said.

Also, burn permits for fallen limbs may be obtained at City Hall.

All of the schools and classes in the USD 204 Bonner Springs/Edwardsville School District were started on time Friday with no reported damage to buildings according to the Board of Education office.

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