One tornado landed just west of Ottawa and chewed a path across the southern side of town, tearing into dozens of homes and businesses.
Some of the worst damage was on South Princeton St., the main business corridor leading into town from I-35.
Shreds of roof, sheet metal bent like rags, and a large steel dumpster from the businesses at 17th and S. Princeton wound up two blocks away in a tree row.
Kolton George was staying at the Knights Inn Motel in Ottawa, and ducked into a basement just before the tornado blew out the hotel’s roof, windows and parts of its walls.
“I was laughing about it, honestly, had a few beers in me,” he said. “Then you walk out, and it’s surreal. You’re like, damn, you’re homeless now.”
He set off in a friend’s pickup to look for another place to stay with just a laundry basket full of soaked clothes and two cans of beer.
Ravi Prajapati was living at the same motel with four family members. They moved from New Orleans five months ago. Their room, 132, has only two walls standing, no windows, and no roof. Like George, they weathered the storm in the hotel basement. It’s not clear what they’ll do next.
“Well, we'll see what we can do,” said Prajapati. “Hopefully, we can move on fast, trying our best.”
The hotel’s owner called contractors to come out and bid on fixing his hotel, but they concluded that most of the Knights Inn Ottawa is unsalvageable.
Ottawa’s risk of more twisters Tuesday night is low — the National Weather Service reports a 2-4% chance of tornadoes in most of the area around Kansas City.
Severe wind and hail are more likely. Most of Missouri has a 15-29% chance of severe wind or hail greater than 1 inch in diameter, dropping to 14% and below in St. Joseph and just west of Leavenworth and Lawrence.
Monday night’s storms brought destruction beyond Ottawa. Another twister damaged at least 50 homes in Hillsdale, Kansas, and the weather service confirmed a tornado touched down in Linn County, Missouri near Blue Mound.
Despite all the destruction, Miami and Franklin County officials report no deaths or even serious injuries.
Tornadoes are capricious. The twister that hit Ottawa tore much of the roof off of a doughnut shop, but three inches from the battered edge, a roofer there to start the repairs found a pristine, bright blue egg. Amid all the splintered power poles, broken glass, and cinder blocks flung here and there, the egg seemed to be where the bird had left it.
“Not the robin egg, the robin egg stayed put,” said roofer Dan Patti. ”Can’t imagine how that works, but pretty impressive."
