If the howling winds and rains weren’t enough to induce sleepus interruptus last night, waking up to power outages and scattered tree limbs this morning may have been a bit of a shock.

A storm blew through Kansas and slapped Butler County around with winds estimated around “50 to 70 miles per hour” in some areas, according to Brad Meyer, El Dorado’s assistant public works director.

Some residents east of town even reported that a small tornado hit their property, damaging houses, downing power lines and tearing up sheds. A total of 120 poles were down and it is estimated to take three to four days before all of the electricity is back on.

Meyer himself couldn’t sleep after his power went out, so he came out about 1 a.m. to begin cleaning up limbs and debris from Central Avenue.

As of this morning, the city was aware of damage to the concession stand at the baseball diamonds, a traffic signal was damaged at Denver and Central, the El Dorado Senior Center had lost some roof shingles and Meyer was replacing trash dumpsters that traveled a block and half from their original locations. There was no estimate yet on the overall damage done.

“With the daylight, we’re just now able to see roofs,” Meyer said.

Meyer said all the streets had been opened up, but with spring cleaning pick-up scheduled for next week, he said it’s unlikely that crews will make the rounds this week to gather limbs, to avoid backtracking. Limb pick-up will begin next Wednesday.

“Citizens need to make sure anything they want us to pick up is out on the curb line,” Meyer said. “That will give them a little over a week.”

Police Chief Tom Boren said his department had been taking calls of stuff blown out in the street and some downed cable lines. The Police Department’s headquarters even suffered a bit of wind damage.

“I don’t know of anything drastic,” Boren said.

As of 8:15 a.m., 782 of Westar Energy’s 21,214 customers served in Butler County were sitting in the dark. All told, approximately 1,950 of the power company’s total customers were blacked out.

Accidents injures two

An accident early Tuesday morning sent two to the hospital, one with life-threatening injuries.

The accident occurred about 1:04 a.m. at 1375 NW 196, according to Butler County Sheriff Craig Murphy.

“A 2006 Chrysler four-door was southbound on 196 and for unknown reasons left the roadway and struck a large tree,” Murphy said.

The weather had turned bad by that time and there is speculation if the wind or hydroplaning was involved.

Robert A. Wilkinson, 21, of Potwin was driving the vehicle, with Holly L. Dreiling, 19, from Hays and a Butler Community College student, as the passenger.

“They had been in Wilkinson’s house in Potwin to watch the basketball game,” Murphy said. “They left the house and he was taking her back to the dorm at Butler.”

They were both wearing their seat belts and there was no indication of alcohol being involved.

Wilkinson was taken to the hospital in critical condition with internal and head injuries. Dreiling suffered several broken bones.