VIDEO: The first responders who warned Selden residents after sirens failed during Monday’s tornado saved lives, an official said Tuesday.
A power outage caused the city’s sirens to fail just moments before the tornado hit town. Sheridan County Fire Department Capt. Micah Goscha and two other volunteer firefighters acted as the backup warning, driving around town in two fire trucks and using the PA system and sirens to tell people to take shelter.
Sheridan County officials reported the tornado hit around 6:30 p.m. Monday, tearing off roofs, crumbling the stone and brick walls of downtown buildings, uprooting trees and crushing at least one farm silo. It damaged most of the buildings in the town of 200-plus people in northwest Kansas. The only reported injury was minor, and involved a volunteer firefighter who was out warning people to take cover. Goscha was in a fire truck near downtown when something hit the vehicle. It broke the back window and a side window, causing minor injuries.