By Daniel Victor

BY DANIEL VICTOR
The Wichita Eagle

Independence Day was supposed to be a day of fishing and grilling at Cheney Reservoir, but the state park was closed Monday as officials searched for a missing boater and started clearing damage caused by Sunday night’s violent storm.

The missing man’s name has not been released, but Park Ranger Jeff Ostlund said he was 38 years old and from Wichita.

Officials found the man’s capsized boat in about 3 feet of water off the reservoir’s eastern shore, near the area called Refuge Point. The ignition key was on, leading officials to believe the man was in the boat during the storm.

Search dogs examined about a mile of shoreline and nearby wilderness, in hopes that the man was alive but unable to move or summon help.

“There is the potential that he could still be missing and stuck in the debris somewhere, and just can’t get out,” Ostlund said. “The trees in that area are toppled on top of each other like pick-up sticks.”

Park officials originally thought three people were missing, but one man showed up at a gate Monday morning, and the other two on the list turned out to be conflicting reports on the same person - the missing man.

Six other people sustained minor injuries, and three of them were released Monday from Via Christi Regional Medical Center-St. Francis Campus.

Cleanup continued all day Monday, as owners of boats and campers worked to salvage their property and snap pictures of the destruction. Personal property was damaged significantly at perhaps 75 camp sites, Ostlund said, as were at least 50 boats at the east marina.

Roads throughout the park were littered with tree branches. Ostlund estimated that more than 1,000 large trees were damaged in the storm.

It will take park officials a few days to fix broken electrical hookups and water systems, Ostlund said. Sections of the park will open as they are cleaned up, and officials hope to have some campsites available this weekend.

In the meantime, people who have friends or property in the park have been allowed to enter and pick them up.

There were about 30,000 visitors to the park Sunday before the storm, and Schmidt said he had expected as many as 35,000 on July 4, if not for the storm. The 1,900-acre state park is about 20 miles west of Wichita. The reservoir covers more than 9,500 acres.

Witnesses said they saw a tornado touch down on the lake. Emergency officials called the National Weather Service to report a couple of tornadoes in the area, said meteorologist Chris Jakub, including a waterspout going across the lake.

Jakub, who visited the park Monday, said the damage he saw indicated that wind gusts between 80 and 100 mph could have hit the area. An F-1 tornado has wind speeds of 73 to 112 mph.

Winds, hail and rain from this and other holiday weekend storms led Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to declare a state of disaster emergency for eight counties, including Sedgwick, Butler and Reno.

About 1,700 Wichita-area Westar customers lost power Sunday, spokesman Mark Schreiber said. Workers brought that number down to less than 800 by evening, and all residents are expected to have power by this afternoon.

The storm ruined the holiday weekend for many families camping at Cheney; some took shelter in Goddard motels Sunday night.

Tom Schisler, 61, visiting from Grand Island, Neb., was able to evacuate in time but returned Monday morning to find his camper flipped upside down. The inside was a mess of leaves, rainwater, overturned couch cushions and spilled Dr Pepper and Coors Light. An American flag was soaked in the mess.

But Schisler remained in good spirits as his sons began salvaging what they could, such as a sopping-wet sleeping bag. Dealing with the weather is part of the experience of camping, he said.

“Not a whole lot you can do about it,” he said.

At the east marina, three docks holding at least 50 boats were overturned, creating a pile of mostly ruined boats.

Gathered along the banks Monday morning, boat owners swapped stories of destruction and just-misses.

“They found my boat,” Bill Garrison reported to Randy Hardy, whose boats had been docked next to each other.

“Where?” Hardy asked.

“At the bottom of the pile,” Harrison responded.

Hardy’s boat, though, had somehow traveled 300 yards east and landed on rocks. It had only slight damage, and Hardy was able to pull it off and safely sail it away.

Hardy’s good fortune matched the name of his boat: “Hope It Floats.”

Contributing: Dana Strongin of The Eagle

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