Corey Holloway was just north of Arkansas City Monday when he saw a funnel cloud drop from the sky, spin violently for several seconds and disappear. He has photo evidence of the storm that he snapped with his camera phone.
"My buddy’s got some video of it," the Winfield man says to a group of friends.
Holloway says he doesn’t storm chase, he was heading home and happened to be on U.S. 77 highway when the storm came through.
Storm spotters say the tornado Holloway saw never actually touched down, although it was part of a storm front that did drop two tornadoes down briefly in Sumner County. A twister did hit the ground five miles east Monday, and was part of the same storm.
And with violent weather comes a problem that Cowley County’s trained storm spotters sometimes encounter ? storm enthusiasts, lookey-loos and the just plain curious.
The county’s storm spotters run into the most problem on side roads where traffic congestion is a bigger issue. In some cases, media spotters, freelance spotters, county spotters and the curious jockey for position.
Brian Stone, emergency management director for the county, says that is the problem. County spotters are out in the name of public safety, he says, while others are usually more focused on getting a photo or video of a storm.
Stone suggests people stay off the roads during violent weather and listen to the radio for information.
