KSHB 41 reporter Isabella Ledonne reports on stories in Overland Park, Johnson County and topics about government accountability. She met with Ottawa neighbors following the April EF2 tornado and followed up on the recovery efforts. Share your story idea with Isabella.
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Across Ottawa, Kansas, pieces of the April 13 tornado remain. Buildings like the Knights Inn on Main Street are still in shambles, and those who lived through it are still recovering.
A month later, federal officials are questioning whether there should have been more warning for the Ottawa tornado and the others that have ripped through Kansas during this storm season.
KSHB 41 News first met Barry and Eileen Spickler a day after the Ottawa tornado. They sheltered in place at a community meeting at Hope House, just around the corner from Knights Inn.
"I think back on it, and it was just absolutely surreal," Eileen Spickler said. "We heard this pop, then glass shatter, and the door swung open. It was terrifying."
The tornado injured at least three people and destroyed multiple homes and businesses. Thankfully, no deaths were reported.
"I lived through breast cancer and a house fire," Spickler said. "I've never been as scared as I was in that tornado."
Barry's work car was totaled in the parking lot of Hope House. The tornado blew out the windows.
"We got outside, and it looked like a war zone. I had never seen anything like that kind of devastation," Barry Spickler said. "It's been hard."
The tornado left the Spicklers with mental scars and questions about the National Weather Service's warning, or lack thereof.
"You normally have time to at least take some kind of shelter," Eileen Spickler said. "We had maybe five minutes, if we were lucky."
Following the Ottawa tornado, NBC News reported that many NWS forecasting offices, including those in Kansas, didn't launch routine weather balloons the morning of the tornado.
"Public health and safety are not optional expenditures," Barry Spickler said.
That prompted U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids (D- 3rd District) to send the NWS a letter demanding answers about the consistency of launching weather balloons.
Rep. Davids sent her letter on April 22, demanding a response within 30 days, but the agency has not yet replied.
"They have failed to respond," Rep. Davids said. "Which is frankly an unacceptable lack of response from the people that all of us depend on for safety."
The scrutiny comes after the NWS faced significant staffing cuts last year in a massive round of expenditure reductions by DOGE and the Trump Administration.
"If [the NWS] needs resources, if there is something that needs to be done from a legislative standpoint, then tell us so we can actually address it," Rep. Davids said. "This is not about trying to point fingers or get people in trouble. This is about keeping people safe."
But so far, the NWS has not responded to Rep. Davids' demands.
A spokesperson responded to KSHB 41 News' request for comment with a statement.
"We have received Rep. Davids' letter and will respond directly," Erica Grow Cei said. "I can confirm that Kansas has two NWS weather balloon launch sites, one in Dodge City and one in Topeka. Both sites have been and continue to launch balloons twice daily. NWS policy allows for balloon launches twice daily at any of four times of day (00,06,12,18 Zulu time)."
But for the lives devastated by the tornado, transparency is the support they need now.
"I can ask all the questions I want, but the damage that has been done is done," Spickler said. "What has happened on the national level is directly impacting our lives and the lives of people around us."
A GoFundMe link to help the Spicklers recover from the tornado can be found here.
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