Winds gusting up to 107 mph in Lamar, Colorado, have toppled semi-trucks, ripped off roofs, and toppled trees, according to Mayor Kirk Crespin.
“It’s been an interesting day here in Lamar, and a record-breaking day for wind,” he said. “Gusts have caused widespread damage.”
Crespin said that all emergency management workers are operational and working hard to keep the community safe.
“We have tree damage and electrical lines down as well as the internet,” Crespin said. “We are working hard to keep everyone safe.”
Crespin said crews have been out all day trying to clean up the damage caused by the winds as well as repair lines and that they will continue to work throughout the afternoon in the evening.
“We will have a lot of damage to repair when the winds die down,” he said.
Mike Smaldino, public information officer with the Colorado Springs Fire Department, said that sustained winds and gusts have caused significant damage in Colorado Springs.
“Our own fire department roof has partly blown off,” Smaldino said. “Just on my drive into the city, I saw about a dozen semi-trucks toppled over.”
Smaldino said that calls into the fire department have nearly quadrupled in the last three hours. “We are dealing with gas leaks, grass fires from power lines being down as well as smoldering trees.”
A gas leak at the Chapel Hills Mall caused authorities to have to evacuate the mall. According to Smaldino, the leak was stopped, and the air is being cleared.
Several locations, including the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, have reported wind gusts of 100 mph or greater, according to the National Weather Service.
Hurricane-force wind gusts have already been recorded in at least seven states as of 4 p.m. EST.
The high winds are producing dust storm conditions over portions of the Plains. Eastbound Interstate 70 is closed in both directions from the Colorado state line to Russell, Kansas, with sand and dust creating near-zero visibility, according to the Kansas Department of Transportation.
More than 80 million people are under wind alerts from the storm and over 35 million are under high wind warnings, including residents of Denver, Kansas City, Omaha, Des Moines, Minneapolis, Milwaukee and Chicago.
Power outages are expected to increase as the powerful wind field expands and spreads east.
In Colorado, more than 109,000 customers — homes, businesses and organizations — are without power. The outage numbers for other states affected by the bad weather are:
- Kansas, 61,620
- Nebraska, 36,538
- Oklahoma, 18,728
- Missouri, 11,387
- New Mexico, 10,396
At least nine wildfires are burning in northwest and western Oklahoma, according to Oklahoma Emergency Management Public Information Officer Keli Cain.
A red flag warning and a high wind warning are in effect for multiple counties, Cain said.
The largest fire is in Guymon, where there is an evacuation order, according to Cain.
“The other big issue that we have is just simply the high winds. We do have a high wind warning that is in effect for several counties as well up in Northwest, Oklahoma. And then we have a wind advisory that is in effect for most of the rest of the counties in Oklahoma,” she said.
The wind could cause issues with power lines, according to Cain, and some roof damage was reported.
Cain noted that “people need to be especially careful with any activities that could spark a wildfire because winds are very, very high and it can get out of control very quickly.”
CNN’s Raja Razek contributed to this report.