Andover

It began with complaints about water that smelled like paint thinner and gasoline.  Now, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment is taking steps to correct a well water contamination problem in Andover. The affected area is the Easter Addition, near E. 21st Street and N. Prairie Creek Rd. Six homes in that neighborhood have been found to be contaminated by benzene or other petroleum related chemicals, state health officials said. A total of 31 homes have been tested since the initial complaint January 5th.  There are still a handful left to test and some test results that are still pending, an official said.

Services for John "Skip" Gallagher, who recently died in a skydiving accident on September 13, will be held tonight and tomorrow at St Vincent de Paul Catholic Church in Andover. The rosary will be at 7 p.m. Friday and the funeral mass will be at 10 a.m. on Saturday September 17th.

Four people are hospitalized, two of them in critical condition, after a semi fire along the Kansas Turnpike just north of the K-96 exit in East Wichita early Tuesday. Troopers say an SUV was pulling another SUV on a trailer when a tire blew, a semi following behind them didn't realize what was happening and crashed into the vehicles.  The semi's fuel tank burstopen, spilling gas everywhere and catching fire. All four victims were in the SUV at the time of the crash.  The semi driver was not hurt.

Andover police arrest a 25-year-old man for child abuse. Chief Michael Keller says a call of the abuse was placed to 911 around 3 o'clock Saturday afternoon. When police arrived in at a mobile home in the 900 block of E. Highway US-54, they found a 2-month old girl unresponsive, with bruises on her face. She was taken to Via Christi on St. Francis is serious condition. On Monday, the child's father was arrested and booked into jail on suspicion of child abuse.

Two decades have passed since the Andover tornado but it's still fresh for some residents there. "I remember it well. It was pretty scary and I remember I couldn't get to my grandmother," said one Andover resident. Since then, Andover has quadrupled in size and that means almost constant re-vision of emergency plans including more tornado sirens. This summer, officials will add two more. They'll go on the edge of town where new houses are going up. "You can hear them out there but we want to make sure they really hear it," said Andover Mayor Ben Lawrence.

Strong winds caused a lot of damage in Andover.  Near 21st and Andover road, several homeowners found trees scattered across their yard.   Julie Huber was watching the storm in her garage with her husband. She says all of a sudden the temperatures dropped about 15 degrees and the winds started swirling.  She says they ran into the basement and waited.  When they came out, the trees that were once in their front yard littered their driveway. The basketball goal was also bent.

Cheryl Hochhalter is the new principal of Andover Central High School. She's stepping into the position currently held by Mark Templin. Templin is retiring at the end of the year. He's has been the principal at the school before it opened and has served the district for 22 years. Hochhalter has been the assistant principal of Andover Central High School since 2007.

Duke Evans remembers the day vividly. "When it went across the plowed field out there you could see all the dust come up," says Duke Evans. In the same place he stood twenty years ago, at Terradyne Country Club, Evans recounts details about the day he shot video of an F-5 tornado that tore through Andover and several other towns. Attending a golf tournament, Evans says he heard people screaming to take cover but as dozens of people ran for safety, he went upstairs.

It's been 20 years, but Tracey Oakley could tell you about it like it was yesterday. "I came out of shelter and there it was, right there. I remember somebody grabbing me and we all went down into the shelter and it was just like 'oh my.'" She lost nearly everything when her mobile home was destroyed on April 26th, 1991. "That's the floor of it," she points out in pictures she brought to a reception at Andover City Hall, marking 20 years since an F5 tornado hit the town.

Thousands of pictures, found after the 1991 Andover tornado, can be claimed on Tuesday at Andovers City Hall. The pictures were found in the streets and as far away as Emporia. "Baby pictures, wedding pictures, moments of their youth that have been captured and they'll never be able to be get them back except for here," explains Andover Mayor Ben Lawrence. City employees and representatives from the historical society spent much of Monday laying the pictures out on tables in the council chambers.