How to deal with the grit, dust and mess Wichita storms leave behind, what the local records say, and which jobs belong to a restoration company rather than a house cleaner.
The Wichita area has a real storm record. A 102 mph gust at the airport in June 2025 set an all time local mark, a slow storm in April 2026 dropped hail across the metro, and an F4 tornado hit Haysville on May 3, 1999. Most storms do far less, but even a passing one can leave grit on sills, muddy floors and a refrigerator full of doubtful food after an outage.
This guide is about ordinary cleanup in a house that is still sound. It is not about repairs. TotalCare Cleaning will not do restoration work, and this page explains where that line sits and how to plan around it.
On June 17, 2025, storms produced a 102 mph gust at the Wichita airport, the strongest ever recorded there, and around 85,000 Sedgwick County residents were left without power. On April 25, 2026, a slow storm tracked across the metro with numerous reports of quarter to golf ball size hail.
Winter belongs on the list too. The National Weather Service ranks the December 10 to 11, 2007 ice storm, with 1 to 2 inch ice across nearly all of Kansas and about 260,000 people without power, as the worst in state history. So storm preparation here is not limited to one part of the calendar.
Tornadoes shaped the area as well. The May 3, 1999 F4 tornado tore through the original platted area of Haysville, leaving only the bank vault standing there. And since Derby ended its public storm shelter program in early 2022, the city asks residents to plan to shelter in place during tornado warnings, so a clear basement or interior room is more than a tidiness issue in that town.
The cleaning job most worth doing before a storm is one people rarely think of. A basement, storm room or interior closet that has become storage is hard to use on short notice. Clear a path, sweep the floor, and shake out any rugs or bedding kept there. Keep shoes with hard soles, a flashlight and a battery radio somewhere easy to reach.
If you live in Derby, where the city asks residents to shelter in place, this matters more. Everyone in the house should know the spot. Check that nothing heavy is stored on shelves directly above the place you plan to sit.
First, look for safety problems. Check for broken glass, roof damage and wet ceilings before anything else. If glass broke inside, wear shoes and gloves and pick up the large pieces first, then vacuum and damp wipe, since small shards travel farther than you expect.
If the house is sound, the mess is mostly fine grit forced in around windows and doors, plus mud from the cleanup outside. Wipe window tracks and sills with a damp cloth before vacuuming, so dust does not spread. Set a mat at the door you will be using most. With May and June the wettest months at about five inches each, many cleanups happen while the ground is still soaked, so mud may keep coming for days.
A long outage turns into a kitchen job. If power was out for a long stretch, throw out perishable food you are unsure about, then wipe the shelves of the refrigerator with a mild soap and water. Dry it before restarting. Note that a Moving Clean is the only service that includes inside the refrigerator, and it is meant for empty homes, so this particular cleanup usually falls to the household.
During an ice storm or a summer outage, the house can also go without heat or air conditioning for days. In the July heat, with a normal high of 92.6 degrees, closed rooms get stale quickly. Once power is back, wipe bathroom surfaces, run the fans and change the air filter if it took in dust.
House cleaners, including TotalCare Cleaning, will not do storm restoration. Standing water, wet drywall, mold, sewage backup, broken structural parts and storm debris are all out of scope, and they need a qualified restoration company. Call your insurer first if you plan to claim, since they may want photos before anything is moved.
Once repairs are finished, a One-Time Deep Clean can be a sensible last step, because it deals with fine dust on baseboards, blinds, window tracks and vents. Let the contractors finish and remove their own materials first, since cleaners will not haul debris or construction waste.
The questions Wichita homeowners ask most often about this topic, answered plainly.
TotalCare Cleaning will service Wichita and surrounding areas with background-checked cleaners and is insured up to $1 million. Re-clean guarantee: if we missed something, tell us by the end of the next day and we come back to fix it. Beyond Clean. TotalCare.
