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Lawrence residents held their breath Monday night as a storm eerily reminiscent of one that spawned a tornado a year ago bore down on the city.

"It reminded me of last year's to a degree; the weather seemed very similar," said Tracy Tucker, who survived a storm that last year ripped through Aberdeen South apartments and other neighborhoods in southwest Lawrence. "I have a daughter who lives on the other side of town. She called me and told me to keep a lookout. I went up to Tanner's restaurant; I figured it was safer than hanging around here."

No tornado materialized Monday, but heavy rains, high winds and quarter-sized hail left street flooding, power outages and minor damage in the storms' wake. By about 10:30 p.m., nearly 2 inches of rain had fallen.

Twisters did strike elsewhere in northern and eastern Kansas and northwest Missouri, blowing some houses and barns off their foundations and damaging a hospital.

As the storm moved across the Lawrence area, storm spotters saw a rotating wall cloud and tornado warning sirens were sounded in Eudora. But sirens weren't activated in Lawrence.

"We debated," Douglas County Emergency Management Director Paula Phillips said of the decision not to sound the Lawrence sirens. "Especially when they (National Weather Service) issued the warning for northwest Douglas County. But our spotters weren't seeing anything at that point."

About 8:08 p.m., storm spotters reported a rotating wall cloud one mile south of Lawrence.

At 8:12 p.m., radar images indicated a severe thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado, moving east at 25 mph. Tornado warning sirens sounded in Eudora before 8:30 p.m.

The tornado warnings expired shortly before 8:40 p.m.

There were no reports of injury.

"We don't have any reports of damage," Phillips said. "We know there was lightning striking an outbuilding. It was general severe storm stuff."

As the brunt of the storm moved through Lawrence shortly after 8 p.m., about 760 customers in the Old West Lawrence neighborhood -- as well as Lawrence Memorial Hospital -- lost power when transmission equipment was struck by lightning. Power was restored by 9 p.m. to customers in an area roughly bounded on the west by Iowa Street, on the east by Massachusetts Street, and between Sixth and Ninth streets.

From left, Aaron Cowley, Jacklyn Binder and Allison Sourk, residents of the Legends Apartments in the 4100 block of West 24th Street, watch a cloud bank pass the southern part of the city around 8:15 p.m. Monday. Severe weather rolled across the area in waves Monday night, dropping torrential rain and producing hail ranging from pea- to quarter-sized in Douglas County.

Downed power lines were reported in the 1200 block of Pennsylvania Street and elsewhere across the city. Firefighters put out a fire caused by a lightning strike in an outbuilding near 12th Street and Almira Avenue, east of Haskell Avenue.

"Other than that, we've had a few power lines down or arcing," said Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical Battalion Chief Bill Stark. Otherwise, he said, damage from the storms was "nothing spectacular."

Lawrence was to remain under a severe thunderstorm watch until 4 a.m. today, and flash flood watch until 5 a.m. The latest forecasts called for the sun to re-emerge today, with more storms to follow Friday and Saturday.

6News video: Lightning, wind responsible for minor damage (05-24-04)

-- Staff writer Jennifer Byrd, 6News reporter Brooke Wehner, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.