By Suzannah Gonzales

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Two people were critically injured and buildings were damaged on Tuesday in southwest Kansas as several tornados and storms hit the U.S. Great Plains, a local official and a meteorologist said on Wednesday.

The two injured people in Ford County, Kansas were brought to a local hospital for treatment and had been released as of Wednesday morning, according to J.D. Gilbert, interim county administrator and spokesman for the county.

As many as six unconfirmed tornados hit an area west of Dodge City, Gilbert said, destroying some homes and a county building with offices and landfill equipment. Farms and ranches were also damaged, he said.

A tornado was also reported in Oklahoma, just west of Tulsa, along with severe storms in the area on Tuesday evening, said Ariel Cohen, meteorologist at the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.

There were also preliminary reports of tornados across northeast Colorado associated with storms late on Tuesday afternoon and early evening, Cohen said.

In addition, severe storms with large hail and damaging winds hit central and eastern Wyoming and as far north as Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Cohen said.

There is risk of intense storms across the Great Plains on Wednesday and increased potential for severe weather heading into Thursday, Cohen said. Isolated storms, large hail and damaging winds are possible primary hazards, he said.

(Reporting by Suzannah Gonzales; Editing by Fiona Ortiz and Meredith Mazzilli)