Thousands without power after thunderstorms pass through KC metro
Power outages are widespread across the Kansas City metro Tuesday morning, impacting over 20,000 customers, after short-lived thunderstorms with lightning, rain and damaging winds passed through the area.
As of 9:30 a.m., just under 5,000 customers were affected by outages in Jackson County, according to an Evergy online outage map. Cass County had more than 6,000 customers affected while Clay and Platte counties combined had a few hundred affected, the map shows.
Across the state line, about 4,200 Johnson County customers were affected by outages. In total, there were more than 250 active outages just before 9 a.m. affecting over 20,000 customers Evergy serves, the map showed.
The outage map says there are delayed restoration times affecting the Kansas City metro region as crews work to restore power.
“Storms rolled through the KC Metro this morning and caused about 20,000 customers to lose power,” said Kaley Bohlen, a spokesperson for Evergy.
“Crews are seeing significant tree damage with the hardest hit areas being the KC Metro on both the Kansas and Missouri side, as well as Belton,” Bohlen said. “We are bringing in crews from other parts of our service area to assist with restoration. Crews will continue to work until all customers are restored, which we expect will be later tonight.”
The strong but brief storms brought flashes of lightning, gusty winds, and downpours. As the storms passed through, the National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm warning for east-central Wyandotte County, northeastern Johnson County, and Jackson County.
Local residents on social media reported downed tree limbs and persistent lightning during the height of the storms activity.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
This story was originally published August 19, 2025 at 9:20 AM.
