Thousands without power across Kansas City metro after overnight thunderstorms
Crews are working to restore power for thousands of people across the Kansas City metro Wednesday after thunderstorms and strong winds rolled through the area overnight.
As of Wednesday morning, Evergy reported around 320 outages affecting nearly 9,000 customers across the metro, according to its outage map. The Kansas City, Kansas Board of Public Utilities reported 10 outages impacting 134 customers, and Independence Power and Light reported 10 outages affecting 267 customers.
By Wednesday afternoon, the BPU reported it had five outages, affecting 20 customers, and Independence Power and Light reported one outage affecting 3 customers.
Evergy crews were working to restore power and will first work to restore main lines that impact emergency services or a large amount of customers, the utility said in a statement Tuesday night. Crews began the restoration process as storms continued to move through the area and focused on any outages they could safely reach.
In an update Wednesday afternoon, Evergy said the overnight storms caused about 53,000 customers to lose power, with most outages occurring in the Wichita and Kansas City metro areas. Crews restored power to about 90% of the customers affected.
As of 2:30 p.m., just over 3,100 of its customers remained without power.
Because of the possibility of additional storms, Evergy said making estimates as to when power would be fully restored was challenging. If there are no delays due to storms, Evergy expected all customers in the Wichita area to have power restored by late Wednesday night. The utility expected to restore power to all its customers in the Kansas City area overnight.
Evergy also said it had received reports of children playing or using fireworks in areas near power lines.
“For your safety and the safety of your neighbors, please do not use fireworks near electrical equipment,” the utility said in a message posted to X, formerly known as Twitter. “Please stay at least 30 feet away from any power line and assume it’s energized.”
Report downed power lines online at www.evergy.com/powerlinesafety or call 911 in an emergency. Evergy also provided a link about fireworks and electricity safety.
Evergy said winds reported in its service areas weren’t as high as past storms, but the utility has received photos of downed limbs and trees. Crews are working to clear these obstacles so they can get to repairs.
This story was originally published July 3, 2024 at 7:18 AM.
