Evergy has restored power to 97 percent of customers impacted by a severe storm in Wichita, Kansas.
Evergy expects to have power restored to nearly all customers soon. Wichita restoration was completed, but an additional weather moving into the city caused new outages leading to about 3,500 customers without power, out of which 1,800 are from the previous storm.
Mutual assistance crews in Kansas City will continue to assist with restoration. In addition to Evergy crews, there are nearly 900 workers from Joplin-based Liberty Utilities and Alliant Energy, which serves Iowa and Wisconsin, as well as additional local and regional contractors working in the field.
The storm moved through the Evergy service area, bringing straight line winds of 70 mph to the Kansas City metro area, including a downburst south of the I-70 corridor for almost 10 minutes. More than 140,000 customers lost power over the course of the storm.
Evergy restored power to more than 100,000 customers in less than 24 hours.
Restoration in some areas will run longer due to the severity of damage. A majority of the outages from the storm were due to the significant wind. Many poles and down lines were required to be repaired or replaced. Tree damage and debris are being cleared from many worksites to allow power crews to restore service.
