Crews work to restore power across Kansas City metro after thunderstorm Wednesday

Andrea Klick, Nathan Pilling, Lonyae Coulter
·1 min read

Crews continue working to restore power across the Kansas City metro Wednesday after thunderstorms and strong winds in the early hours left thousands without power.

Evergy reported a peak of about 41,000 customers without power across its service area throughout Kansas and Missouri around 5 a.m. The utility’s most impacted areas included Manhattan, Topeka and the Kansas City metro, including St. Joseph.

By 10:30 a.m., the utility said it restored power for around 80% of customers. In the Topeka area, Evergy said around 12,000 customers lost power and only around 60% have been restored.

Evergy crews and additional contractors are working to restore the remaining outages, but the utility said it can’t provide estimated restoration times because of the wide range of outages across its territory.

The Kansas City Board of Public Utilities serving Kansas City, Kansas, reported eight outages around 12:30 p.m. affecting around 20 customers, according to the utility’s outage map. The Independence Board of Public Utilities reported six outages remaining as of Wednesday afternoon affecting 96 customers.

Thunderstorms early Wednesday caused damage across the Kansas City metro, including a downed tree at West 76th Street and Ward Parkway.
Thunderstorms early Wednesday caused damage across the Kansas City metro, including a downed tree at West 76th Street and Ward Parkway.