Joplin city and utility officials address outages, repairs & more in press conference
JOPLIN, Mo. — There’s widespread damage in Joplin after Monday night’s storms.
The Joplin Fire Department pointed to 81 locations generally starting around 32nd St. and Main St. Several reports trace 32nd St. to Connecticut Ave. then those angle northeast near 12th St. and Range Line Rd. and beyond.
They emphasized that no injuries have been reported from this storm. But there are homes and businesses damaged. Trees down and cars damages. There are also crews out dealing with broken gas lines.
Liberty reports losing 50 power poles – they are bringing in regional crews and contractors to tackle repairs.
“Been a short night, we’ve worked really hard to over the night to restore a considerable number of customers. We started out with a peak of 17,000 customers and we’re below 7,000 at this point that are without power,” said Sam McGarrah, Liberty Dir. Planning, Asset Mgmt.
“It is May 2024. This is what happens in the area we choose to call home this time of year. So do everything you can and this is a great opportunity for you to get your family together and say – this is what our plan is going to be. In this part of the world, we’ve got to be prepared for this kind of event,” said Keenan Cortez, Joplin Mayor.
Just getting around is a big challenge – for those crews trying to make repairs.
Also for school buses Tuesday morning, and there have been some traffic signals affected by the power outages as well.
Liberty hopes to have the majority of outages addressed by sunset. Damage assessments continue as authorities try to get a better grasp of the impact.
The National Weather Service is also making its own assessment
