Overnight thunderstorms caused notable damage to Emporia’s power grid, and repairs were ongoing across town throughout the day as a result.
Westar Energy spokesperson Gina Penzig says at least 15 poles and an unlisted number of lines were downed by storm activity. She says crews have several projects underway to restore power.
Classes were canceled at all three Flint Hills Technical College campus locations in town. College President Dean Hollenbeck says there has been damage at the campus.
Staffers on site say the air intake covers were thrown about 200 yards off the roof of the main building. Hollenbeck tells KVOE News a temporary fix is in place thanks to the work of maintenance staff.
He adds, Modern Air will begin fabricating new covers Thursday and will hopefully have them in place either by Friday or Monday at the latest. operations at all three campuses will return to normal Thursday.
Classes were also canceled at Emporia High School Wednesday. Principal Dathan Fischer:
Emporia High is the location for the district’s Food Service department, which serves thousands of breakfast and lunch meals to students every day. Director Denise Kater says due to the outage they have had to make a few changes to the menu, breakfast will not be affected, however, there will be a slight change to the lunch menu.
There will be no boxed salads prepared and no salad bar at EHS.
All other Emporia schools held classes as scheduled. Kater thanked the members of the foodservice department and EHS custodial staff for their hard work during the outage and Evco for allowing them to store food in their trucks while they wait for refrigeration and freezer units to get back up to temperature.
Word on additional schedule adjustments for EHS is currently pending.
Around 400 Lyon-Coffey customers were offline along and north of US Highway 50 and Interstate 35 from near Neosho Rapids west to Strong City. Lyon-Coffey says those outages were all related to the Westar outages, and those were restored by lunchtime.
Lightning also caused a fire that destroyed a camper in Cottonwood Falls overnight. Chase County Sheriff Rich Dorneker says authorities were dispatched to 615 Main around 1:30 am. The camper was parked near the house, and the fire left parts of three sides standing before it was put out. Nobody was inside.
Thunderstorms also dumped 1.7 inches of rain at the KVOE studios since midnight, and totals ranged from around 0.60 inches to nearly 3 inches of rain — mainly along and north of US Highway 50 and Interstate 35. Showers and storms may redevelop by midnight to sunrise Thursday. TV13 Meteorologist Jeremy Goodwin.
A flash flood watch goes into effect for Lyon, Coffey, Morris, Osage and Wabaunsee counties at 7 pm Wednesday until 10 am Thursday morning. The Weather Service expects 1-3 inches of rain overnight after residents along and north of Interstate 35 and US Highway 50 got similar totals from thunderstorms between midnight and sunrise Wednesday.
We’ll keep you updated on KVOE and KVOE.com. If you have rain totals, call KVOE at 342-1400, email kvoe@kvoe.com or post to Facebook@kvoenews.
1 pm Wednesday: UPDATE: Adjustments, repairs underway at Emporia High, FHTC main campus after overnight storms
Adjustments continue in Emporia after storm activity early Wednesday.
Classes have been canceled at all three Flint Hills Technical College campus locations in town. The main campus is currently without power, and College President Dean Hollenbeck says there has been damage at the campus.
Staffers on site say the air intake covers were thrown about 200 yards off the roof of the main building.
Hollenbeck says college administrators decided to close all three campus buildings, even though the main campus was the only one impacted, because of the logistics involved for students who may take classes at two or all three campus locations.
Classes have also been canceled at Emporia High School. Principal Dathan Fischer:
Emporia High is the location for the district’s Food Service department, which serves thousands of breakfast and lunch meals to students every day. Director Denise Kater says most plans moved along as scheduled — with a few adjustments.
All other Emporia schools are having classes as scheduled. Kater says the district may have to adjust the Thursday menu because the refrigeration and freezer units have to get back to normal temperatures, and that process may take 24 hours.
Over 300 Westar Energy customers lost power in and around Emporia overnight. Initial reports had as many as 10 power poles destroyed, but spokesperson Gina Penzig says that number climbed to 15 as investigations continued. She says crews have several projects underway to restore power.
Around 400 Lyon-Coffey customers were offline along and north of US Highway 50 and Interstate 35 from near Neosho Rapids west to Strong City. Lyon-Coffey says those outages were all related to the Westar outages.
Lightning also caused a fire that destroyed a camper in Cottonwood Falls overnight. Chase County Sheriff Rich Dorneker says authorities were dispatched to 615 Main around 1:30 am. The camper was parked near the house, and the fire left parts of three sides standing before it was put out. Nobody was inside.
Thunderstorms also dumped 1.7 inches of rain at the KVOE studios since midnight. Other totals:
*Emporia Municipal Airport: 0.23 inches
*East Emporia (Tenth and Weaver): 0.60 inches
*North Central Emporia (Emporia Country Club): 2.5 inches
*Northwest Emporia (Twin Lakes Drive): 2.5 inches
*West Emporia (Village Elementary area): 2 inches
*West Emporia (Antler Ridge): 2.7 inches
*West Emporia (Graphic Arts): 2.42 inches
*Allen: 1 inch
*Americus: 1.3 inches
*Lake Kahola: 1.6 inches
*Lyon State Fishing Lake: 2.28 inches
*Plymouth: 1.25 inches
*Reading: 1.6 inches
*Saffordville: 2.91 inches
We’ll keep you updated on KVOE and KVOE.com. If you have rain totals, call KVOE at 342-1400, email kvoe@kvoe.com or post to Facebook@kvoenews.
Click here for KVOE News’ prior coverage Wednesday morning.
Photos by Chuck Samples and Tagan Trahoon/KVOE News
{gallery}Storms KVOE 082119{/gallery}
Photo by Jesse Dains
{gallery}Lightning Jesse Dains 082119{/gallery}
Photo by Chase County Sheriff Rich Dorneker
{gallery}Camper Fire Rich Dorneker 082119{/gallery}
