Damage assessment and power restoration efforts continue after prolonged straight-line winds followed by a quick burst of severe thunderstorm activity Wednesday.
Storms began blasting across the KVOE listening area around 4 pm and continued beyond 6 pm, downing tree limbs, entire trees and utility poles — causing numerous power outages areawide. As of 8:30 pm, there were over 4,000 Evergy customers offline, including almost 2,500 in Emporia, over 500 from Strong City to Clements, over 650 from Americus to Allen to Bushong, nearly 80 in Madison and around 100 in Council Grove. Evergy Vice President and Chief Customer Officer Chuck Caisley says the combination of storms and prolonged high wind caused damage on a nearly unprecedented scope for the utility.
With the damage across the company’s territory, Caisley says it will take several days to get the power fully restored.
4 Rivers had Evergy transmission substations serving four of its substations go down, although two have since returned to service. There were also outages on 4 Rivers’ own distribution side. General Manager Dennis Svanes says outages are widespread, although any numbers or concentration points are currently being determined. Numerous poles were downed near the Americus and Thunderbird distribution points.
Numerous power lines are down across Lyon and surrounding counties, and Lyon County Emergency Management Director Jarrod Fell urges residents to stay home if at all possible until the situation can get back to something approaching normal. Fell says it could take several days for energy companies to repair all the damage. Lyon County is also taking an unusual step to point out the trouble spots.
There were several reports of wind damage, including a flagpole snapped at the base in north central Emporia and a shed overturned three miles north of Americus. Part of the Sutherlands overhang protecting the lumber area was also peeled back, but Flinthills Mall Manager Clarence Frye says there is no apparent structural damage. So far, there have been no reports of injuries.
7:45 pm Wednesday: Work ongoing to restore outages/damage following severe storm systems in KVOE listening area Wednesday
Severe thunderstorms brought high winds to the KVOE listening area Wednesday, as expected. They also brought large hail, which wasn’t.
Storms began blasting across the KVOE listening area around 4 pm and continued beyond 6 pm, downing tree limbs, entire trees and utility poles — causing numerous power outages areawide. As of 5:30 pm, there were around 4,000 Evergy customers offline, including almost 3,000 in Emporia, over 500 from Strong City to Clements, over 230 from Americus to Allen and around 100 in Council Grove.
4 Rivers had Evergy transmission substations serving four of its substations go down, although two have since returned to service. There were also outages on 4 Rivers’ own distribution side. General Manager Dennis Svanes says outages are widespread, although any numbers or concentration points are currently being determined.
Numerous power lines are down across Lyon and surrounding counties, and Lyon County Emergency Management Director Jarrod Fell urges residents to stay home if at all possible until the situation can get back to something approaching normal.
There were several reports of wind damage, including a flagpole snapped at the base in north-central Emporia and a shed overturned three miles north of Americus.
Large hail became an issue in and around Emporia as the storms moved through. Tennis ball- to baseball-sized hail was reported near Interstate 35 and Road R-1, with golf ball-sized hail reported at the Fanestil plant on Kansas Highway 99 and near the Interstate 35 Hartford-Neosho Rapids exit. Quarter to half-dollar-sized hail was reported at South and Union, with numerous reports of quarter-sized hail in Emporia and at Lake Kahola.
The heaviest storm-related wind gust was 61 mph at the Emporia Municipal Airport, but winds were high all day and actually high — up to 62 mph — before storms even developed. Those high winds blew two semis down in separate incidents, one on the Kansas Turnpike near the Bazaar cattle pens exit and one on Interstate 35 east of the East Sixth Avenue exit.
Stay with KVOE and KVOE.com for more updates.
