Evergy and incoming partners from neighboring states continue their work to restore power to thousands of customers after storms Friday.
There are about 100 customers in Greenwood County that don’t have power after severe weather rolled across all area counties.
Overall, crews have trimmed the outage number by over 75 percent. There were over 185,000 customers offline at the peak of the storm activity Friday. Less than 60,000 remain offline as of 4 pm Saturday.
Over 1,000 Evergy employees are involved in the power restoration effort, including line work, vegetation removal, safety and general support. Evergy has requested help from utilities in Colorado, Iowa, Missouri and Oklahoma.
6 am Saturday: Power restoration efforts make headway in Greenwood County after Friday’s severe storms
Wind damage and brief heavy rain were the results of storm activity across the KVOE listening area Friday.
Most of the area escaped the wind impact, but Greenwood County initially had over 5,000 Evergy customers offline between 4-6 pm. Crews made headway overnight, with around 300 Evergy customers offline in Greenwood County as of 5:30 am Saturday. Greenwood County Emergency Management Director Levi Vinson says most of the damage is with line and not poles.
Senior Manager of Corporate Communications Gina Penzig says Evergy began marshaling forces as storms began triggering outages along Interstate 70 early in the event. Evergy has company crews out in the field, while other workers are coming from elsewhere.
Penzig says it still could take several days to get everything back to normal.
Storms also brought heavy rainfall rates — and some heavy rain totals — to area locations:
*KVOE studios: 1.1 inches rainfall
*Emporia Municipal Airport: 1.08 inches rainfall
*Sixth and East: 1.4 inches rainfall
*Seventh and Market: 1.6 inches
*Ninth and Arundel: 1.2 inches rainfall
*10th and Weaver: 1.27 inches rainfall
*18th and Briarcliff: 1.58 inches rainfall
*South and Sylvan: 1.6 inches rainfall
*1100 block Constitution: 1.2 inches rainfall
*1700 block Wheeler: 1.5 inches rainfall
*Deerbrook Addition: 1.3 inches rainfall
*Allen: 1.5 inches rainfall
*Americus: 1.4 inches rainfall
*Bushong: 0.78 inches rainfall in under 40 minutes
*Eskridge: 4 inches rainfall in two hours, 1.75-inch hail
*Eureka: 4-6 inch tree limbs and utility lines downed
*Eureka Milliken Airport: 0.77 inches rainfall
*2 miles south of Hamilton: Tree limbs and utility lines downed
*Lyon County Roads 210 and K: 1 inch rainfall
*Olpe: 0.75 inches rainfall
*Reading: 1.75 inches rainfall
*1 mile east of Reading Lake: 1.6 inches rainfall
*Quincy: Tree limbs and utility lines downed
Central Lyon County, including Emporia, and portions of Morris and Wabaunsee counties were in flash flood warnings or urban and small stream flood advisories for much of the afternoon and early evening. No damage has been reported in Lyon County, although the rain’s impact on a crude oil cleanup process underway all week near Roads 300 and D has not been announced.
The hard rainfall also led to an injury crash on Interstate 35 at Emporia’s East US Highway 50 intersection Friday. Lyon County Deputy Nathan Rankin says 22-year-old Jaden Eck of Wichita was northbound on I-35, but storms caused her car to go off the highway and hit a guardrail. Eck was trapped, extricated by Emporia EMS crews and taken to Newman Regional Health with apparently non-life-threatening injuries.
A reported injury crash on the Kansas Turnpike in Osage County, about 30 miles northeast of Emporia, led to no hospital transports.
Large hail was isolated, with golf ball-sized hail reported in Eskridge.
The weekend should have seasonable temperatures, meaning highs in the low- to mid-90s. There is a slight chance of storms by Sunday night.
If you have storm reports or rainfall totals, message the Bluestem Farm and Ranch text line at 620-342-5863. Click here for Friday’s coverage.
