Power has been restored to over 300 Evergy customers following a downed power pole Wednesday afternoon.
The outage was first reported shortly after 3 pm affecting customers in Reading, Admire and Miller. According to Evergy District Manager Rolland Trahoon II, the outage was the result of a power pole east of Reading that caught fire and subsequently broke.
According to Trahoon, the pole was broken and hanging when crews arrived. Power was off for over two and a half hours as crews worked to repair the damage.
The cause according to Trahoon was due to a squirrel getting caught in the pole’s conductor leading to the fire which burned the pole in two. The pole has since been replaced, the squirrel was pronounced dead at the scene.
Power was fully restored shortly before 6 pm.
