It took a bit longer than originally thought, however, the Lyon County Sheriff’s department has announced that Kansas Highway 99 at Olpe’s Kansas Street has officially been reopened.
The entire town of Olpe lost power earlier Wednesday following an accident where a car struck a power pole at K-99 around 12:15 pm Wednesday. No injuries were reported due to the accident, however, City Clerk Joyce Wilson tells KVOE News several power lines were down in the area.
While power was restored to the town and its residents around 3 pm, the cleanup of the accident took roughly five hours. The highway officially reopened to traffic around 8:15 pm.
Further details about how the crash developed are still pending.
3:00 pm Wednesday: UPDATE: K-99 to be closed at Olpe’s Kansas Street until possibly 6 pm after outage-causing wreck
Power has been restored for most of Olpe, but cleaning up the cause of the problem could take several hours.
The entire town of around 550 residents lost power around 12:45 pm after a car hit a power pole at Kansas Highway 99 and Kansas Street. No injuries were reported, but Olpe City Clerk Joyce Wilson says the crash brought down a lot of power lines when the pole went down.
The Lyon County Emergency Communication Department says Highway 99 will now be closed, possibly as long as 6 pm, as the cleanup continues. Deputy Jeff Rodriguez says drivers can take Road K-5 or Olpe Lake Road south from K-99 to Road 70 and then go east into town. They can also take Road 75, known as Santa Fe in the city limits, to Iowa Street to get around the work zone.
Further details about how the crash developed are currently pending. About 70 Westar customers in town are still offline.
2:15 pm Wednesday: Crash knocks out Olpe’s power
Olpe is without power Wednesday afternoon, and a car crash is to blame.
A car collided with a power pole at the intersection of Kansas Highway 99 and Kansas Street after 1 pm. The result was an outage for over 320 Westar customers in and due south of Olpe.
City Clerk Joyce Wilson tells KVOE News the crash knocked over the pole and brought down power lines “in all directions.” As many as eight Westar trucks have been on the scene.
No injuries were reported. The early estimate had power returning by 2:30 pm. That is currently being adjusted.
