KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The “heavy load” Wednesday caused by extreme heat led to the failure of two Kansas City Board of Public Utilities electrical wires in Kansas City, Kansas, per a BPU spokesperson.
BPU reports the wires were near a substation. Crews are actively working to repair the issue by replacing the wires.
At 5:30 p.m., crews estimated most would have power returned within half an hour.
Earlier this week, KSHB 41 spoke with a BPU representative about how the company handles heat-related outages.
"We’re confident right now that we’re not going to end up with one of those once-in-a-lifetime things, but anything’s possible," said David Mehlhaff, chief communications officer with BPU.
Nevertheless, he explained BPU’s monitoring process in making sure they "have enough load to provide to all of our customers, all our customer classes."
Around 2100 customers remain affected as of 6 p.m., per BPU’s outage map, which can be viewed here.
KSHB 41 Weather reports high temperatures will last throughout the week into the next, with heat indexes in the 100s.
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