KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It could take a few more days to repair extensive, system-wide damage and outages, an Evergy representative said Thursday afternoon.
Downed trees and power lines wreaked havoc on Evergy's system Wednesday night as a storm bearing winds in excess of 70 mph surged through the Kansas City region and beyond.
At the storm's peak, Evergy had around 190,000 customers without power, according to Jamie Kiely with Evergy.
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The damage was evenly spread throughout the region, Kiely said, and few areas escaped without damage.
By Thursday afternoon, crews had whittled the number of customers without power down to fewer than 40,000.
Kiely said at this point, the needed repairs are more difficult and will take longer.
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He asked customers still without power to be patient, but not to hesitate to call if they see a situation that could be dangerous.
Kiely called Wednesday's storm one of the "most challenging" Evergy has faced in its history.
“There were times the wind was blowing so hard we couldn’t see and just couldn’t set our poles at the time. But as soon as the wind subsided we were ready to go,” Kiely said.
Evergy is working with around 400 line contractors, 300 vegetation contractors and other workers to restore power.
Some tree removal services recommend homeowners use this storm as reason to check trees around their own homes.
Tina Borawski of Eli’s Tree Service helped remove a tree from a home in Shawnee.
“You might want to have a specialist come and check it out or whatever, because you never know. It could cost a lot of damage and a lot of money in the end,” Borawski said.
As of 2:15 p.m. Thursday, the company's outage map showed around 35,000 customers without power. Later Thursday evening, the number of customers without power had dropped to fewer than 25,000.
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