KANSAS CITY, Mo. — More than 2,000 Evergy employees are working 24/7 to restore power in what an official is calling the largest number of outages for the company in at least the last five years.
As of 11:30 a.m. Saturday, more than 69,000 Evergy customers remained without power following a line of severe storms Friday afternoon that swept through the Kansas City area packing winds between 80 and 100 miles per hour.
Chuck Caisley, Evergy’s senior vice president and chief customer officer, told reporters Saturday morning that while he was hopeful a “big chunk” of customers would be restored Saturday, additional restoration might not be complete until Sunday or the early part of next week.
“This is a big restoration,” Caisley said.
Caisley said that in addition to downed trees, the utility is working to replace hundreds of power poles that were taken out due to the high winds. Caisley said 240,000 customers were without power at various points during the storm, with roughly 186,000 customers without power at the peak.
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To assist in the restoration process, Evergy has requested 1,000 additional personnel from utility companies in Missouri, Iowa and Colorado. Those additional resources are estimated to arrive Saturday afternoon and evening.
Caisley said crews prioritize parts of the electrical grid that represent the “backbone” of the system. Once the backbones and larger outages are restored, crews turn their focus to assessing damage on secondary parts of the grid, and eventually down to smaller and more isolated outages.
An additional pain point in power restoration Friday was that the storm lingered in the area after the initial wind gusts moved through, limiting the ability of crews to assess damage and start repairs.
"Even though the storm happened when it was light outside, we couldn't get out and assess the damage," Caisley said. "By the time the storm left the service territory and it was safe for people to get back up on poles and into trucks and the lightning had moved out, it was it was dark. Restoration just goes a little slower at nighttime because you can't see as much and you just have to be much more cautious about everything that you're doing."
Customers seeking additional information or updates on the outage map can visit Evergy's website.
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