UPDATE, 10:10 p.m. | Just after 10 p.m., Evergy reported just over 3,000 customer were still without power.
UPDATE, 3:30 p.m. | Evergy says it will receive help from neighboring agencies to restore power to customers across its service territory after heavy snow and high winds blanketed the Kansas City region Tuesday.
Crews from Joplin, Missouri, arrived Tuesday morning. An Evergy spokesperson said additional crews had to wait until the storm cleared their communities before being able to assist Evergy.
The spokesperson says crews from Nebraska will also join efforts to restore power.
As of 3:30 p.m., Evergy says a force of 1,500 strong had restored power to 60,000 customers. Despite the work, more than 21,000 customers remained without power. Nearly 3,000 Evergy customers remained without power Tuesday afternoon in Johnson County, Kansas. Nearly 5,000 customers remained without power in Jackson County, Missouri, and more than 5,500 customers were without power in Ray County, Missouri.
Power outages have ebbed and flowed throughout the day for the Kansas City Board of Public Utilities in Wyandotte County. The BPU reported 715 customers without power, spread across most of the county. Less than 300 Independence Power and Light customers were without power as of 3:30 p.m.
"We prioritize outages to get the greatest number of customers on first," the utility said Tuesday afternoon on its website. "If there are main lines that need repairs, crews will work on those first as they are necessary to get power delivered into neighborhoods."
Poor conditions and low visibility remain factors in hampering restoration efforts.
Also on Tuesday afternoon, the Southwest Power Pool, which coordinates electricity supply among many utility providers across the Midwest, issued Resource Advisory. The advisory is one step above the weather advisory issued earlier Tuesday. The advisory does not require the public to conserve energy, though it does highlight high peak loads possible. The advisory runs from 5 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 14 through midnight on Tuesday, Jan. 16.
EARLIER | Utility crews across Kansas City are working to keep up with power outages after heavy snow moved through the area Tuesday morning.
RELATED | Live weather updates across Kansas City
As of 9:30 a.m., Evergy reported more than 40,000 customers without power across its service territory, which includes portions of central Kansas.
Locally, Mission, Roeland Park and Overland Park were the hardest hit on the Kansas side, with 2,488, 1,327 and 1,269 customers out respectively. The number of customers without power in Mission is roughly 40% of the city, according to Energy’s outage report.
On the Missouri side, 14,079 Evergy customers are without power, with the bulk coming in Kansas City, Missouri, where more than 7,400 customers were without power as of 9 a.m. Raytown was also hit, with more than 2,000 customers without power.
"High winds in excess of 50 miles per hour have been the primary cause of power outages overnight and early Tuesday morning," Evergy said on its website. "All available Evergy crews and contractors are in the field working on outage restoration. Poor conditions and low visibility are factors that are slowing down restoration."
The Kansas City Board of Public Utilities, which provides utility service in Wyandotte County, reported nearly 200 customers without power as of 9:30 a.m., with the outages concentrated in an area between downtown Kansas City, Kansas, on the east and Interstate 635 on the west.
More than 200 Independence Power and Light customers were without power through mid Tuesday morning, with the largest outage reported near South Chrysler Avenue and E. 35th Street South.
There were not any widespread outages reported within the Platte-Clay Electric Cooperative.
Tuesday’s snow storm is the first in a series of winter storms expected to blast through the Midwest this week.
LINK | Weather forecast
Because of the prolonged nature of winter precipitation and cold temperatures, the Southwest Power Pool Tuesday issued a weather advisory running between midnight on Saturday, Jan. 13 through 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 16.
The SPP’s advisory doesn’t call on the public to take any energy conservation measures, but does help to raise awareness to the possibility of “potential threats to reliability” across the area.
LINK | Learn more about SPP advisories
This story is developing and may be updated.
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