KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The sounds of chainsaws and utility workers joined the usual sounds of a July Saturday this morning.
As of 9:30 a.m., utility crews had worked to reduce the number of customers without power to less than 100,000. At the height of the storm late Friday afternoon, nearly 200,000 customers were without power.
WEATHER | Updated Saturday forecast
Evergy, the area’s largest utility provider, reported 85,000 customers still without power Saturday morning. The Board of Public Utilities in Wyandotte County reported 11,250 customers without power. An additional 1,500 customers remained without power in Independence.
Tree crews begin process of picking up debris left behind from yesterday’s storm: pic.twitter.com/iEB8RzLXX8
— Rae Daniel (@RaeDanielTV) July 15, 2023
Areas hit the hardest included parts of Kansas City, Kansas, parts of Johnson County within the Interstate 435 loop, parts of Kansas City, Missouri, within the I-435 loop and parts of Independence north of Interstate 70 between I-435 and 291 Highway.
RELATED | Residents capture photos, videos of storm damage
Berit Lindboe, who enjoys her morning walks everyday in Brookside, navigated a little bit this morning to avoid tree limbs on the sidewalks and trees that fell on the street.
"I was like 'Oh my,'" Lindboe said. "I've seen a lot of damage while I've been out for this early morning walk, but this one behind me is the by far the most dramatic."
Lindboe's reaction was similar to other neighbors in the area.
"We've never seen anything like this," Colby Dolan said. "It's been really crazy to just kind of walk around and see how our neighbors were affected."
"I've never seen these huge trees uprooted like this," Marsha Dennis said.
Dennis has lived in Brookside the past 40 years.
"The whole neighborhood littered with branches and power outages and it's pretty intense."
Lindboe said she had a feeling it would be a bad storm when her electricity went out.
"I knew we were having some serious issues," she said. "But it is still a shock to see how extensive it is and how serious."
Roads were blocked off near Loose Park due to downed power lines in the street. Some businesses were impacted as well, including Blue Beetle which had damage due to a large tree that fell on parts of it. McLain's Bakery also had to shut its doors this morning because of no power.
Several cities had established storm debris options for residents. Additional information is available on KSHB.com.
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