KANSAS CITY, Mo. — From the ground, to the roads and to the skies, high winds can impact everyone.
With strong winds in the forecast for Wednesday, city and state officials encourage everyone to be weather aware and take precautions to protect their property.
The Independence Power and Light Department says it will monitor the situation and have standby crews and a tree service ready to be coordinated as needed.
The Kansas City, Kansas, Board of Public Utilities says it plans to handle the wind just like any other storm.
They say when it hits 45-50 MPH it can damage trees and powerlines.
The good news is because the storm is on a weekday, everyone will be at work and can get out faster to fix the damage that may have happened.
KSHB 41 News found people buttoning down their holiday decorations.
Christian Taylor is no stranger to downed trees, but he says this storm is about preparation.
“There’s a lot of planning and I think most people from the midwest know the weather can be unpredictable,” he said.
Evergy officials say the company is also prepared for the storm.
“If we do see that 60 MPH wind tomorrow, it is possible that we could see wind caused outages,” Andrew Baker, a spokesperson with Evergy said. “We do have crews ready to go if that is the event, but that’s a high number where the potential is there.”
John Ohrazda, the manager of the city of Lee’s Summit Airport, plans to keep a close eye on the weather over Lee’s Summit.
“I’ve been looking at hourly forecasts of what it’s going to be tomorrow,” he said. “My biggest concern is if there are very high winds, we are probably going to have power outages, if we have very high winds.”
The Missouri Highway Patrol and the Missouri Department of Transportation remind drivers to be on alert.
MoDOT says at 45 MPH, winds can push your car into the next lane and it's best to have two hands on the wheel.
