OLATHE, Kan. — With high winds expected over the next 24 hours, it's a good idea to prepare your home and bring in or secure items outside.
For one man with a very unique Christmas display out front, it's going to be an interesting challenge.
Paul 'Paulie' Craig created a holiday inflatable wonderland outside every inch of his home in 2003. He calls the display Paulie's Penguin Playground, which he said started as a joke on his wife at the time.
"They had just come out with the inflatables, and I had been kind of a booger to be with around the holidays," Craig said. "I lost my mom in 1999 so I was no fun, and this kind of became the catalyst that was able to bring me out of that funk."
Every year, hundreds of people walk through the display during the day or night. Craig said he loves being able to be a holiday tradition for so many around the metro.
"We have folks come from day cares, nursing homes, all sorts of families," Craig said.
Craig's display has nearly 200 inflatable pieces, which means heavy winds are his worst nightmare.
He plans to take down his 35-foot mega penguin inflatable, which he calls Penguinzilla, Tuesday night with the help of a few others and put it back up sometime Thursday.
As for the other inflatables, he's tied them down as best he can and is hoping for the best.
As Craig works to secure his inflatables, Evergy crews are hard at work preparing too.
Spokesperson Andrew Baker said crews focus heavily on tree trimming around power lines.
Tree-related outages are the number one outage around the country.
Baker wants to remind customers who see a downed power line to assume it's live.
"No person should come within ten feet of a power line, and if a branch or object is in contact with that power line do not attempt to move it, that's crucial," Baker said.
If someone sees a downed power line they should immediately call 911 and then follow up with Evergy.
Any customers who want to report trees around power lines can contact Evergy for crews to come out and assess them.
If customers should experience an outage over the next 24 or 48 hours it can be reported online at evergy.com or they can call in at 1-888-544-4852.
