KSHB 41 reporter Rachel Henderson covers neighborhoods in Wyandotte and Leavenworth counties. Share your story idea with Rachel.
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Kansas City, Kansas, Public Works crews have been out since late Tuesday night responding to damage from a storm that included a mix of rain, snow and high winds.
The street division is dispatched to whatever area has the worst damage.
“We’re out here and we’re working,” said Lamar Martin Jr., supervisor. “We’re out here preparing ourselves mentally and physically to get our job done.”
Martin’s crews have been working 12-hour shifts since midnight to primarily treat slick spots and clear debris from trees that fell into the road and hit power lines.
When snow falls two inches or higher, that’s when crews plow.
“With the rain and the snow coming at almost the same time, that made things a little bit more intense,” Martin said.
His Philadelphia Eagles hat was fitting as a little birdie gave his department a heads up about weather conditions far in advance.
“We were planning on this three days out,” said Matt May, director of the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas' Emergency Management Department.
Planning is a crucial part of May’s job, not just for weather events.
His department is most known for signaling tornado sirens, something that didn't happen Wednesday.
“It’s too confusing to the public,” May said. “And the state canceled their statewide drill, unfortunately, so we’re going to follow that trend.”
The Emergency Management Department's other alerts are just as crucial to make sure things run smoothly on the streets.
“I contact people that are going to be most impacted, Public Works,” May said.
Using data from the National Weather Service and multi-camera imaging, May can ask the necessary questions when responding to emergency weather.
“What do you need?” May said he asks Public Works. “We make sure we’re all coordinated up. What are you going to do? Well, we’re not going to put product down because it’s just going to get rinsed off by the rain.”
May said it’s not just Public Works employees that help during weather events.
“We use our Parks and Recs guys,” May said. “Everyone who owns a dump truck basically gets to show up for this part.”
Martin said it’s most helpful for drivers to stay out of workers’ way so they can attend to issues as quickly as possible.
“They don’t understand the time we put in, the hours we get up,” Martin said.
A Kansas City Board of Public Utilities spokesperson said customers should expect restoration efforts to be a "multi-day" event.
“Our goal is to restore at least half of the current outages by the end of today," the spokesperson said.
Due to the extent of damage to BPU infrastructure, the spokesperson said some customers may not see full restoration until late afternoon Thursday.
Click here to see current BPU outages.
BPU encourages customers with power restored to check in on their neighbors or anyone needing additional assistance. Those without power can click here for an active list of active warming shelters in the area.
Customers can call 913-573-9522 and leave a message if they want to report an outage.
