KSHB 41 reporter Rachel Henderson covers issues in Wyandotte and Leavenworth counties. Send Rachel a story idea.
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Thousands of area residents are dealing with the aftermath of severe weather Wednesday night into Thursday morning.
Evergy’s outage map Thursday evening showed about 1,000 active outages and under 11,000 total customers without power.
That a big drop from more than 100,000 customers without power during and after the storm.
From the front, you’d never guess Cindy Wilson’s property along West 101st street in KCMO saw any storm damage, but in the backyard, a large tree that snapped overnight fell directly onto power lines.
“This was a perfectly healthy tree and we couldn’t find any reason to get rid of it," Wilson said. "We just couldn’t do it and so this is what happened."
She and her husband were in the living room of their home when the storm caught their attention Wednesday night.
“All of a sudden, there was this huge ‘thump,’ and you could tell that something that really big came down outside," Wilson said. "So it was just that quick."
Kara Berger said she felt that same instantaneous feeling while she was at her husband’s softball game Wednesday night in Lawrence.
“It truly came out of nowhere and went from zero to insanity very, very, very quickly,” said Berger said. “All of a sudden, I look over to my right and I see almost like a dust devil, like spurring up, and you just see all of it come at us from our right side.”
Berger says everyone she was with ran as quickly as they could back to their cars, but running against the wind wasn’t easy. Still, she had time to shoot video.
“I took time to capture it because it was such a surreal experience, and I’ve lived in Kansas my whole life and I’ve never, never had anything like that happen to where it truly seemed like it came out of nowhere,” Berger said. “The dirt and the dust and the little gravel didn’t feel great to get pelted with. It was an exfoliating treatment I didn’t realize I was going to get.”
Berger says there wasn’t much damage other than debris left on her property she found once she made it home.
Cartwright Tree Care crews have seen a wide range of damage since 4 a.m. Thursday.
“The calls came before we even opened the doors, and our office opens at eight, so the calls have been coming and they’re all over the place from Harrisonville, Kansas City, Kansas to Blue Springs,” said Cheryl Cartwright, owner of Cartwright Tree Care.
One of her crews made it to Wilson's home around 1:00 p.m.
Cartwright says she didn’t expect this round of storms to be as severe as it was and she’s hoping both tree companies and homeowners alike can see some relief soon.
“We’re all tired,” she said. “Homeowners are tired, tree companies are tired, like this has been going on since May.”
Cartwright does have advice for homeowners.
“We do the best we can from the ground, but having your trees trimmed on a regular basis does help them weather the storms,” Cartwright said.
Wilson’s advice for homeowners like her is to look on the bright side.
“We feel kind of lucky that, you know, there’s lines all over the place,” Wilson said. “They could have really done a whole lot more damage than it did, and it didn’t hit the house and we’re okay, so you know, these things happen when you own a home.”