Thousands without power across Kansas City metro after overnight thunderstorms

Crews are working to restore power for thousands of people across the Kansas City metro Wednesday after thunderstorms and strong winds rolled through the area overnight.

As of Thursday morning, Evergy reported around 320 outages affecting nearly 9,000 customers across the metro, according to its outage map . The Kansas City, Kansas Board of Public Utilities reported 10 outages impacting 134 customers, and Independence Power and Light reported 10 outages affecting 267 customers.

Evergy crews are working to restore power and will first work to restore main lines that impact emergency services or a large amount of customers, the utility said in a statement Tuesday night. Crews began the restoration process as storms continued to move through the area and focused on any outages they could safely reach.

The utility said its crews are assessing storm damage and determining what aspect of the storm caused the most outages, though lightning appears to have been a major issue.

Evergy said winds reported in its service areas weren’t as high as past storms, but the utility has received photos of downed limbs and trees. Crews are working to clear these obstacles so they can get to repairs.

Evergy encouraged anyone who sees a downed power line to stay at least 30 feet away and report it to evergy.com/powerlinesafety .