SHAWNEE COUNTY—Friday's storm did considerable damage in many areas of central, southern and eastern Kansas and portions of Missouri.
As of 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, 75 percent of customers affected by the Friday afternoon thunderstorms across the Evergy service area have had power restored, according to a social media report from the company.
More than 186,000 Evergy customers lost power as the storm and high winds moved across Kansas and Missouri.
All available Evergy and contract line crews continue to work around the clock to restore power and will do so until power is restored to all customers.
Personnel from neighboring utilities (including from other states) were also in the field with more help continuing to arrive.
Evergy expected outages in the Topeka and Lawrence areas to be restored by Sunday night.
Outages impacting small groups of customers in the Kansas City metro area are expected to continue into early next week. We ask that customers continue to be patient with line crews as they work through these outages to restore power for customers.
Evergy continue to receive reports of trees in power lines, poles and wires down. Significant tree damage is slowing restoration. On nearly all outage events, tree crews must clear debris from the lines before the line crews can make repairs. "Please keep at least 35 feet away from downed lines or debris on lines."