UPDATE: City-County Building Is Currently Without Power and City Offices Are Temporarily Closed

UPDATE: The City-County Building is currently without power and City offices are temporarily closed. Officials are monitoring the situation and will provide updates when power is restored and normal operations resume.

Nearly 49,000 Evergy customers across central Kansas remain without power this morning after a severe storm system swept through the region overnight, leaving behind extensive damage that will take days to repair.

The storm began in Evergy's western territory before tracking east along the interstate corridor, knocking out power to 105,000 customers at its peak. While overnight crews have restored service to more than half of those affected, the scale of infrastructure damage means full restoration is still days away.

Massive Repair Effort Underway

Approximately 450 line workers from across Kansas and neighboring regions departed at 5:00 AM and began arriving in affected areas between 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM. The crews are coming from primary utility partners, multiple district offices, and metro areas to tackle what officials describe as extensive infrastructure damage.

In the hardest-hit areas, including Salina, crews have already identified more than 100 downed poles—a number expected to double as damage assessments continue throughout the day.

Slow Recovery Expected

Repairing snapped poles and downed wires takes significantly longer than typical outage repairs, even with hundreds of workers now on site. Making matters worse, thunderstorms are forecast for today and tomorrow, with a potentially severe storm Thursday that could further delay restoration.

"Progress will be slower than typical outage repairs," utility officials warned.

Major Transmission Lines Damaged

Three major high-voltage transmission lines are out of service. One line alone suffered damage to over 60 poles across approximately 12 miles. Crews are using helicopters and drones to survey the damage and direct repair teams to priority locations.

Many of these large structures are accessible only via rural dirt roads, further complicating repair efforts.

While these transmission line outages affect local cooperatives, most will not directly impact individual customer service. However, they do reduce overall power grid redundancy during the recovery period.

What's Next

As crews complete repairs in less-affected districts, additional line personnel will be redirected to the hardest-hit areas.

Evergy expects to provide another update mid-morning and will continue sharing information as it becomes available.

Customers with emergency issues requiring immediate attention should contact Evergy's customer service line directly to file a report.