Storm causes widespread power outages

According to Kansas City Power and Light spokesperson Courtney Beatty approximately 1,900 customers lost power during the storm that swept through the area Wednesday evening.

Beatty said, "The majority had their power restored by midnight and the 60 who were left had theirs by 1 a.m."

Beatty didn't have any information about how many lines were affected, she said that information wasn't available.

"The priority would be to restore power," Beatty said. "They would look into what caused the outages after that."

Sheriff Ron Peckman said the initial forecast caused him some concern, but the damage out in the county was less than he first feared.

"It wasn't bad, there were some limbs down and some water over the roads but they were talking about some really high winds and I thought it might be worse," Peckman said.

Western Missouri Dispatch Center director Richard Roark said the phones were busy Wednesday night, with an estimated 35 to 40 calls for service.

"I went in about 9 o'clock to help out," Roark said. "The phones were really ringing. I took about 10 or 12 calls myself."

The Vernon County Ambulance District did not have to make any runs caused by the storm but did check some facilities to make sure critical medical equipment was up and running.

"We didn't have any storm- related runs, but we did check at the Housing Authority to see if any of their residents had equipment problems," director James McKenzie said. "We went to Christian Health Care also. We wanted to check on equipment such as oxygen concentrators and specialized machines like that."