Strong storms hit western Kansas causing mass power outages

WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) - Power crews in western Kansas continue with continued power lines, and thousands are without power throughout the state.

Winter storms have left portions of Rush County without power and impacted some businesses in La Cross. One Kansan who was affected was Sue Wagner, a clerk at an E-Z Mart in Reno County. For nearly an hour Tuesday morning, the convenience store was without power.

Wagner says, “puts a binder in their regular routine as well as ours. The fuel pumps go down, our fountain, everything. Everything went down for cooking and fryer and all that.”

This is the second power outage in La Cross this week, and a similar situation happened for the Green Acre Motel, where they sat in the dark for a portion of the day.

Daniel Robinson, the manager of Green Acre Motel, said, “we were getting like 30 to 40 mile per hour wind gusts, and it was snow and ice on the lines from what I have seen. We lost power the other day due to a blizzard warning, and a transformer blew the other day, so the whole town lost power.”

A few miles east in Bison, crews are still working to restore power and a downed power line. Rush County emergency management is unsure of the number of downed power lines.

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