After winds ripped through the metro Saturday, knocking down trees and power lines, thousands remain without power.
Harold Lang’s home in Kansas City, Kansas is one of the many still in the dark.
“Two blocks south of here they have the lights on and power. Two blocks north of here they have the power on. This section right here, it’s all out,” he said.
Other neighborhoods, including those in Fairway, Prairie Village and Overland Park also remain divided— some homes have power restored, while others continue to wait.
“We’ll both go out at the same time but [the homes across the street] always comes on before ours,” said Theresa Cochren.
According to both KCP&L and BPU, most of the large outages have been restored. Smaller outages, they say, are more labor-intensive and restore power to a small amount of homes.
The Social Media War Room
KCP&L says more than 1,300 crews will work Monday night into Tuesday morning. This includes dispatchers, lineman, supply room crews and those in the company’s social media "war room."
“This is a way for us to give information when people might not have had it otherwise,” said Chuck Stapley, Vice President of Marketing and Public Affairs for KCP&L.
Since Saturday, half a dozen employees have been online 24/7 responding to customer Tweets, Facebook messages and emails. Sometimes helping crews decide what areas to go to, if there is a public safety issue or a severe medical issue.
“With something like a medical issue or a special needs situation, we put it on a list. We let our operations center know that it exists,” said Stapley.
During a storm, according to Jeff Beeson, the company’s social media manager, the goal is to respond to customers within 30 minutes.
