KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A.B. May tracked 4,500 calls for service from Thursday through Monday across the Kansas City area.
That is five times more than they would normally get during that time.
Three hundred and fifty of those calls were for frozen or broken pipes, like those at Soiree in the 18th and Vine District.
“At first I thought it was a prank like Twilight Zone. Seeing the video and the water falling, it was just something I have never seen before,” said Kelli Moechoe, the bar manager at Soriee. “It was kind of like is this really happening?”
A pipe broke during the Chiefs game on Saturday, prompting employees and customers to rush to find a way out of the flooded restaurant with below zero temperatures outside.
“It was like a kid’s water park almost,” Moechoe said. “Just definitely just not something that you expect to see in a restaurant.”
Soiree is still working with their insurance company and the city to arrange repairs.
A.B. May expects to be finished catching up on their long list of calls for service next week.
“It was mind boggling when I went back and looked at the stats,” said Shellie O'Dell, contact center manager at A.B. May. “Like how we were even able to do that.”
O’Dell said her team worked to organize calls from the highest priority emergencies, to minor repairs all while they tried to balance the holiday for their plumbers.
“Busiest time of the year to travel,” she said. “Most people want to be on vacation of some sort to be home with their own families, including our plumbers, right? So it’s what I called the perfect storm.”
A.B. May had some advice for homeowners during the next round of winter weather:
- Keep pipes in your exterior walls as warm as possible
- Purchase a generator for your home in case you lose power
- Have a professional audit your home
—
