KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Sunday morning crews were working in Debra Thomas’s backyard on Spruce Street.
Like many, Thomas lost power early Saturday morning when a tree fell across the power lines behind her house.
"Woke up early Saturday morning, it was raining crazy out and my son — he got up to get ready for work and we heard this big boom,” said Thomas.
“The storms did quite a bit of damage to KCP&L property. Downed power lines and trees in the backyards are always a concern for everybody,” said Corey Miller, senior manager of emergency response with KCP&L.
Thomas said some of the items in her fridge and freezer were going to be tossed in the trash, but besides that, the outage was nothing more than a nuisance.
“It's just something that you do — you learn to do this. This is life. You take each day as it comes and that is just what I do,” said Thomas.
Her neighbor, Janice Mickles, said she feels a bit differently about the situation.
Mickles said her home loses power every time there is a storm.
"We seem to be the first to go out and the last to come back on,” she said.
Both she and her sister depend on electronic medical equipment. Mickles uses a CPAP Machine to help her sleep and her sister needs a medical bed to help her get up into her wheelchair.
"It's been rough... it hasn't been hot so it's not unbearable, but it does make it uncomfortable,” said Mickles.
Mickles said the longest they can go without power is three days. If the power is out any longer than that, Mickles said she will have to move her sister to a place that has electricity.
"We just got her up and put her in her wheelchair so she's going to sit up for a minute and see how she can bear it then, and if not then I am going to have to move her, maybe go over to my dad's house,” said Mickles.
At the peak of the storm there were 90,000 customers without power. On Sunday, there were more than 650 electrical workers spread across the metro.
KCP&L said it hopes to have everyone’s power restored by noon on Monday.
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