Power outages were reported early Thursday morning after storms blew through the area overnight.
Pottawatomie County authorities say Onaga Road is closed between Highway 24 and Oregon Trail Road this morning due to several downed power lines. That’s led to outages for hundreds of Bluestem Electric Cooperative customers in rural parts of the county. Bluestem General Manager Mike Morton confirmed to KMAN that crews were out early this morning assessing damage.
County officials say crews are evaluating storm damage in the eastern part of the county. Damage has been reported to buildings, outbuildings, power lines and downed tree limbs. Extensive damage has been reported in St. Marys, where a boil water advisory is also in effect for customers located north of Elm Street. City officials have said bottled water is available at the St. Marys fire station.
Strong winds were reported in the area overnight and hail ranging from quarter sized near Rossville to ping pong ball sized hail near Topeka was reported by the National Weather Service. Morton says it appears straight line winds or a small tornado or microburst may have been the reason for the knocked down power lines, but so far nothing has been confirmed by weather officials.
Evergy is also reporting several customers in northeast Kansas are without power including several in Pottawatomie County. An estimate for power restoration is unclear, though officials said power could be out until Friday for some.
