Staff and wire reports
More than 200 Westar Energy customers in Lyon County were without power this morning according to the company’s Web site following a two-day winter weather event.
Lyon County, however, is lucky compared to other counties that have widespread power outages. Reno and Riley Counties had more than 10,000 customers without power as of 5 a.m. this morning, according to a press release from Westar Energy.
Rick Frevert of Lyon County Emergency Management said he hadn’t heard of widespread power outages in the county.
“There is no debris report...,” Frevert said this morning. “Here in Lyon County we’ve been very lucky.”
Frevert said, however, the county is still not out of the woods.
“If we don’t get wind, we’re OK,” he said. “Until the ice is off these lines we’re going to experience the risk ... the risk is high for damage and power outages until the weight is off these trees. People need to remember to be careful.”
Chip Woods, Lyon County engineer, spoke from his office at 6:15 this morning. He said crews are out and treating hard-surface roads to get ready for morning traffic. Woods said crews removed about 10 to 12 trees from county roadways Tuesday.
“The gravel roads are very slick,” Woods said. “We keep trying to drag them and rough them up a little bit. We came out of this pretty good compared to other areas.”
Kimberly K. Qualls, public affairs manager for District One of the Kansas Department of Transportation, said the main problem on KDOT roads was re-freezing.
“That was not the tough part of the storms,” Qualls said this morning. “It was the ice on the trees and power lines.”
Qualls said the highways should be in good shape today.
“I want to reiterate that drivers should be cautious when traveling out and about,” she said. “For the morning commute, the roads have been treated and they are watching them, but again, some of those spots can freeze back pretty quickly.
Qualls said by Thursday the area should be in good shape.
“We’re on the other side of it, but we still have to wait for the temperatures to warm up,” Qualls said.
Late Tuesday, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius requested federal assistance to help the state recover from the storm.
“Based on the number of power lines and poles reported down so far, and the amount of debris that will need to be cleared, it will be important that we have federal support available to our communities,” Sebelius said in a release. “Our focus at this time is on meeting the immediate needs of Kansans, however, we will further assess the financial impact of the storm in the days ahead.”
Downed tree limbs forced Kansas State University to call off classes Tuesday at its Manhattan and Salina campuses and reschedule final exams.
“We are concerned that tree damage and falling tree limbs could be hazardous for people walking on campus,” said Tom Rawson, the school’s vice president for administration and finance, in a news release.
Numerous school districts also called off classes and all state government offices were closed.
Frevert said Lyon County faired pretty well.
“I don’t even know if we’re going to be able to make the threshold to be eligible for federal dollars,” Frevert added.
louwho (anonymous) says...
I have to say, that is a BEAUTIFUL picture!
December 13, 2007 at 10:19 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )