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6,000 Trees, 75 Power Poles, 10 Miles of Cable

A KCP&L crew prepares to replace one of the many power poles felled by a storm in the morning hours of July 11.
Photo courtesy of Kansas City Power and Light Co.
A KCP&L crew prepares to replace one of the many power poles felled by a storm in the morning hours of July 11.

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kcur/local-kcur-913144.mp3

Kansas City, MO – Kansas City Power and Light gave its final report Thursday on the weekend storm that devastated parts of Ruskin Heights and Hickman Mills.

KCP&L vice-president Bill Herdegen said 85 percent of power outages were restored within 24 hours, and all within 72, which he said was good considering the extent of the damage.

Herdegen said KCP&L had to clear debris from about 6,000 damaged trees, replace more than 65 poles amd replace and over 47,000 feet of cable. "That's about nine or ten miles of cable,"he said.

Herdegen said climatologists identified the problem as a microburst, adding that with its intensity, the heavy rain and the amount of debris kicked up it would have looked a lot like a tornado, especially to untrained observers.

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