By Chance Chamberlain
Many residents in Harrisonville faced power outages Sunday as a severe thunderstorm moved through the area. The National Weather Service reported winds of 50 mph and nearly an inch and a half of rain in Harrisonville.
City crews were busy cleaning up as winds damaged and downed several trees. Bradley Avenue saw major problems due to a tree that fell and damaged an electric circuit. The downed tree destroyed multiple power lines and knocked over two power poles.
Harrisonville Public Information Officer Daniel Barnett said, “Staff received the initial call about a power outage on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. The downed tree caused 750 homes to be without power.
“We had to shut off a second electric circuit to ensure the safety of the electric department linemen who were replacing the power poles. It would not have been safe for those lines to be energized while they put them into place. As a result, an additional 250 homes were without power, but the outage was contained to central and eastern portions of the city,” he said.
Barnett added, “The electric department was able to restore power to both circuits around 9 p.m. There were a few other homes that were not on that circuit that required assistance and the crew finished work for those customers around 11 p.m.”
The damage was not limited to downed electric circuits and fallen limbs in the streets across town. One home was struck by a fallen tree near Eastwood Road and Oakvale Drive, but no injuries were reported to emergency services.
Although Harrisonville sustained damage, the National Weather Service in Pleasant Hill reported no damage in the county. Spencer Mell, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Pleasant Hill, said Harrisonville received more than an inch of rain and sustained winds during the storm surge.
“We sent out a severe thunderstorm warning for the area of Cass County due to high winds and heavy rainfall potentials from the stormfront that moved out of the west. The rain was cool and the front was strong with high winds, so we saw a significant 13-degree temperature change in just 40 minutes,” he said. “The highest winds that were reported in the county were 43 mph and there were no reports of tornadic activity.”
Mell added, “Harrisonville is the first we are hearing of any damage. We have not received any damage reports from anywhere in the county so we are unable to categorize the damage at this time,” he said.