Westar crews and equipment prepare to depart from Topeka Thursday morning on their way to Florida, where they will help restore power outages anticipated by damage from Hurricane Irma.
Westar crews and equipment prepare to depart from Topeka Thursday morning on their way to Florida, where they will help restore power outages anticipated by damage from Hurricane Irma. Westar Energy Courtesy photo
Westar crews and equipment prepare to depart from Topeka Thursday morning on their way to Florida, where they will help restore power outages anticipated by damage from Hurricane Irma. Westar Energy Courtesy photo
Finger on the Weather

Finger on the Weather

Stan Finger has covered Kansas weather for 25 years. Now he's blogging about it.

Finger on the Weather

Westar crews heading to Florida to assist with Irma aftermath

By Stan Finger

sfinger@wichitaeagle.com

September 07, 2017 4:29 PM

Dozens of Westar Energy employees are on their way to Florida as Hurricane Irma bears down on the Sunshine State.

About 40 Westar employees, including line crews and support personnel, left Thursday morning from various locations, according to a statement released by the utility. Florida Power & Light reached out to Westar and other utilities in the region in anticipation of power outages caused by Irma.

Irma was a Category 5 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 175 miles an hour on Thursday morning. It is projected to strike south Florida and then move north just off the east coast of the panhandle.

Stan Finger: 316-268-6437, @StanFinger

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