Wichita mayor talks ice storm on national television

You know it’s serious when the Weather Channel gets involved in Wichita weather events.

But on Friday, instead of seeing meteorologist Jim Cantore outside the National Weather Service offices by the airport, Weather Channel viewers got a Skyped-in interview with Wichita Mayor Jeff Longwell.

Longwell said the channel contacted his office early Friday morning to do an interview about how Wichita is preparing for the storm.

During the approximately five-minute segment, which aired around noon, Longwell spoke of how Wichita was preparing for the impending ice storm, which a Weather Channel meteorologist said could bring “crippling conditions” to the area.

Just after talking about Westar Energy’s ReliabiliTree program, the Weather Channel cut Longwell off mid-sentence to go to an Alka-Seltzer commercial.

“There is an incredible amount of preparation that has to take place to ensure our city is safe,” Longwell said during the interview. “But more importantly, I can’t stress enough that people need to understand the risk and the hazards in a storm event of this nature. If you don’t need to go out in it, please don’t go out in it.”

To keep up with The Eagle’s running list of event cancellations – or to submit one – click here.

You can catch more Wichita people on television on Saturday by watching the premiere of Wichita-filmed episodes of MSNBC’s “Lockup,” set to air at 9 p.m.

This story was originally published January 13, 2017 at 2:19 PM with the headline "Wichita mayor talks ice storm on national television."