Thousands lose power, downed lines block I-235 near Central after storm
Both directions of I-235 near Central are closed after a storm Thursday afternoon brought down power lines across multiple lanes of the highway in west Wichita.
Traffic across the lanes has been brought to a crawl as motorists are rerouted or stopped, with KanDrive footage showing signage along the interstate warning drivers of delays.
Additionally, Evergy is reporting that more than 7,200 customers are without power. Most of the outages are being reported in the north part of the city between El Pueblo and Wichita Heights neighborhoods. Evergy estimates power will be restored around 2:45 p.m.
According to police scanner traffic, which is based on preliminary information and subject to change, first responders relayed that Evergy said it will take at least until 2:15 p.m. to move the lines off the roadway and restore the flow of traffic there.
Several other reports were made Thursday afternoon of downed power lines and outages across the city, primarily affecting west Wichita.
