Updated: Monday, 8:45 a.m.
A line of thunderstorms packing gusty winds caused damage to numerous Johnson County neighborhoods late Sunday night, and at least three schools in the area were closed Monday due to the storms’ lingering impacts.
The National Weather Service office in Pleasant Hill, Missouri, issued a severe thunderstorm warning for Johnson County at about 10 p.m. The warning said there was the risk of wind gusts of up to 60 miles per hour and hail up to the size of quarters.
Wind gusts ended up damaging trees throughout the area. Large tree branches crashed down onto several homes’ roofs, and even more fallen tree branches damaged power lines.
Falling trees and branches damaged several homes in Overland Park, Prairie Village, Shawnee and Lenexa, according to recorded radio traffic and social media posts.
On Monday, multiple schools in Johnson County were closed due to the impacts of the storm, including Mill Valley High School in USD 232, where officials said they were investigating a possible gas leak.
There were no immediate reports of storm-related injuries in Johnson County.
Trees, power lines down across Johnson County
A large tree limb fell on power lines at the intersection of Johnson Drive and Long Avenue in Shawnee.
The dangling lines forced the intersection to be closed until Evergy crews could free the lines.
On Monday morning, the city posted on social media site X (formerly Twitter) that Johnson Drive between Rosehill and Long was still closed due to downed trees and power lines. The city added there was no estimated time for when the road would reopen.
A few blocks away, Shawnee firefighters blocked off 61st Street near Rosehill Road due to a severed power line that fell across 61st Street. The still-energized line could be seen steaming and occasionally sparking on the pavement.
A reporter for the Post found a large tree down and blocking more than half of Mission Road, just south of 63rd Street in Prairie Village.
The traffic signals at the intersection were dark, and a temporary stop sign had already been posted.
In Overland Park, along 75th Street just west of Nall Avenue, a city crew was cleaning up a large limb that fell into the Street during the storm.
Up to 93,000 Evergy customers impacted
In a message on its website Monday morning, utility Evergy said at their peak, outages in the Kansas City region impacted roughly 93,000 customers on both sides of the state line.
“Vegetation and line crews are working on power restoration and support teams are assessing damage. Restoration times will be delayed and estimates are not yet available,” Evergy’s message read.
In Johnson County, Evergy’s online outage map showed nearly 30,000 customers were without power shortly before midnight. Just before 9 a.m. Monday, that number had dwindled down to just over 4,000.
Schools forced to closed Monday
On Twitter, USD 232 Superintendent Cory Gibson shared photos of damage on the campus at Mill Valley High in western Shawnee.
Gibson said there would be no classes at the school Monday as crews investigated a suspected gas leak caused by the storm.
No school today, Monday, May 20, 2024 at Mill Valley high school due a suspected gas leak as a result of last night’s storm. pic.twitter.com/Wpp1ru5vOV
— 𝒟𝓇. 𝒞𝑜𝓇𝓎 𝒢𝒾𝒷𝓈𝑜𝓃 (@USD232super) May 20, 2024
Alvie Cater, a district spokesperson, said in an emailed response to questions that “there was an odor of natural gas inside the school” on Monday morning and that crews later identified a gas leak.
“Keeping everyone safe is why we made the call,” Cater said, adding that the gas leak was likely caused by the storm and that Mill Valley would hopefully resume a normal class schedule Tuesday.
Photos shared with the Post by Cater showed damage to the area around Mill Valley’s football stadium, including downed trees, a stop sign and flag pole bent low to the ground, chain-link fencing blown over and roofing material ripped off the concession stand.
Meanwhile, Olathe Public Schools officials confirmed two schools — Prairie Trail Middle and Meadow Lane Elementary — were also closed Monday.
Messages sent to families of both schools said a microburst in the area of College Boulevard and Lone Elm Road on Sunday night brought down power lines and trees near both schools.
As of Monday at the start of the school day, Prairie Trail still was without power, according to the message from Principal Jenna Jones.
While power was on at Meadow Lane Elementary, school officials there said classes were canceled Monday “due to power lines and poles being down both on and near the property.”
The storms also knocked the Kansas City area’s NOAA Weather Radio station offline.
An announcement from the National Weather Service said that the station was off of the air “due to a hardware failure or power outage.”
There was no immediate word on when the weather radio station would be back online.
