Last updated Thursday, 10:15 a.m.
A line of strong thunderstorms that dumped nearly 10 inches of rain in some parts of Johnson County had mostly moved on as of Thursday morning, leaving flooded roads, downed trees and wet basements in its wake.
Just before 10 a.m. Thursday, Evergy reported more than 6,000 Johnson County customers still without power.
Lenexa and Overland Park appeared to be the hardest hit, with more than 1,700 customers in each of those cities still in the dark Thursday morning.
Evergy reported that more than 52,000 customers lost power at some point in the storm across its coverage area, which extends from Topeka to Kansas City, Missouri.
Where rain fell the most
According to Johnson County’s countywide flood warning system Stormwatch, several areas of the county received 8 inches or more.
Here were the top rainfall totals recorded in Johnson County over the past 24 hours, starting Wednesday:
- 10.80 inches in Lenexa at 87th Lane over Mill Creek
- 9.81 inches in Gardner at the Gardner Lake discharge area
- 9.26 inches in Shawnee at 75th Street and K-7
- 8.63 inches in Gardner at New Century Airport
- 8.47 inches in Olathe at College Boulevard over Mill Creek
- 8.31 inches in Shawnee at Woodland Road over Clear Creek
- 7.69 inches in Shawnee at Shawnee Mission Parkway over Mill Creek
- 7.64 inches in Olathe at the Olathe Lake discharge area
- 7.56 inches in Shawnee at the Tomahawk Hills Golf Course
- 7.21 inches in Olathe at 151st Street and Ridgeview Road
Roads reopening but local services impacted
With gray clouds still in the sky, high water was beginning to recede in Johnson County on Thursday.
Merriam reported that sections of northbound I-35 that had earlier been overrun by water around Lamar Avenue were back open by 6:16 a.m.
Water had also receded along Merriam Drive near downtown Merriam.
Other roads, however, including 61st Street between Knox and Mastin, as well as Knox between 52nd and 55th remained impassable.
In Olathe, officials warned that water from Lake Olathe had spilled over 135th Street, west of Lakeshore Drive, making that road impassable.
Stretches of 103rd Street in Overland Park saw flash flooding early Thursday morning, but Overland Park Police said all roadways in that area were clear by around 8 a.m.
Leawood said city parks and trails were heavily impacted. The city announced Thursday that all city trails were closed due to flooding.
Ironhorse Golf Course and Tomahawk Creek Park were also closed.
The city’s Leawoof Dog Park was also closed and morning swim lessons at the city’s aquatic center were also canceled, though the pool was expected to open by 11:30 a.m.
Original story continues below:
Overnight storms packing gusty winds and torrential rain hammered Johnson County, with more than 10,000 residents waking up Thursday to find their electricity out.
Around 4 a.m., Evergy’s online outage map showed just over 13,200 Johnson County customers were without power. That number had improved slightly to 12,000 outages by 5 a.m.
Automated weather reporting stations across the county reported that 4 to 10.5 inches of rain had fallen since Wednesday evening.
The heaviest rainfall amounts were recorded in Lenexa, at 87th Lane over the Mill Creek streamway.
Other top spots were at Gardner Lake, Shawnee at 75th Street and K-7, New Century Airport and at College Boulevard over Mill Creek in Olathe.
The National Weather Service’s Kansas City field office said early Thursday morning that areas of Kansas City were seeing rainfall rates of 1.5 to 2.5 inches per hour.
Dangerous flash flooding ongoing through the KC area. Seeing hourly rainfall rates of 1.5-2.5 inches per hour. These storms will slowly move southeast this morning with another 1-2″ of rain possible over the next 1-2″ hours.
— NWS Kansas City (@NWSKansasCity) July 17, 2025
Water rescues, high winds
High winds, at times, were also a factor. Just after 11 p.m., a weather reporting station near the New Century AirCenter recorded a 76-mile-per-hour wind gust.
Police and firefighters throughout the county were kept busy through the night with storm-related calls, ranging from alarms and issues with downed trees and power lines to drivers stranded inside their vehicles on flooded roads.
Johnson County Sheriff’s deputies, along with firefighters from Fire District No. 1, rescued at least two people from vehicles that became stranded in quickly rising water near 165th Street and South Clare Road near the New Century Commerce Center shortly before midnight.
Recorded radio traffic indicated that sheriff’s deputies waded into chest-deep water to rescue one panic-stricken driver. At the same time, firefighters used a boat to rescue a second driver.
The water rescues continued into the early morning hours, with at least 10 water rescue calls recorded in just over 80 minutes, between 3:20 and 4:40 a.m.
I-35 shut down in northeastern JoCo
By 4:15 a.m., Turkey Creek in Merriam had crested over Interstate 35, forcing a closure from Lamar Avenue north to Roe Boulevard, just outside of Johnson County.
The city of Merriam said on its Facebook page Thursday morning that multiple major roads were impassable, including I-35 from I-635 to Antioch Road.
Recorded radio traffic from the Kansas Highway Patrol stated that numerous vehicles were stranded in high water on both sides of I-35.
As of 5 a.m., there was no estimated time for the reopening of the highway in that area.
As of Thursday morning, no injuries had been reported in any of the storm-related activity from overnight.
A flood warning remains in effect for Johnson County until 9 a.m. Thursday.
