Most homes have power back after Wednesday's storm

(WICHITA, Kan.) — The power is finally back on for almost everybody in Sedgwick County.  It took crews as far away as Illinois to restore all of the damage.  The storm knocked out power to thousands and many have been sweating it out until now.

"I about drank all of the water out of there," said Tom McDonough.  That's not surprising since the inside of his home is almost as hot as outside.  "It's been a long couple of days," he said.  He lost power during Wednesday night's storm, so he was thrilled to see a small army of electric crews show up Friday.  "Everybody has power but me."

That's right, his neighbors came out of their air conditioning wondering about the commotion.  "How many guys does it take to change a light bulb," joked neighbor Tina Hines.  This job wasn't quite that simple.  The transformer on McDonough's property needed to be replaced.  "I would have gone to a motel," she said.

But he decided to wait it out.  He brought most of the stuff in his deep freeze over to a friends house. The rest of the contents of his refrigerator filled about four coolers.    "We haven't lost anything," he said.  He only lost sleep, it got to 90 degrees in the house over night.  When asked what he would do the minute the power came back on, he said he would turn on the air conditioner.  That finally happened about 40 hours after the storm hit.  The new transformer kicked back on along with the AC.

If you are still without power, Westar Energy wants to hear from you.    Call 1-800 LIGHT KS (544-4857) or report on our website at www.WestarEnergy.com/Outage.

Also, if a customer's meter enclosure, service mast, or weather-head are damaged, they will need to have a licensed electrician make repairs before we will be able to reconnect service.