Ten years ago today- our region was affected by one of the worst ice storms in recorded history.
The following is a diary of sorts that I wrote during and updated in the several weeks after this devastating storm:
A MILLION WITHOUT POWER AS
HISTORIC ICE STORM HITS KANSAS CITY
Starting
January 29 and ending near midnight on January 31, 2002, KANSAS CITY, MO. and
much of it's 50-mile radius "MetroRegion" was struck by the worst ice
storm in recorded history.
The weight of up to three inches of freezing
rain and sleet brought down trees, limbs, power and other utility lines. In
KC,MO. alone, more than "500,000" trees were reported damaged or
destroyed.
· KC,MO. remained under an officially-declared
state of emergency from late Wednesday January 30 through Friday, February 1.
Other areas and
cities also declaring states of emergency were
JOHNSON and WYANDOTTE Counties in KS. as well as the MO. suburbs of
GLADSTONE, LIBERTY, RAYTOWN and LEE'S SUMMIT.
· At least a million people were without
electrical power during the height of the storm late Wednesday through
Thursday.
· Three are confirmed dead ... two from carbon
monoxide poisoning, one dead after being struck by a falling tree limb. At
least five dozen people were overcome by inhalation of carbon monoxide fumes.
More than one hundred people were treated for
other storm-related injuries including falling trees, falling ice, falls on the
ice, fires and other accidents.
WEDNESDAY
AFTERNOON 1-1/2 INCH ICE
Vast areas of
the KC METRO go dark from the storm. Reports from power companies affected in
the MetroRegion ... including TOPEKA, LAWRENCE & ST. JOSEPH ... put the
total estimated number of individually-billed customers without electricity at
more than 500,000.
That figure would affect more than half of the
total MetroRegion population of around 2 million.
Thursday evening, KCP&L officials report
"as many as 350,000 customers" or "around 750,000 people"
lost power.
Tallies from other area power companies ... MO.
Public Service, KCK's BPU, INDEPENDENCE Power & Light and KP&L add up
to more than 175,000 of their customers who lost power during the height of the
storm.
Many power,
phone and cable providers said complete repairs to their systems "could
take a week, maybe more." Assisting crews from "a 20-state area"
were sent to the KC METRO, and to other hard-hit areas of northern, central and
western MO as well as eastern KS..
By the following Sunday, an estimated 325
out-of-town crews were assisting in both utility repairs and tree limb removal.
That number would grow to near 500 crews by the next week.
In the
immediate KC METRO, major damage to utility systems was reported in the MO
suburbs of INDEPENDENCE, RAYTOWN, GLADSTONE LIBERTY, BELTON and GRANDVIEW as
well as older sections of LEE'S SUMMIT and BLUE SPRINGS.
Much the same was reported in parts of KC,KS.
and the suburbs of northeast JOHNSON County; WESTWOOD, FAIRWAY, MISSION & MISSION HILLS, PRAIRIE VILLAGE, LEAWOOD, OVERLAND PARK and SHAWNEE. Older
sections of OLATHE and LENEXA were also hard hit.
In four-county
KC, MO., the damage to the urban forest
was immense. From The Northland south and east to Northeast and the East Side.
From the West Side, Midtown, Plaza and Brookside south and east through the
Eastwood Hills, Loma Vista and Ruskin areas, the KC STAR reported as many as
20,000 street blockages by fallen trees, limbs and power lines.
Kansas City
officials estimate around 60% ... or 500.000 ... of the city's trees were
damaged or destroyed by the storm. Front
and back yards of houses with trees were littered with small to major limbs.
Many heavy limbs took down utility lines, but a
number also fell on sheds, cars and houses. The roof of a Metro commercial
building collapsed Thursday afternoon from the weight of the ice.
PUBLIC SAFETY AND HEALTH SYSTEMS OVERWHELMED
Strapped area
police, fire and EMS services reported hundreds of calls for medical
assistance. MetroRegion hospitals reported full emergency rooms from early
Thursday into the weekend.
Saturday, four hospitals ... one in JOHNSON
County KS and three in KC,MO. were turning away patients transported by
ambulances due to overloaded emergency rooms.
Thursday
brought the first death associated with the storm. CASS County authorities
report a 41-year-old HARRISONVILLE man ... Christopher D. Moles ... died as a result of inhalation of carbon
monoxide fumes from a running gas generator in his garage. His wife and a
helping neighbor were also hospitalized.
Friday night,
the KC,MO Health Dept., an agency mobilized in the emergency, reported
"one" KC woman dead,
"31" total victims of carbon monoxide inhalation. Also, a
couple in their JOHNSON County home were also reported severely overcome by CO
fumes from a running generator in their garage.
Sunday, a
LEE'S SUMMIT, MO man was found dead under a fallen tree limb on Hamblen Road.
Up to two-dozen people were reported to be injured by falling ice and ice-laden
limbs.
Wednesday night, three young persons received
minor injuries when a falling tree glanced off of them. Also Wednesday, a K.U. Med Center 26-year-old
security police officer was struck and pinned at the waist by a falling tree in
a parking lot while on duty. His injuries were reported as
non-life-threatening.
By the weekend
after the ice storm, hospitals report more than 100 patients who had fallen on
ice-covered walkways. By late Saturday, there had been about a dozen persons
Metro-wide that have reportedly suffered from cold exposure.
There were a few electrocutions reported ...
one was Wednesday ... a power company
employee who was working on ice-damaged power lines.
There have also been a considerable number of
persons needing assistance with powerless home medical equipment. Injuries from
car accidents were surprisingly few.
Fires also
caused non life-threatening injury to at least three persons. More than two
dozen structure fires from early Wednesday to early Saturday have caused
hundreds of thousands of dollars damage.
From late Wednesday morning until early morning
Friday, MetroRegion fire department units dispatched call after call, many of
those for downed live power lines. Many of the fires in residences had an
electrical cause ... a number the result of power surges from shorting
lines.
Late
Wednesday, the KC,MO Fire department had "six" reserve fire companies
in service "running numerous calls, " said Chief fire dispatcher
Phillip Wall. Wall also stated that the
department was "making all pumper companies 4" person crews instead
of the usual three. "Ten" dispatchers were on duty by 7 PM Wednesday,
up from the normal "4," Wall said.
At one point late Wednesday night, KC, MO.Fire
had "six structure fires working at once" according to dispatcher Bob
Carlson.
In a seven minute period around
12:30 AM Thursday morning, KC,MO fire dispatchers put out a multiple-company
response regular-alarm a minute.
Around 9 PM Wednesday night, water pressure was
greatly reduced in south portions of KC,MO. when power was lost to two key
pumping stations.
Fire department water tanker trucks from SOUTH METRO in
RAYMORE and BELTON, MO stood by in KC,MO fire stations until pressure was
restored just after midnight.
In a 12-hour
period, the fire department dispatchers had received "nearly 1,200
calls" for emergency service. That figure is only 200 calls short of an
average total for a month.
Not counting
inter-departmental and non-emergency/inquiry radio and phone calls, an average
of 100 calls per hour for emergency help were dispatched and eventually
resolved.
Requests for
fire department help became so numerous that from late Wednesday to late
Thursday, the Fire department would only run on fire or carbon monoxide calls
... all strictly medical runs were turned over to M.A.S.T. paramedic crews.
Suburban
JOHNSON County KS. fire departments also added reserve companies to handle the
onslaught of emergency calls. From 7 PM
Wednesday to 7 AM Thursday, JoCo
emergency services dispatchers processed over 420 calls for service.
Many area
departments had to ask for outside help ... from 100 miles away, a Neosho, MO.
unit came to HARRISONVILLE in CASS County MO. to help with badly-needed
resources on Thursday.
HARRISONVILLE was hit particularly hard
Wednesday afternoon. That 15,000 population county seat had three working
structure fires and around a dozen calls for wires arcing or burning.
HARRISONVILLE normally has one structure fire a month and a dozen calls a week.
Late Thursday, KC,MO.'s Fire Chief Richard
"Smoky" Dyer stated in a news conference that "the threat of
(structure) fires is ten times greater than normal."
Fortunately,
temperatures stayed warm enough that ice-coated roadways did not become a
serious problem for either public emergency agencies or motorists.
Freeways and main arterials stayed mostly wet
to slushy and many residential streets not blocked by tree debris were plowed
and treated at least once.
Municipalities
and emergency assistance organizations like the Red Cross had set up many
shelters around the MetroRegion for any of the potential million people
rendered heat-less or otherwise homeless by the ice storm.
The KC STAR reported that around 650 people
stayed in Red Cross-operated shelters by Friday night. Ten times that number
and more stayed in other shelters, hotels,
motels, or with family and friends with power.
Precipitation
finally came to an end in most of the KC MetroRegion around midnight Friday
morning.
THE AFTERMATH
Sunshine and
low 30's temperatures Friday did some melting.
A 300-foot radio tower collapsed from the weight of ice in PITTSBURG,
KS.. No one was injured by the collapse, but three radio stations using the
tower were knocked off the air.
FRIDAY
MORNING, FEBRUARY 1, 2002
By Saturday,
temperatures had reached near 40 degrees as ice continued to melt and fall off
of trees, power lines, structures and towers. KC, MO. Police closed streets and
evacuated homes and businesses around the landmark KCTV-5 tower at 31st & Grand because of large falling chunks of ice.
Late Saturday
the first weekend after the storm, KCP&L estimated the number of those
still without power at just over 70,000 ... about 120,000 still powerless
Metro-wide.
Sunday, most
of the ice had melted from all but spots on the ground as temperatures rose
into the upper 40's.
The cost to
businesses could be considerable. Thousands of businesses lost power for at
least a short time, a yet-unknown number were shut down for up to three days
because of no power or employees unable to get to work.
Utility
companies not only suffered considerable system damage, those companies such as
cable television and telephone that
charge a flat monthly rate for service will lose considerable sums of revenue
in bill adjustments to tens of thousands of customers who lost service.
Late Monday
night ... almost 96 hours since the end of The Great Ice Storm of 2002, area
power companies reported a total of about 75,000 customers still without
electricity. Many of those out were among the estimated 48,000 KCP&L and
14,500 MoPUB customers.
Wednesday
February 6, exactly a week after the storm was in high gear, President Bush
declares those MO. and KS. counties that applied federal disaster areas.
Power was still out to an estimated 25,000
customers of the various electric utilities in the KC Metro. Some customers
were getting so irate that security guards were having to be sent with some
repair crews.
A KCP&L spokesman Tom Robinson stated their company had
"430 out-of-state" crews working in the area and a few more were
"being called from the ST. LOUIS area."
Municipalities
were also getting a handle on what the storm would empty from their coffers.
Combined totals in JACKSON County MO. were around $34 million. KC,MO. estimate
was approaching $20 million, INDEPENDENCE officials said $7 million, RAYTOWN
reported a figure of nearly $3 million.
Combined totals in JOHNSON and WYANDOTTE
Counties were around $17 million ... the total Metro-wide was approaching $50
million just for storm cleanup and associated damages. Utilities still would
not give any cost estimates
There
continued to be an above-normal number of structure fires in the week after the
peak of the ice storm.
Monday night
February 4, a KC,KS. woman died in a house fire there, but the cause is said to
be careless smoking.
An explosion and fire Monday in KC,MO. injures three
people. The incident is at the Stratco Company in the 6000 block of Manchester
Trafficway and the cause is attributed to that other than the storm.
A house fire
in BLUE SPRINGS late Tuesday night February 5 killed two children and seriously
injured their step-grandfather.
From the home
at 104 Southwest Kingscross are dead, 11-year-old Anthony Turner and his
5-year-old sister Ariel. Dennis Peel, 42, suffered severe burns trying to
rescue the two children.
The fire was
started by a kerosene heater being used in the front living room to heat the
house. The home had power restored earlier that day.
Two houses
burned over a period of two days in the small community of WOOD HEIGHTS, MO.,
east of EXCELSIOR SPRINGS. No injuries were reported and the cause of both of
those fires were said to be electrical and related to the ice storm.
Late Wednesday
night February 6, a rare four-alarm house fire in south KC,MO. injured two
firefighters, one critically. The fire
was in an unoccupied house on 96th Street, a block west of Wornall.
The 2-story
structure was virtually destroyed.
The two
injured firefighters were were from Pumper 36,
making a standard-procedure primary search on the first floor.
Mark
Robinson was the badly-injured firefighter ...
just four months out of the fire academy. Robinson reportedly took off
his mask and breathed in heated, toxic gasses.
The other injured man, acting
Captain Walter Flathers, suffers less-severe inhalation problems while
assisting Robinson out of the house. Both suffered some burns.
It took the
first-in companies valuable time to clear storm debris covering a fire hydrant.
Somebody had stacked their broken tree limbs on top of the hydrant.
Fire
investigators said the the cause was
electrical, and "directly attributed to last week's storm."
In the second
week after the storm, the true scope of the storm damage had become clear.
KC,MO.
reported an estimated "70,000 to 100,000 tons" of storm debris to be
picked up beginning Monday, February 11. That top estimate is only 20,000 tons
short of all the trash KC,MO. collects in an entire year.
During the
peak of the outages (the KC STAR article doesn't mention when that
"peak" was), 420,000 "local customers" ... those in the
immediate KC METRO ... lost electrical power.
Friday, February 8, KCP&L's first storm recovery cost estimate is
issued ... $28 million.
KCP&L reported the last of their customers
not needing private electricians are restored on Monday, February 11.
INDEPENDENCE P&L had also restored most customers.
KPL/Westar covering
OLATHE and parts of JOHNSON County
finished Thursday. KCK's BPU was working to restore the last of their customers
Monday, as was the power company with the most customers still out, MO Public
Service (MoPUB).
Those
estimated 800 MoPUB outages on Saturday were in RAYTOWN, LEE'S SUMMIT, PLEASANT
HILL, BELTON, RAYMORE, GRANDVIEW, BLUE SPRINGS, BUCKNER, GRAIN VALLEY and OAK
GROVE. Virtually all of those customers were back on by Tuesday, February 12.
The medical
system was so overloaded, only three of all of the KC METRO hospitals / medical
centers did not refuse ambulances at any time during or immediately after the
storm ... from January 29th to February 3rd.
Thirteen
hospitals closed to all ambulance traffic for ten or more hours during that
period.
On Monday
February 4, KMBC-TV Channel 9 aired a news special report on the storm at 6:30
PM.
The print graphics during the
program kept showing the year as "2001."
Many probably wished the storm had been that
long behind them.
Updated Saturday, 16 February 2002.
_ _ _
How this
event stacks up
with Kansas City
Metro's historic big
storms:
January, 1973 ... Ice
& Snow ...
95,000 power customers affected, some for four days. Worst storm in KC
history to that point.
Loma Vista West neighborhood hard hit.
March, 1984
... Ice &
Snow ... More than 200,000 power customers
affected. More than 8,500 dark for at
least 6 days, some nearly two weeks.
KC,MO cleanup alone cost $2.4 million.
Damage also severe in LAWRENCE & TOPEKA.
October
1996 ... Snow ...
More than 240,000 power customers affected for up to several days.
KCP&L losses $11.3 million.
KC,MO. collected 35,000 tons of tree debris.
Cleanup costs KC,MO.- $3.6 million, OVERLAND PARK,KS.- $1.8 million.
January 2002 ... Ice
... Three
dead and more than one hundred various storm-related injuries in the immediate
KC Metro.
At least 420,000 power customers went dark with at least 840,000 people
affected. Throughout the 50-mile-radius KC MetroRegion, up to 500,000 total
power customers darkened, affecting at least a million people.
Utility service
was not restored for all customers affected by the storm for nearly two weeks.
A week after the storm, damage
estimates for cleanup in KC,MO. at $20 million, INDEPENDENCE $7 million,
OVERLAND PARK,KS. at $2.5 million.
Cleanup estimates for the entire KC METRO as
much as $27 million ... $50 million for all municipalities in the KC METRO.
KC,MO. officials estimate 70,000-100,000 tons of storm debris ... normal year's
trash is 120,000 tons.
Sources: Eight public safety scanners, KC,MO.
Fire Dept., M.A.S.T., The KC STAR, WDAF, KCTV, KMBC & KSHB -TV and other
sources.
*******************************************
NWS
Weather Observations taken at 3 A.M. Wednesday,
January 30, 2002:
MISSOURI
WEST
CENTRAL AND NORTHWEST
CITY SKY/WX TMP
DP RH WIND
PRES REMARKS
KANSAS CTY INT FRZ RAIN 25
23 92 N12
30.14S FOG WCI
14
KANSAS C DTWN FRZ RAIN 27
25 92 N8
30.14F WCI 19
ST JOSEPH FRZ RAIN 23
19 85 N13
30.18R FOG WCI
11
CHILLICOTHE N/A 27 24
89 N8 30.16R WCI
19
SOUTHWEST
CITY SKY/WX TMP
DP RH WIND
PRES REMARKS
SPRINGFIELD RAIN 34
33 96 N14
30.02R FOG WCI
25
JOPLIN MIX PCPN 32
31 96 CALM
30.04F FOG
CENTRAL
CITY SKY/WX TMP
DP RH WIND
PRES REMARKS
COLUMBIA MIX PCPN 31
31 100 N7
30.09S WCI 24
JEFFERSON CITY MIX PCPN
33 33 100
N7 30.11R FOG
WCI 27
ROLLA RAIN 33
32 96 N8
30.04S FOG WCI
26
SEDALIA MIX PCPN 30
29 96 N7
30.12S WCI 23
WHITEMAN AFB LGT RAIN 34
28 80 N13
30.11S FOG WCI
25
OSAGE BEACH CLOUDY 32
28 86 N5
30.09F WCI 27
KANSAS
NORTHEAST
CITY SKY/WX TMP
DP RH WIND
PRES REMARKS
CONCORDIA CLOUDY 20
12 71 NE9
30.18S
EMPORIA FRZ RAIN 26
24 92 N10
30.13R FOG WCI
16
LAWRENCE MIX PCPN 27
23 85 N8
30.18R FOG
MANHATTAN LGT SNOW 22
18 85 N10
30.19R FOG WCI
11
OLATHE IND FRZ RAIN 27
26 96 N9
30.15R FOG
OLATHE EXE FRZ RAIN 27
26 96 N9
30.11F FOG
SALINA LGT SNOW 21
17 84 N12
30.18R FOG WCI
9
TOPEKA BILLARD FRZ RAIN 23
21 92 N7
30.19R FOG
TOPEKA FORBES MIX PCPN
24 22 91 N8
30.16R FOG
SOUTHEAST
CITY SKY/WX TMP
DP RH WIND
PRES REMARKS
CHANUTE MIX PCPN 30
28 92 N7
30.06F FOG
COFFEYVILLE FRZ RAIN 31
30 96 N7
30.06S FOG
HUTCHINSON MIX PCPN 22
17 81 NE9
30.11F
MEDICINE LODGE N/A 27 25
92 N15 30.06F WCI
15
NEWTON CLOUDY 25
21 86 N14
30.09F WCI 13
PARSONS FRZ RAIN 31
29 92 CALM
30.06F
WICHITA INTL FRZ RAIN 27
25 92 N14
30.10R WCI 16
WICHITA JABRA FRZ RAIN 27
25 92 N15
30.09S FOG WCI
15
WICHITA MCCONL FRZ
RAIN 27 25
93 N14 30.09F FOG
WCI 15
WINFIELD FRZ RAIN 30
27 88 NE12
30.10R FOG WCI
20
NEBRASKA
EAST
& SOUTHEAST
CITY SKY/WX TMP
DP RH WIND
PRES REMARKS
BEATRICE * CLOUDY 18
7 62 N9
30.18F WCI 6
FALLS CITY CLOUDY 20
13 74 N12
30.20S WCI 8
FREMONT * CLOUDY 16
5 62 N9
30.21S WCI 4
LINCOLN CLOUDY 17
7 64 NE10
30.23S WCI
5
OMAHA EPPLEY CLOUDY 16
7 67 N8
30.26R WCI 5
OMAHA OFFUTT MOCLDY 16
10 79 N12
30.23R WCI 3
IOWA
WEST
& SOUTHWEST
CITY SKY/WX TMP
DP RH WIND
PRES REMARKS
ATLANTIC * CLOUDY 18
10 73 N10
30.22R WCI 6 TC
-8
AUDUBON * CLOUDY 14
12 92 N9
30.20R WCI 2 TC -10
CLARINDA * CLOUDY 21
14 73 N10
30.21R WCI 10 TC
-6
COUNCIL BLFS * CLOUDY 18
10 73 NW8
30.21R WCI 7 TC
-8
CRESTON * CLOUDY 23
14 68 NW8
30.16R WCI 14 TC
-5
HARLAN * CLOUDY 19
10 68 N9
30.25S WCI 9 TC
-7
LAMONI LGT SNOW 21
18 88 N9
30.16R FOG WCI
11
RED OAK * CLOUDY 21
12 68 N7
30.21R WCI 13 TC
-6
SHENANDOAH * CLOUDY 23
12 63 NW9
30.23R WCI 13 TC
-5
OKLAHOMA
NORTHEAST
CITY SKY/WX TMP
DP RH WIND
PRES REMARKS
TULSA LGT RAIN 33
33 100 N10
30.03R FOG WCI
25
TULSA/JONES AP FRZ RAIN
33 32 96
N8 30.03R WCI
26
PONCA CITY FRZ RAIN 30
29 96 CALM
30.06F FOG
BARTLESVILLE FRZ RAIN 32
30 92 MISG
30.09R FOG
MUSKOGEE N/A 37 34
89 N16 30.02R WCI
28
ARKANSAS
NORTHWEST
CITY SKY/WX TMP
DP RH WIND
PRES REMARKS
FAYETTEVILLE CLOUDY 48
44 86 N5
29.94R
FORT SMITH PTCLDY 46
41 82 W9
29.93S
HARRISON CLOUDY 46
42 86 N3
29.96F
BENTONVILLE CLOUDY 39
39 100 NE8G20
29.98S
ROGERS CLOUDY 39
37 93 N6
29.96S
SILOAM SPGS CLOUDY 39
36 87 N9
29.96R
HIGHFILL CLOUDY 39
38 96 N12
29.95R
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