High Winds Knock Out Power To Hundreds in Kansas City MetroRegion

Winds have gusted into the 40-50 mph range at times today- and that has caused tree limbs and utility lines to fall.

According to the latest KCP&L map- more than 300 people across the Metro are without electrical service.

An unknown number of people are affected by a whole tree falling across lines and a street in Lawrence KS at this time.


The winds will continue through at least Friday morning- as well as a chance of strong thunderstorms by then.

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Victim Will 'Live to Tell' After East Side Kansas City Shooting

Just before 12:45 p.m. this Thursday afternoon- KC-MO emergency services responded on a shooting call at 31st Street and Mersington.

Police arrived to find a male victim of a single-gunshot- with a reported suspect- a "man in a truck-" having left the scene.

The victim was transported by FD-EMS to a Metro medical trauma center- the victim "had no feeling in his legs" but was otherwise in not-immediately life-threatening condition.

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Odessa MO Teen Club- The Black Flag- Won't Open This Weekend

The club hasn't even opened yet and Odessa residents are already up-in-arms over one of the owners of "The Black Flag Club-" a place for the under-21 crowd to gather in the Odessa Outlet Mall.


Charles John Juba was once the national director for Aryan Nations- a racist organization- states the story in THE ODESSAN.

The club was slated to open tomorrow night- but city officials say that WON'T happen until the club's building is inspected and approved for occupation.

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Goin' Mushrooming? Make Sure They're Not Poisonous

Many people like to hunt for wild mushrooms this time of year- as well as in the Fall.

I once was hunting some edible 'rooms ON some mushrooms right before I fell- but that's beside the point.


When you're our mushroomin'- make SURE you don't get the poisonous types- and THIS URL to a good Web page from Ohio State University shows which types of mushrooms are safe and those that are not.

As soon as we get a couple of warm days in a row- the 'rooms should start sprouting in earnest.

In our MetroRegion too....

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Metro Kansas City Weather: Wind Farm- Sails Needed Today

No doubt many of you locally have experienced the gusty south winds today- being produced by a deep low pressure center over Nebraska.


The National Weather Service (NWS) office in Pleasant Hill has issued a "Wind Advisory" for these winds- gusting as high as 50 m.p.h. today.

Don't do any outdoor burning unless it's in a covered BBQ grill today unless you want to chance the fire spreading out of control.

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Missouri State Trooper Rescues Driver From Burning Van Near Boonville

In my experiences with the Highway Patrol in both Kansas and Missouri- their troopers have always been consummate professionals- class acts and just damn nice people.

The BOONVILLE (MO) DAILY NEWS reports that a van caught fire on I-70 in Cooper county Wednesday morning- and a trooper- identified in the article only as "Officer Doza-" pulled the male driver "in his 50's or 60's" out of the window of the burning van.

There's no mention in the BDN story if either the trooper or the driver of the burned van was injured.

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Olathe Gets June Harley Motorcycle Rally

The "Harley Owners Group" appropriately initialled "HOG" will hold their annual 2011 rally June 1 to 4th in Olathe KS..


The city is expecting a revenue "bump" of more than a million dollars from the rally- which will be "headquartered" at Olathe's Rawhide Harley-Davidson with the "host hotel" being the Holiday Inn on 151st Street- says the KANSAS CITY BUSINESS JOURNAL.

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British Petroleum (BP) "Underestimated" Amount of Gulf of Mexico Oil Leak

The original "estimate" of leakage was 1000 barrels a day or 42000 gallons.

Now- that estimate has grown by five-times that amount that is leaking from what's left of the exploded oil rig.

This morning on NBC's Today Show- a BP official now says that estimate was probably low- more like "5000 barrels a day" or 210000 gallons a day of crude oil is pouring unchecked into the Gulf of Mexico off the Louisiana coast.


In addition- the Associated Press story states that the cost to BP for stopping the leak and cleaning up their mess could cost "around $1-billion-"  that BP would like to use America's military to help- and not stated was the old saying "were 'ifs' and 'buts' candy and nuts- we'd ALL have a Merry Christmas."

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Two Thugs Charged For Kansas City MO Plaza-area Beat-down

Remember the so-called "flash mob" that converged on the Plaza several weekends ago?

A 16-year-old male was beat-down and otherwise humiliated by a couple of older teenaged thugs in the parking lot of Winstead's that night- and now those thugs are in police custody- according to The KANSAS CITY STAR.


BTW- it's the PARENTS job to keep their children controlled/entertained- NOT the job of the city and general public!

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Central States Weather: "Slight Risk" of Severe Thunderstorms- Tornadoes Later Today- Friday

A strong low pressure center and it's attendant frontal systems will bring an increase in shower and thunderstorm activity later today and tomorrow across the Central States- and a few of those thunderstorms could become severe later this Thursday afternoon and evening into Friday.

Note that the low pressure center located this morning in northeastern Nebraska is almost as strong as the storm that produced last Saturday's long-track tornado in Mississippi.

According to the NWS' Storm Prediction Center (SPC)  and the graphic- today's "slight risk" of severe weather comes generally across parts of the northern and western Central States: Iowa- Kansas and Nebraska.


Forming first could be individual- "supercell" thunderstorms that could produce large hail and perhaps a tornado or three.

The risks for the various types of severe weather are shown in these SPC graphics- tornadoes- severe hail and wind probabilities.

The storms that do develop are forecast to gather into clusters or short line segements overnight into Friday morning- the latter being the best time for storms in the Metro Kansas City area.

Friday's SPC severe risk area is larger- including the Metro as well as taking in the rest of Iowa- Missouri- eastern Kansas- Oklahoma and Arkansas.


As always- any watches issued will be posted here at CSW.

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Ecological Disaster Underway in Gulf of Mexico- Courtesy of British Petroleum

Forty-two thousand gallons of oil per day continues to pump unabated into the Gulf of Mexico from last week's explosion of a British Petroleum (BP) oil rig off the Louisiana coast.


Eleven died- but hundreds and perhaps thousands of people are about to be affected by the oil slick- now reported to be a hundred miles long and nearly 50 miles wide.

This is an ecological disaster in the making- one that could well exceed the damage caused by the Exxon Valdez in Alaska in 1989.

It could take "months" to cap the oil leak from beneath the destroyed oil platform.

Now- BP and the Coast Guard want to "burn-off" the oil slick to prevent it from spreading onto beaches from northeastern Texas all the way to Florida.

So- in addition to the WATER pollution- we'll now have huge black clouds of oily smoke polluting the AIR along those areas of the Gulf coast.

Geez- let's open even MORE areas of sensitive environment to oil drilling....

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