The Saline County town of Slater has just fewer than 2,000 residents. Tuesday, many began the process of cleanup following strong On Monday storms that knocked out power to the whole town.
Resident Laura Oakheart says she was driving during the storm and had to take shelter in a church basement.
“I could not see out my windshield,” Oakheart said, “I stuck my head out the window so I could see where I was going. Branches were falling on my car, and I had four little kids and a pregnant woman with me.”
None of them were injured, but they were among those digging out Tuesday. Residents and cleanup crews are still clearing debris from roads, sidewalks and houses, as well as getting power lines back up.
Assistant City Administrator Russell Griffith said the town was not fully prepared for a storm of this size.
“When Evergy’s telling me they’ve got 100 poles down, we're sitting here with 15-20 poles down,” Griffith said, “For a small community it has been a big job and that’s why we’ve brought in professionals.”
Griffith said he expects cleaning up fallen tree limbs and other debris will take about a week. Power outage updates can be found on the Evergy Outage Map.
