Kansas storm season produces two kinds of electrical damage. The first is obvious: the tree on the service drop, the mast pulled off the wall, the visible burn. The second is the kind that does not announce itself, and that is the one worth writing about.
Haysville still carries the mark of the May 3, 1999 tornado that damaged around 150 homes and 27 businesses and split the neighborhood’s housing stock into pre-storm and post-storm construction. Andover went through an EF3 on April 29, 2022 that tracked 12.8 miles at winds around 155 miles per hour. Those events rebuild neighborhoods. But most storm electrical damage in south central Kansas comes from far less dramatic weather.
The damage you can see
Start outside and look up. The service drop runs from the utility pole to a mast or attachment point on the house. Check that the mast is still vertical and still firmly attached. Check that the cable is not resting on a branch or the roof. Check that the weatherhead at the top is intact and pointing down.
If the mast is pulled loose, leaning, or separated from the wall, that is not a wait-and-see item. The conductors coming into it are unfused. Call Evergy and an electrician, in that order.
Look at the meter socket. Scorching, a cracked case, or a gap between the socket and the siding all matter.
The damage you cannot see
A nearby lightning strike does not have to hit the house to do damage. A strike to a pole, a tree, or the ground nearby induces a voltage surge that travels in on the service conductors, on the cable line, and on the phone line if one is still connected.
What that surge does depends on what it finds. Sometimes it destroys electronics outright, which at least tells you it happened. Sometimes it degrades a component partway. A breaker that took a surge may still look fine and still latch, but its trip mechanism can be compromised. GFCI and AFCI devices are particularly vulnerable because they contain electronics rather than just a bimetallic strip.
Signs in the days after a storm that are worth attention: a GFCI that will not reset or will not trip on test, lights flickering across multiple rooms rather than one, a breaker that trips on a circuit that never used to trip, a faint hum or buzz from the panel, a warm spot on the panel cover, or an outlet that has stopped working with no obvious cause.
The specific case of flooding
Water and electrical equipment do not co-exist. Any panel, outlet, or piece of equipment that has been submerged, even briefly, is compromised. Water carries contaminants that stay behind after it dries, and those contaminants are conductive and corrosive.
Submerged breakers are not restored by drying. They are replaced. The same is true of receptacles and switches below the waterline. This is not caution for its own sake; it is what the manufacturers themselves specify.
If water reached the panel, the service should be de-energized before anyone assesses it.
Generators and the one rule that matters
Portable generators after a storm are common and sensible. The rule that matters is that a generator never connects to house wiring through a regular outlet. Backfeeding through a dryer receptacle or a modified cord energizes the utility conductors outside the house, which puts line workers at risk and can kill them.
The correct connection is a transfer switch, installed and permitted. It isolates the house from the grid before the generator connects. In Wichita and Sedgwick County that work permits through the Metro Area Building and Construction Department and is inspected against the 2023 National Electrical Code, adopted effective January 1, 2025. Andover addresses permit through the City of Andover, since Andover is in Butler County.
A short sequence to follow
Power out and no visible damage: report to Evergy, wait.
Visible damage to mast, drop, or meter: report to Evergy first, then an electrician. Do not touch any of it.
Power restored but something is behaving oddly: get it looked at within a few days rather than living with it. Post-surge damage tends to get worse, not better, so a call to Electrician Wichita Pros Team in the days after is cheaper than a call in the weeks after.
Water in the house at panel level: de-energize and get a licensed assessment before anything is re-energized.
Before the season rather than after
Two things done in spring reduce the after-storm list considerably.
Test every GFCI and AFCI device with its button and replace the ones that will
not trip. A device that failed quietly last summer provides nothing this
summer.
Look at the service from the ground with binoculars if necessary. A mast that
already leans, a standoff that has pulled loose, or a limb growing toward the
attachment point are all cheap to fix in calm weather and expensive to fix in a
queue behind three hundred other damaged services.