Kingman power outages bring community together

KINGMAN, Kan. (KSNW) – Power outages hit large parts of Kingman during the hottest part of the day yesterday and the day before, but the incidents have only brought the community closer together.

The outages hit most of the northwestern part of the city, which is where Julie Wollen lives. She was coming home from work with her husband Tuesday when she noticed something was off.

“We came into the house, I’m like, ‘It’s warm in here,'” Wollen said. “My husband’s like, ‘Well, it’s 103 degrees out,’ and I’m like, ‘Well, we have no power.”

The City set up a cooling center for affected residents and free rides to help them get there.

“One of our city bus drivers came into work and started running the public taxi,” said Adrian Harrel, the City of Kingman’s mayor.

Many Kingsman residents seemed less worried about themselves and more concerned about the utility workers making repairs in 100-degree heat.

“We drove by. They were hot. They were sweaty,” said Wollen. “I felt for them. I appreciate everything they’ve done.”

“It’s great,” said Tim Goldston, the director of utilities for the City of Kingman. “People in the community offering help and everything else when they don’t even live in the area that’s affected, some of them. They want to come out and help.”

People were checking in to make sure workers stayed safe.

“Everyone’s been stopping and bringing us water and Gatorades, offering to go get us food and everything, so it’s been pretty good,” said Goldston.

That hospitality can be traced back to the fact that everyone knows each other in Kingman, according to Wollen.

“We know most of them by name, so we know they’re working hard, and we appreciate it, and we know they were exhausted last night,” Wollen said.

Staff were out between the hours of 3 p.m. and 11 p.m. on both Tuesday and Wednesday.

They were working again Thursday to try to get to the bottom of the issue.

The power grid in Kingman is strong enough to handle high electric use and then some, according to Harrel. He said it isn’t being overwhelmed by too much use. Rather, excessive use can expose weaknesses in the grid.