Barton County and other parts of central Kansas were under a hazardous weather outlook Thursday evening when a storm hit Great Bend, knocking out the power and dumping enough rain to flood portions of streets starting around 7:20 p.m.

Traffic lights were not operating and the Barton County Sheriff’s Office reported 22 power poles were down on the northeast side of town.

Wheatland Electric reported 1,300 meters were without power but workers hoped to have the lights on by 9:30 p.m.

Later reports that could not be confirmed put the number of damaged power poles at somewhere closer to 100 and Wheatland reporting 3,086 meters were without power.

The power at the Great Bend Tribune was restored at 9:48 p.m. and work on preparing Friday’s newspaper resumed.

The Wheatland Facebook page noted that the Great Bend area had an unspecified number of poles down due to the storm at 7:53 p.m. and said crews were working to restore power and address downed lines. Anyone seeing any downed power lines is asked to report them immediately by calling 800-662-4246. Any Wheatland customer experiencing a power outage may also call that number.

 Wheatland reported it was staring to power up in some areas by 9:10 p.m. and that Great Bend was back online at 10:15, although crews were working on isolated outages.

The National Weather Service office in Wichita reported that scattered thunderstorms are possible across central and north central Kansas Friday evening. Dime- to quarter-size hail and 55-65 mph winds may accompany the strongest activity.

An isolated thunderstorm or two is possible each afternoon and evening from Saturday through Wednesday across southeast Kansas.

Once again though, most locations are expected to remain dry.