A line of powerful thunderstorms rolled through Reno County Wednesday evening causing power outages to a large area of Hutchinson.

Radar showed wind in excess of 80 miles per hour with heavy rain and large hail.

Power poles were damaged around the 17th and Lorraine area keeping many patrons in the strip of restaurants and businesses holed up inside until they could be taken safely from the buildings.

Police were busy working a number of intersections around the city because of the damage to the power poles and the lights not working.

There were also reports of power pole damage on North Tobacco Road northeast of Hutchinson.

Westar Energy at one point indicated on their website that over 4-thousand customers were without power in Reno County. As of 9:30 p-m Wednesday evening, that number has dropped to 3-thousand, 889 residents.

There were also reports of trees knocking over and damaging gas meters and causing a lot of headaches for fireman. There was also reports of some structure fires including one of North Hendricks.

We also had reports of a number of intersections flooded because of the heavy rains across the city. Here are the Eagle Media studios, we recorded over an inch and half of rain

But, Reno County wasn’t alone in having severe weather. Rice, McPherson, Harvey, Barton, Stafford, Pratt, Sedgwick and Barber Counties were also hammered with the storms, including 70-mile per hour winds, and large hail, and heavy rain.

Three-inch limbs were reported down in the Hesston area in Harvey County, and major tree damage was reported in the town of Moundridge in McPherson County, along with numerous power poles being blown down, and numerous residents in that community without power.