Hurricane-level winds coming to KC overnight, bringing driving hazards
OLATHE, Kan. (KCTV) - Starting at 9 p.m. Tuesday until 6 a.m. Wednesday, winds could whip up at 50-70 miles per hour. Snow is expected to kick in as well overnight, making driving visibility extremely limited.
Most people don’t need to be on the roads overnight, but some people drive in the wee hours of the night and morning for a living. In high winds, the vehicles most at risk for veering off the road or even tipping over are tractor trailers.
At a truck stop in Olathe, a local driver who hauls fuel said he can’t just sit it out overnight. His plan was to drive slowly and cautiously.
Long haul driver Juan Torales was shifting his plans Tuesday to account for the hazard. He pulled up his cab and hooked it up to an empty trailer he had locked down at the truck stop while he grabbed food for the road. He’s scheduled to pick up his load 90 miles south of Olathe at 7 a.m. When he heard the weather forecast, he decided to get as close to his pick up destination as possible and post up there overnight to sleep.
“Since the weather is coming and the bad conditions, I had to advance today to be prepared in the morning first thing,” said Torales. “Better safe than sorry.”
Living in Louisiana, and before that Florida, he knows the damage heavy wind can do.
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Over the years, windy days have caused semis to flip in several locations across Kansas and Missouri.
Photos found on social media accounts for the Kansas Highway Patrol (KHP) and Missouri State Highway Patrol (MSHP) show evidence of trucks tipped over. Several overturned in Cass County in 2020. MSHP posted video of an air ambulance rescue in Springfield, Missouri on December 15, 2021. KHP posted at least four photos of overturned trucks on that same day, mostly in central Kansas.
Earlier that year, KHP Trooper Ben Gardner, who is headquartered in Salina, made a video with advice for traveling in high winds.
“When you pass by them,” he said of large vehicles like semis, “understand it’s going to be turbulent, and then winds are going to be whipping around those large vehicles, shielding that as well as when you get exposed past them, it’s going to make it worse for you.”
His full list of advice is as follows:
- Be aware of conditions
- Use caution around large vehicles
- Keep your distance
- Keep your hands firmly on the wheel
- Reduce speed
Trooper Tiffany Baylark, who is headquartered in Olathe, acknowledged that it’s more common for tractor-trailers to overturn in western and central Kansas than it is in the Kansas City metro.
Urban and suburban buildings provide more of a wind block than the wide open spaces to our west. Still, she said, if you see the trees shaking, you should take care not to linger by semis or box trucks.
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