KANSAS CITY, Kan. — The Kansas City Board of Public Utilities held a news conference Thursday morning to answer questions about the live power line that electrocuted a man over the weekend at Rosedale Park.
Nicholas Moeder, 27, went out to the park early Sunday morning to play disc golf with friends.
Twelve hours earlier a disc golf tournament was canceled at the park after a storm moved in and knocked down the power line.
On Thursday, officials said they were still investigating the protocol and their response to the calls that came into them about the dangerous power line.
“Please know our thoughts and prayers are with the victim and his family,” David Melhaff said.
Officials said the first call of the downed line came in at 4:07 p.m. on Saturday afternoon.
Several people tell FOX 4 News they had called both 911 and the board’s emergency number, concerned about the live line that was knocked down by the storm Saturday evening.
But when Nicholas Moeder arrived at the park at about 3 a.m. on Sunday, the line was still down and he walked into it.
Bill Johnson, with the Board of Public Utilities, said they were staffed for the weekend when the storm came in and knocked out power to more than 2,000 customers and blew down at least five power lines.
“During this time we were also receiving numerous calls from the public related to storm related outages throughout our service area,” Johnson said. “As usual, we immediately shifted our focus into storm mode and began calling in extra help to restore services that were down in our city.”
When asked how power lines could be ‘turned off,’ Johnson said some had to be done on-site, while others could be done remotely. He said the power line at Rosedale Park could have been shut down remotely.
“That line would have to be turned off. … It can be turned off remotely at the station. I’ll have to go evaluate,” he said. “It’s unfortunate that we did not respond in a time frame that could have possibly avoided this incident from happening in Rosedale Park. Our hearts and prayers go out to the family.”
“The public needs to know we have procedures in place to prevent as much as possible an incident like this from happening again,” Mehlhaff said.
Cpt. Robert Angel with the Wyandotte County Sheriff’s Office, said Wyandotte County was also reviewing its procedures and whether a law enforcement officer should have been standing guard to keep people out of the park while a power line was down.
Disc golf tournament director Jack Lowe told FOX 4 he hopes the agencies make changes. He said he tried several times to get in touch with BPU about the power line after the Saturday storm, but never talked to a person, only a machine.
“It was unfortunate I couldn’t speak directly to someone to get the sense of urgency across,” he said. “Leaving a message felt empty, but I’m also like, there’s not a lot else I can do.”
Lowe said the next day when he discovered someone had died, his heart sank.
“Shocked, dismayed and heart broken,” Lowe said. “And sick for the family.”
Click here to link to Nicholas Moeder’s obituary at The Amos Family funeral home.
Related: BPU investigates its response following electrocution
