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Afternoon update to flooding in Northeast Kansas

March 22, 2019 | By slarson

The Kansas Division of Emergency Management State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC) remains activated at a 24/7 level as major flooding is occurring along the Missouri River in Doniphan and Atchison Counties. A flash flood warning remains in effect for Doniphan County until 9:45 p.m. A flood warning is in effect for Doniphan, Wyandotte, and Leavenworth Counties.

The SEOC is monitoring flooding conditions and providing support to Doniphan and Atchison counties and other counties as requested. KDEM has two regional coordinators deployed to assist Doniphan county emergency management officials.

State and Federal agencies that have reported to the SEOC are Kansas Division of Emergency Management, Kansas National Guard, Office of the State Fire Marshal, Kansas Highway Patrol, Department for Children and Families, Kansas Department of Transportation, National Weather Service, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and FEMA. Other partners in the SEOC are the American Red Cross and Harvesters.

To support recommended evacuations in the City of Elwood and portions of the City of Wathena shelters to support both citizens and pets have been established.

There is a shelter open in Troy, 1225 Last Chance Road, which is currently sheltering four individuals.

A pet shelter is also open in Troy at the Doniphan County Fairgrounds, 211 N Boder St., and is providing care for more than 100 pets, including dogs, cats, birds and a guinea pig. The Kansas Department of Transportation delivered a pet sheltering trailer overnight to Troy to support an increased sheltering demand.

Harvesters, a nonprofit voluntary organization active in disaster, has hauled over 20 pallets of water to Atchison for distribution by the Salvation Army.

Multiple state and federal partners are supporting response to Doniphan County.

In addition to pump support, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is providing a manual sandbag machine. Currently there are 200,000 bags filled and in place. The Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) is providing four tractors to operate water pumps.

The Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism currently has two air boats mobilized to support water rescue operations as necessary within Atchison and Elwood.

The Office of the State Fire Marshal currently has one search and rescue task force in Elwood and is deploying as second.

The Kansas Highway Patrol has units in the area that are providing assistance to local law enforcement with evacuations, road blocks and other assistance as needed.

KDOT has closed the following roads due to flooding: US-59 from Atchison, Kansas, into Missouri; K-7 from Sparks, Kansas, to the Nebraska line and the ramps off Highway 36 going into Elwood. Counties are reporting damaged road systems due to flooding. For updated road information go online to www.KanDrive.org or call 511 or online http://511mm.ksdot.org.

Gov. LauraKelly issued a state of disaster emergency declaration on March 15 for counties affected by flooding. The declaration authorizes the use of state resources and personnel to assist with response and recovery operations in affected counties that meet certain criteria.

The Kansas Division of Emergency Management is urging Kansans who wish to help the victims of the flooding, to donate money to a reputable voluntary, charitable or faith-based organization rather than collecting food, clothing or other goods.

In addition to Kansas flood fighting efforts, Kansas is also supporting the State of Nebraska. Six Airmen from the Kansas National Guards 184th Intelligence Wings Unclassified Processing Assessment and Dissemination are supporting the Nebraska National Guard for geospatial imagery support. The UPAD will provide unclassified satellite imagery of affected areas, which will be used for real-time condition, damage assessment, predictive analysis and situation awareness.