Storm troubling Northeast Kansas
By Kasha Stoll
The Capital-Journal
Published Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Traffic accidents were at a minimum this morning in northeast Kansas, but widespread power outages and downed tree limbs kept officials busy.
Brown, Jackson and Nemaha counties reported the worst damage, with authorities there describing the situation as a nightmare and a disaster zone.
“Without cussing, I can’t tell you what the conditions are like,” Brown County sheriff Lamar Shoemaker said in only a half-joking manner.
Most of that county was without electricity and downed power lines were blocking traffic on US-73 highway.
Officials said between 80 and 85 percent of Nemaha County residents lost power and all of Holton was dark.
Pat Korte, with Jackson County emergency management, said a shelter had been set up at the Holton Senior Citizen Center to help residents without heat. However, she wasn’t sure how long the heat would last.
“If we don’t get the gas stations operating, I don’t know how long we can keep the generators going,” she said.
Prairie Band Pottawatomie Casino and Resort spokeswoman Sheryl Blue said the casino served first as a designated shelter for tribal elders and other tribal members, but they also would try to accommodate members of the community who didn’t have anywhere else to go. She didn’t know how many tribal members had gone to the casino for shelter, but she said there weren’t any available rooms.
Anyone seeking shelter there will be housed in the convention center, Blue said.
A second swath of damage occurred in Geary, Morris, Riley and Clay counties, although officials there were cautiously optimistic.
“We are doing better than we though we might be because the temperature stayed at 32 degrees overnight,” said Lt. Kurt Moldrup, with the Riley County Police Department. “We don’t have freezing conditions in Manhattan. Our biggest problem is power outages.”
Moldrup said about 20 percent of the county was without power Tuesday morning.
The Manhattan mall was closed due to a power outage.
Firefighters in Clay County responded to numerous reports of downed tree limbs that had pulled power lines away from the homes. Sheriff Chuck Dunn said the lines had caused lots of sparks but no house fires.
Cpt. Sandy Popovich with the Geary County Sheriff’s Office described the conditions there as horrible, with downed trees and ice on everything.
The bright spot, however, was the absence of vehicular accidents.
“Today, so far, we haven’t had that many accidents,” he said. “Trafffic isn’t as bad as it was on Saturday. We had 18 accidents in the county that day, and that is not counting the city.”
None of the area counties had reported a serious accident as of early Tuesday afternoon.
“It is all around the electricity right now,” said Doug Schmitt, Jefferson County director of emergency management.
“The trees are iced up pretty good,” he said. “Wind is picking up and trees are breaking. We are loosing power faster than repair crews can keep up.”
He said he expected some county residents to be without power for up to three days.
“There isn’t that much damage here,” Schmitt said. “It is damage from across the state that will slow us down. It is one of the prices you have to pay for living out in the country.” |
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