Two weeks ago, Kansas Governor Laura Kelly asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency for a major presidential disaster declaration following almost a week solid of rough weather in March. Now the state’s federal lawmakers are joining the push.
Senators Roger Marshall and Jerry Moran, along with Congressmen Derek Schmidt, Tracey Mann and Ron Estes, are asking President Donald Trump to support the state’s request and thus set the stage for federal reimbursement dollars as part of the Public Assistance Program. Kansas had fires, severe storms, high straight-line winds, flooding and winter weather between March 14-19. Locally, this included significant grass fire activity March 14, including a roughly-five-mile-long burn scar from a grass fire that developed near Roads 160 and V-5 and ended near Roads 200 and X, charring hundreds of acres, destroying several structures, killing farm animals and narrowly missing the Lyon County Rural Water District 4 standpipe. That particular fire remains under investigation.
Approval by the President is not guaranteed. Last month, Arkansas was denied government funding after severe storms, including damaging tornadoes, from March 14.
