CLARK COUNTY – A semi driver died due to smoke from the southwest Kansas fires Monday in Clark County. Three adults and three children were also injured due to the incident.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2017 Peterbilt semi driven by Corey P. Holt, 39, Oklahoma City, OK., was northbound just before 6p.m. on Kansas 34 seven miles west of U.S. 160.
The driver tried to backup due to poor visibility and dust from wildfires.
The semi traveled off the roadway and jackknifed making it stationary in the roadway.
The driver got out of vehicle and succumbed to smoke from wild fires. He was transported to Western Plains Medical Center where he died.
Just after the semi jackknifed, a GMC Envoy driven by Baldomero Aros-Reyes, 28, Ashland, was southbound on Kansas 34, and hit the center of the trailer of the semi that was unoccupied blocking the road.
Soon after, a 2012 Ford Explorer driven by Jessica Bates, 34, Ashland, was southbound on Kansas 34 and hit the left rear of the GMC and then the jackknifed semi and then flipped onto its top.
Aros-Reyes, Naira Robles-Lobatos, 25, and two children in the GMC were transported to the hospital in Minneola.
Bates and a 7-year-old in the Ford were transported to the hospital in Ashland.
Everyone was properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.
Airplane damage from Monday’s story photo courtesy Angie Robinson Miller Johnson County Executive Airport
KANSAS CITY- (AP) — The Latest on severe storms affecting parts of the U.S. (all times local):
9:30 a.m.
A storm system pummeled an executive airport in suburban Kansas City, destroying or damaging several hangars and flipping some airplanes onto their sides.
Trent Pittman is assistant director of community preparedness for Johnson County, Kansas.
Pittman says one hangar at the Johnson County Executive Airport in Olathe was destroyed and at least five more were damaged in the storm Monday night. He says the airport is closed while damage assessment and cleanup are underway.
Pittman says he doesn’t know how many aircraft were damaged or destroyed. The control tower appears to be OK. No injuries have been reported.
He says a dozen homes were damaged in the nearby suburb of Leawood, where trees and power lines are down, but no injuries have been reported.
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8:25 a.m.
Tornado damage-photo Missouri Highway Patrol
Emergency officials in Oak Grove, Missouri, say nearly 500 homes and businesses sustained some damage after tornadoes and severe storms raked the area.
Sni Valley Fire Protection District Chief Carl Scarborough says 483 homes were damaged in Oak Grove during Monday night’s storms that struck the Kansas City area. Scarborough says 10 to 12 commercial buildings also were damaged.
At a briefing Tuesday morning, Scarborough said 12 people were treated for injuries by emergency crews, and three people were taken to hospitals. He says none of the injuries appeared to be life-threatening.
Oak Grove Mayor Jeremy Martin praised the work of emergency responders and said “it’s rather amazing” there were no serious injuries or deaths based on the extent of the damage in the area.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Crews plan to assess the damage Tuesday after the National Weather Service says at least two tornadoes touched down in Missouri.
Several homes were damaged or destroyed in the Kansas City area Monday night as a line of severe storms moved across the state.
Oak Grove Emergency Management Director Mark Sherwood says a tornado damaged about 20 homes in the town and 10 to 15 people suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
In Smithville, north of Kansas City, Police Chief Jason Lockridge says 20 to 25 homes were damaged. Local media reports also described damage to planes and hangars at the Johnson County Executive Airport in Olathe, Kansas.
The website for the utility company Kansas City Power & Light showed about 40,000 customers without power early Tuesday. That’s down from more than 100,000 late Monday night.
RENO COUNTY -Students in several Kansas school districts are out of school Tuesday due to the wild fires.
According to the school district social media accounts, USD 300 South Central Schools in Coldwater, USD 309 Nickerson, and USD 313 Buhler will not have school on Tuesday due to the fires near their communities the displacement of faculty, staff, and others.
Holy Cross Catholic School in Hutchinson also cancelled classes due to the fires, according to the school’s facebook page.
After a day of raging grass fires across parched northwest Kansas, the first fire was reported in Ellis County late Monday evening.
A large fire was reported northwest of Hays north of Hopewell Road late Monday. While crews battled the fire, area farmers reportedly came to the rescue with discs helping to create a fire line that helped slow the spread the the flames. However, strong winds that persisted into the evening remained a challenge.
From earlier Monday: U.S. 24 has been reopened between K-258 and Stockton. The road was previously closed for a grass fire in the area. Fire crews could still be working hot spots in the area, so please move over for emergency vehicles.
Ellis County fire north of Hopewell Road
Ellis County fire north of Hopewell Road
Fire crews throughout western Kansas are battling fires in the extremely windy conditions. The wind also caused at least four semis to be blown over on Interstate 70 between Colby and Grainfield, the Kansas Highway Patrol reported.
Multiple agencies are fighting fires near Damar, Stockton, Brownell, Ransom, Cheyenne County and Lake Wilson as of late Monday afternoon.
Residents of Wilson were being evacuated late Monday afternoon, KHP Trooper Ben Gardner reported. The KHP also is reporting a portion of I-70 is closed after the fire near Wilson jumped into the median.
For up-to-date information on road closures and road conditions, call 511 in Kansas or 866-511-5368 outside Kansas, or check travel information online at www.kandrive.org.
Check Hays Post for details as they become available.
Click HERE for videos from Saturday’s grass fire in Rooks County.
An overturned semi near Colby. Photo courtesy the Kansas Highway Patrol
Image from Saturday’s grass fire in Rooks County. Photo courtesy Matt McCune. www.stormviewlive.com
MANHATTAN — The Kansas Department of Agriculture encourages all citizens to better prepare their homes, businesses and communities for the upcoming flood season during the week of March 6-10, 2017. Flood Safety Awareness Week is an opportunity to raise awareness about the importance of preparing for and understanding flooding in Kansas.
The Kansas Hazard Mitigation Plan identifies flooding as one of the costliest types of natural disaster in Kansas, in terms of lives lost, injuries and property damage. Floods threaten people, homes and other property in every county in Kansas.
KDA’s Division of Water Resources (KDA–DWR) encourages Kansans to be aware of flood hazards especially if you live in a low-lying area, near water or downstream from a dam. Most flood-related deaths are caused by people attempting to drive through moving water. Find out if roads are closed due to flooding at the Kansas Department of Transportation website, kandrive.org.
KDA is the state agency devoted to the total support of agriculture in Kansas and helps to protect natural resources and promote public health and safety along with animal health. KDA–DWR’s floodplain management team creates new flood maps and trains surveyors and floodplain managers to better flood insurance estimates, property protection and most importantly, to protect lives.
Follow KDA on Facebook and Twitter to learn more about flood safety this week. For more flood safety resources from KDA–DWR, go to agriculture.ks.gov/flood-safety.
Victoria, Kansas – Sherolyn A. “Sherri” (Rome) Windholz, age 68, died Monday, March 6, 2017, at Hays Medical Center. Services are pending at Clines-Keithley Mortuary, 412 Main Street, Victoria, Kansas 67671
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Wichita, Kansas, man is accused of fatally shooting a 16-year-old boy in what police say was a case of unsafe handling of a firearm.
KSNW-TV reports that 42-year-old Fabian Griffin is charged with second-degree murder and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
A Wichita police spokeswoman, Sgt. Nikki Woodrow, says Griffin, the victim and a 25-year-old man were in the house when the shooting happened late Friday.
Woodrow says there was no disturbance at the house before the shooting, but that “the incident involved the unsafe handling of a weapon.”
The victim’s name hasn’t been released.
Court records don’t show whether Griffin has an attorney.
On of many semi accidents blamed on Monday’s strong winds-photo KHP
GOVE COUNTY – A semi driver was injured in an accident just before noon on Monday in Gove County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2014 Freightliner semi driven by Jesus
Escareno, 46, Houston, TX., was westbound on Interstate 70 at the Oakley exit.
A gust of wind struck the vehicle and caused it to flip over into the north ditch.
Escareno was transported to the Logan County Hospital. He was properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.
The accident was one of at least four semis blown over by gusting wind between Colby and Grainfield on Monday.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A second defendant in the ongoing civil lawsuit regarding a Douglas County Jail inmate’s death has settled.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports the confidential settlement offer by Dr. Dennis Sale was approved Thursday. Sale worked at the jail that Rachel Hammers died in.
Joe Harvey, Hammers’ father, filed a wrongful death lawsuit in federal court in April 2015 seeking more than $1.3 million from the county. Harvey said his daughter’s death was needless, painful and preventable.
The cause of Hammers’ death remains in dispute.
Another defendant, the county Visiting Nurses Association, offered a confidential settlement to Harvey in late 2016. Sale and the association provided medical services to the jail until July 2016.
The association’s settlement was also approved Thursday.
Douglas County officials declined to comment on the lawsuit, but deny Harvey’s claims in court filings.
Ellis County Treasurer Ann Pfeifer has announced her resignation from the elected post to take a position in the private sector.
Pfeifer offered her letter of resignation Monday to the Ellis County Commission, effective 5 p.m. April 14. Pfeifer will join Eagle Communications as a corporate financial accountant.
She said in her letter the timing of the resignation will allow ample time for the position to be filled on an interim basis by the office of the governor and the Ellis County Democratic Party.
“I believe it is time for me to move on to the next chapter in my life,” she wrote. “I have enjoyed working for the county during my six years of service, three years as Ellis County treasurer. I appreciate all the opportunities I have been given and the people I have met while working for Ellis County.”
Pfeifer, a Democrat, was defeated in a re-election bid in November, losing to Republican challenger Lisa Schlegel. Schlegel is set to take office in October.
“It has been an honor and privilege to serve the citizens of Ellis County as the Ellis County treasurer,” Pfeifer wrote.
SUMNER COUNTY – An earthquake shook portions of Kansas Monday afternoon.
The quake just before 5:30p.m. measured 2.7 and was centered approximately 20 miles east of Caldwell in Sumner County, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Just after 6 a.m Sunday, a 2.6 quake was centered approximately 17-miles northeast of Caldwell in Sumner County, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
In February, the agency recorded six Kansas earthquakes. They measured from 2.5-3.3.
A February 13 quake in Sumner County measured 3.3 and was centered in rural area just north of the Kansas-Oklahoma State line, according to the USGS.
There have no reports of damage or injury from Monday’s quake.
TOPEKA — A former city clerk for the city of Bennington, Kan., was sentenced Monday to a total of 16 months in federal prison in two separate cases of interstate transportation of embezzled funds, U.S. Attorney Tom Beall said. She also was ordered to pay $184,000 in restitution.
In the first case, Janetta Marie Buttery, 42, Bennington, Kan., pleaded guilty to one count of interstate transportation of stolen funds. In her plea, Buttery said she served as city clerk from October 2014 to May 2016 and left the position before the city discovered the crime. In her position as clerk she had access to credit cards belonging to the city and the city’s Recreation Commission. She used the cards to make unauthorized payments totaling more than $75,000.
In the second case, Buttery pleaded guilty to one count of interstate transportation of embezzled funds while she worked as secretary, bookkeeper and executive assistant to the owner of Realty Associates in Salina, Kan. She embezzled more than $79,000 in the company’s funds to make payments on personal debts belonging to herself and her family members.
Beall commended the FBI and Assistant U.S. Attorney Rich Hathaway for their work on the case.
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