Angee Morgan, deputy director of the Kansas Division of Emergency Management, has sent a letter to the Federal Emergency Management Agency requesting joint Preliminary Damage Assessments be conducted in four Kansas counties affected by flooding, flash flooding and high river levels. The incident period for the request begins June 1, 2011, and continuing.

Counties named in the request are Atchison, Doniphan, Leavenworth and Wyandotte. These counties lie along the Missouri River on the eastern border of the state, which has seen flooding along its length over the past several months due to higher than average snowfall in the upper Missouri Basin during the winter coupled with higher than average spring rains. Gov. Sam Brownback declared a State of Disaster Emergency for these counties on June 3, 2011.

"This is a situation where the disaster is long term," said Morgan. "Unlike a tornado that strikes and moves on, these floods have been ongoing for quite some time and are likely to continue for a while longer. We want to start to get an assessment of the damages so repairs to public infrastructure can begin as soon as the waters subside."

The joint PDA teams, made up of KDEM and FEMA staff, will be looking at damage to public infrastructure, such as road, bridges and utilities. If these assessments indicate there are sufficient damages to meet federal eligibility thresholds, the counties named in the request may apply for federal Public Assistance to repair damages and pay for associated clean-up costs and any emergency protective measures such as operation of pumps, sandbagging and incident management.

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