Crews are still assessing damage in Kansas City, Kansas, where thunderstorms Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning, packing 70-MPH winds, snapped power poles, tore roofs off homes, and pounded cars with golf-ball-sized hail. As of Thursday evening, 9,000 homes and businesses were still without power.
But county officials aren’t optimistic they’ll get any help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, because that depends on meeting a statewide damage threshold. The storm was isolated to their one county with its relatively low property values.
“The good news is that there was no loss of life in this storm, and our fire department did not have any reported injuries from the storm,” said Alan Howze, Interim Wyandotte County Administrator. “Lots of property damage.”
The worst damage fans out across the northern half of the county, from Piper to Quindaro.
“I know my heart went out for the (people whose) roofs were caved in in the front, and they can't get out of the front door,” said Unified Government Mayor Christal Watson. “I remember passing a house where the dog was trapped.”
Damage assessments are ongoing, and county officials want to make sure they count it all — hits to schools, parks, the power grid, everything — because certain dollar amounts unlock emergency funds and procedures.
When the county gets to $822,000 in damages, it can declare a County Emergency. That streamlines the procurement process and frees up overtime for county employees, but it does not bring any new money into the county.
To apply for federal help for individuals caught up in the storm, the State of Kansas would have to tally up $5.7 million in damages, and that seems like a stretch to Unified Government Emergency Management Director Jennifer Tarwater.
“Something like this, it's fairly localized and concentrated,” Tarwater said. “It's very important to these folks and very dire, but it may or may not reach again that threshold to get us the individual assistance with FEMA.”
So, neither budget-strapped Wyandotte County nor its residents are likely to see much government help from outside the county borders.
Unified Government leaders, like Commissioner Melissa Bynum, are calling for volunteers.
“If you have a chainsaw and you know how to use it safely, if you're willing to volunteer and put your gloves on and gather up that debris, we need to hear from you,” she said.
