A flash flood warning has been extended for Wyandotte County and surrounding areas including southeastern Leavenworth County, Johnson County, Kan., Clay County, southern Ray County, eastern Platte County and Jackson County.
At 8:07 a.m. Thursday, radar indicated heavy rain across the warning area. Three to 7 inches of rain have fallen, and flash flooding was already occurring, according to the weather service.
Locations that will experience flooding include Kansas City, Kansas, as well as some surrounding areas.
In neighboring communities, extensive flooding has occurred near Indian Creek with water over the road at 103rd and Wornall Road in Kansas City, Mo. Multiple water rescues have taken place there. Indian Creek has crested and is starting to fall, according to the weather service.
In other neighboring communities, the Blue River also has experienced minor flooding and is starting to crest. Tomahawk Creek reached record flooding overnight but has crested and is starting to fall, according to the weather service.
Residents are asked to turn around and go back when they encounter flooded roadways. Most deaths occur in vehicles, according to the weather service. Residents may report flooding to local law enforcement agencies, the weather service said. The Missouri River in Kansas City was well below flood stage at 8:30 a.m. Thursday. (NOAA hydrology chart) The Kaw River at 23rd Street was up, but well under the flood stage, at 8:30 a.m. Thursday. (NOAA hydrology chart)
Mayor Mark Holland spoke Wednesday night at a mayoral forum at Donnelly College. About 150 people turned out. The forum was sponsored by KCUR radio and the “Up to Date” program. The debate was streamed live on KCUR’s Facebook page. (Photo by William Crum)Mayoral candidate David Alvey made a point during the mayoral debate Wednesday night at Donnelly College. (Photo by William Crum)Sen. David Haley, a mayoral candidate, spoke at the mayoral debate Wednesday night at Donnelly College. (Photo by William Crum)Mayoral candidate Janice Witt discussed issues on Wednesday night at the mayoral forum at Donnelly College. (Photo by William Crum)Mayoral candidate D. Keith Jordan outlined his positions at the mayoral debate Wednesday night at Donnelly College. (Photo by William Crum)
Kansas Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s long-rumored move to a position in President Donald Trump’s administration is no longer rumor.
The president on Wednesday announced his intention to nominate Brownback, a social conservative with deep religious convictions, to head the Office of International Religious Freedom in the U.S. State Department. As ambassador at large, Brownback’s mission would be to monitor and respond to threats to religious freedom around the world.
“Religious freedom is the first freedom. The choice of what you do with your own soul. I am honored to serve such an important cause,” Brownback said in a tweet as news of the nomination was breaking.
Statehouse observers have been speculating about Brownback’s departure since March when Kansas Public Radio reported that he was under consideration for a position in the administration.
Early reports Wednesday evening said that Brownback had resigned, but his spokesperson, Melika Willoughby, said in an email that “the governor is still governor of Kansas.”
“We will have a press conference tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon,” she said.
Brownback, the state’s 46th governor, has about 18 months remaining in his second term. Should he step down, Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer, a physician and former state senator from Overland Park, would become governor.
Brownback would leave office as one of the least popular governors in the nation. That’s largely due to the tax cuts he championed, which instead of igniting the Kansas economy as he promised sent state revenues plummeting, forcing lawmakers to deal with annual holes in the state budget.
At the time of their passage in 2012, Brownback said the tax cuts would deliver a “shot of adrenaline” to the Kansas economy and make it a “red state model” for the nation.
Earlier this year, Kansas lawmakers, led by a coalition of newly elected Democrats and moderate Republicans, dealt a significant blow to Brownback’s political reputation by overriding his veto of a bill that reversed the tax cuts.
“Sam Brownback will be remembered for becoming the most unpopular governor in America,” Senate Democratic Leader Anthony Hensley, of Topeka, said in a statement on Twitter. “His tax experiment failed to grow the economy as he promised. Instead, his policies have bankrupted our state.”
Others hold him in higher esteem.
“He inspires other people,” said Kathy Ostrowski, legislative director for Kansans for Life, the state’s largest anti-abortion organization.
“He’s inspired some conservative leaders who had terrible bruises from the last couple of decades. He said ‘hang in there, stay with it. Let’s keep working.’”
Rep. Russ Jennings, a Republican from Lakin in southwest Kansas, said he appreciated the focus Brownback brought to state water issues, particularly his efforts to extend the life of the Ogallala acquifer.
“While I have not always agreed with Governor Brownback, I appreciate his efforts to elevate the discussion in Kansas on water issues,” Jennings said.
Prior to his election as governor in 2010, Brownback served 14 years in the U.S. Senate. Near the end of his one and only term in the U.S. House, Brownback was appointed in 1996 to fill the seat of U.S. Sen. Bob Dole, who resigned to run for president. Kansans elected him to a full term in the Senate in 1998 and re-elected him in 2004.
Before his election to Congress in 1994, Brownback had been the Kansas Secretary of Agriculture.
Brownback had also been the favorite of many social conservatives when he joined a crowded field of Republican presidential hopefuls in 2008. Many believed that he ran for governor to burnish his reputation as a fiscal conservative in preparation for another bid for the White House.
Those aspirations faded with the failure of his economic policies, said Patrick Miller, a University of Kansas political scientist.
“Certainly, we can look at the totality of his career and see some successes and some failures,” Miller said. “But this (the failure of the tax cuts) will be the policy that writes his Wikipedia page in a decade or so.”
Jim McLean is managing director of the Kansas News Service, a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio and KMUW covering health, education and politics. You can reach him on Twitter @jmcleanks.
Stephen Koranda, statehouse reporter for Kansas Public Radio, and KCUR reporter Sam Zeff contributed to this report. Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished at no cost with proper attribution and a link back to kcur.org.
