Quarterly LEPC Meeting

The Butler County Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) met for their quarterly meeting on Thursday, October 15th at the El Dorado Civic Center. In addition to the election of Officers for 2021 and setting the meeting schedule for the upcoming year, a COVID-19 Pandemic Review was held. This was the first meeting the committee was able to hold since the COVID-19 pandemic began. 

“One thing we like to do after a disaster is an after action review where we sit down and look at how we responded to the disaster.” said Keri Korthals, Director for Butler County Emergency Management. 

The LEPC was able to gather, in a safe and socially distant manner, and had the unique opportunity to hold an after action review while the action is still happening.

LEPC member/partners shared challenges, successes and lessons learned.

“Because this disaster has been so protracted and going on for so long, we don’t want to wait too long to start having those conversations,” said Korthals.

The discussion included a review of the challenges, successes and lessons learned in the past seven months. 

Each county in Kansas is expected to have a LEPC, consisting of emergency response agencies, hospitals, industries, and community groups. 

Some of an LEPC’s primary responsibilities include:

Preparing and regularly reviewing their jurisdiction’s Emergency Operations; plan, as well as coordinating training exercises for stakeholders on the Plan; collecting information on hazardous materials stored throughout the county; analyzing potential risks to the community; evaluating the adequacy of warning systems and evacuation procedures (as they relate to hazardous material spills / releases); and promoting the community’s right-to-know law to the public and providing educational materials / resources to the community. 

The Butler County LEPC is comprised from representatives from the following organizations:

American Red Cross

Andover Fire and Rescue

Barton Solvents

Board of County Commissioners

Butler Community College 

Butler County Community Development 

Butler County Conservation District 

Butler County Emergency Management 

Butler County EMS 

Butler County Landfill 

Butler County GIS 

Butler County Health Department 

Butler County Sheriff’s Office 

Butler County School Superintendents / USD 394

City of Rose Hill / Rose Hill Police Dept

DaVita Andover Dialysis

El Dorado Correctional Facility / Dept of Corrections

El Dorado Fire Department

El Dorado Police Department

Everyday El Dorado 

Flinthills Services

Holly Energy Partners

HollyFrontier – El Dorado Refinery 

Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks

Kansas Medical Center 

K-State Research and Extension

Mears Fertilizer

Phillips 66 Pipeline, LLC

Rausch Medical Clinics

Savage Services

South Central Mental Health

Susan B. Allen Memorial Hospital 

Towanda Fire Department 

Tallgrass Energy Partners

Disaster Declaration Extended for Butler County

Keri Korthal, Director of Emergency Management, appeared before the Board of Butler County Commissioners on Tuesday, May 28th to request an extension of the Disaster Declaration due to the fact that Butler County experienced another round of heavy rainfall and stormy weather.

Photo by Chad Wittenberg

The state has established the dates of April 28 and ongoing, at this time, to ensure everything possible is included before they go forward with a Presidential Declaration. There is already an estimated $2 million in damages from the first wave of storms.

The Commission voted to approve the extension for another seven (7) days.

With the announcement that President Trump approved Governor Kelly’s request for a disaster declaration, Director Keri Korthals and the Emergency Management team is starting to field questions about what that means for Butler County, and unfortunately, the information that’s out there is a little sparse at the moment; other than the message that Butler County is included.  So, Korthals shares with us what it means. “Does it indicate that FEMA funds will begin flowing into our county to repair roads and rebuild houses? Well, no, not exactly.”

Photo by Chad Wittenberg

According to Korthals, “There are actually two types of declarations that our Governor can request for our state’s current situation: an Emergency Declaration (the one Kansas received) and a Major Disaster Declaration (the one that’s often referred to as a ‘Presidential Disaster Declaration’).”

“An Emergency Declaration,” states Korthals, “provides federal money for those immediate life/health/public safety activities that jurisdictions have been (and are still) conducting: sandbagging, performing water rescues or search and rescue, barricading roads, opening emergency shelters, clearing hazardous debris. It won’t do anything that’s considered a longer-term fix, i.e. rebuilding a road or repairing a flood damaged building.”

Additionally, “The Kansas Division of Emergency Management (KDEM) has been meeting with all of the counties that have been impacted by this month’s storms and flooding, and they’re collecting the facts and figures that would support a Major Disaster Declaration.  They have already visited Butler County and gotten our information, but last we heard, they were still working their way through their massive list of locally-declared counties. When all their information has been compiled, then Governor Kelly can make a decision on requesting a Major Disaster Declaration.”

Korthals advises, “Be aware that these declarations sometimes only provide for road/bridge/building/infrastructure help for governments, like cities and townships, not private citizens. Definitely check the fine print.”

Learn more about FEMA disaster declarations.