Harvey County emergency management puts EOC on standby as storms threaten

Mike Anderson, Harvey County emergency management director, told the Board of County Commissioners on June 17 that an early-morning storm had downed trees and power lines and that a more severe line was forecast later in the day.

Anderson said winds of 89 miles per hour were recorded at the Hutchinson Airport and 101 miles per hour at the Wichita Airport, about an inch of rain had already fallen, and Evergy was reporting 673 Harvey County customers without power while Flint Hills REC showed six customers without power.

“The second and potentially more, severe storm is anticipated later this afternoon and into the night,” Anderson said. “As a result, Harvey County Emergency Operations Center or EOC will go on standby from 3PM today until 8AM tomorrow morning.”

The warning included a forecast that the later storm could produce tennis-ball-sized hail, 68–80 mph wind gusts and a few tornadoes. Anderson advised residents to monitor preparedness resources on the Harvey County Emergency Management website and the National Weather Service Wichita office.

Commissioners asked questions about local rainfall totals and the potential for additional flooding; one commissioner noted a home weather station reading of nearly 2.5 inches at his residence, a higher number than the county report, and said that could raise flood risk if more rain arrives.

Discussion points: county power outage counts and rising creek and river levels; EOC staffing plan and monitoring schedule. Direction: Emergency Management will staff the EOC in person from 3 p.m. until midnight (and remain on standby as needed) and post preparedness links. Decision: No formal commission vote — the briefing was informational and the EOC standby was an operational decision by Emergency Management.

The county encouraged residents to prepare for outages, flooding and severe weather and to follow real-time updates from Evergy, Flint Hills REC and the National Weather Service.