Fast Facts

Local weather: For current local weather conditions and weather predictions we recommend the National Weather Service located in Pleasant Hill, www.crh.noaa.gov/eax.

Severe Weather: General information is available from several sources, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) www.fema.gov, and the Kansas Division of Emergency Management (KDEM) www.ink.org/public/kdem. FEMA has specific pages on tornadoes, floods and other weather hazards, during the high-risk seasons.

Pipelines, as well as storage facilities and flow control stations for natural gas and other petroleum products are scattered throughout Miami County. Sources of information include the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) www.epa.gov, bp Pipeline Company (North America) www.amoco.com, Williams Pipeline Company www.williams.com/gaspipeline/htm/transco.htm, and Conoco Pipeline Co www.conoco.com. The Pipeline Group www.pipelinegroup.com promotes pipeline safety and has a local division serving Douglas, Franklin, Miami and Osage Counties in Kansas.

Wolf Creek Nuclear Power Plant www.wcnoc.com is located in nearby Coffey County. While they are not close enough to Miami County to pose a serious threat, citizens often have questions about the impact of their operation.

Hazardous Materials are within the domain of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) www.epa.gov as well as the Kansas Department of Health and Environment www.kdhe.state.ks.us. In addition, area fire and police agencies are trained to respond to "haz-mat" spills, and there are companies in the Kansas City area that contract to clean-up haz-mat spills.

Terrorism Threats are a concern of many citizens, after the September 11th attack on the East Coast. The Federal Emergency Management Agency www.fema.gov is an excellent source of information. Another source of information about bio-terrorism, including Anthrax and Smallpox, is www.cdc.gov.

GEMS: www.fema.gov/gems (Global Emergency Management System) is an online searchable database containing links to websites in a variety of categories.