Given the year Kansas has had, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and Major Gen. Tod Bunting were wise this week to remind everyone from public officials to ordinary Kansans to be prepared for nature’s worst. The state’s more than $1 billion in damage already this year — from western Kansas’ ice storm to the Greensburg tornado to southeast Kansas’ flooding — has tested the state’s emergency readiness. The Sept. 11 anniversary also was cause to note that authorities cannot rely on the federal dollars that flowed after the disaster. In the past four years, Kansas has seen its Department of Homeland Security grant funding shrink by 71 percent, from $29 million in 2004 to $8 million this year. That means 75 percent more money for likely targets California, New York and Washington, D.C. — dollars they need and deserve. But meanwhile, Kansas must spend less without being less safe.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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