EMMIE BOESE
Hutch Post
HALSTEAD, Kan. — The City of Halstead declared a local state of emergency in the city council chambers on Monday afternoon. A severe thunderstorm went through town on Sunday evening and caused damage to many trees and several homes.
"We've already dispatched all of our crews and everything but it's a way to shore up any other permissions we need to get to work to try to clean the city up and eventually lead to receiving some funding from federal or state governments for assistance," Mayor Dennis Davis said. "But we're not letting that stop us. We are getting started. There's a lot of volunteers in town and we appreciate their presence and their help and everybody just needs to clean their yard up. That's where where we are at."
Davis said the National Weather Service office in Wichita is gathering data to figure out if Halstead got hit by a tornado or not.
"We've definitely seen some tornadic-type damage and heavy wind damage so we are waiting for their assessment before we really identify what we think we got hit with," Davis said.
According to Harvey County Government, no injuries have been reported at this time. Emergency Management is not allowing controlled burns in the county today.
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