A northeast Kansas man is heading to Houston Texas to offer aid after tornadoes and sever thunderstorms slammed the area over the weekend.

“There’s a lot of flooding, there’s going to be a lot of devastation,” said Greg Borske, a Red Cross Volunteer of Northwest Missouri who lives in Elwood, Kan. “More people out of their homes.”

More than 100 people spent Sunday night in the Red Cross and community shelters in Texas. Red Cross workers are also providing meals, distributing relief supplies and meeting one-on-one with people to assist them in getting the help they need.

Borske said he’s going to make sure Red Cross staff are also taken care of.

“Looking at the well-being of the staff, make sure they don’t overwork themselves,” he said.

Borske first started volunteering with the Red Cross in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina. He’s a Vietnam Vet and said his training has helped him respond in a disaster situation.

“After I got out I wanted to be a nurse and they wouldn’t let me be a nurse,” Borske said. “I became an EMT. I became a nurse at about 38.”

The latest severe weather comes on the heels of flooding which occurred recently in Texas in the aftermath of Hurricane Patricia. The Red Cross has been helping people since the flooding began. That includes opening a total of 24 shelters with more than 650 overnight stays providing more than 7,000 meals and snacks and distributing more than 1,890 relief supplies.

For information on how to volunteer with the Northwest Missouri Chapter of the Red Cross call (816) 232-8439. Donations can be dropped off or mailed to the Northwest Missouri Chapter at 401 N. 12th St. St. Joseph, Mo. 64501.

Today
Sunny, with a high near 58. West northwest wind 3 to 5 mph.

Tonight
Partly cloudy, with a low around 37. Calm wind becoming north northwest around 5 mph after midnight.

Saturday
Sunny, with a high near 55. North northwest wind 5 to 7 mph.

Saturday Night
Clear, with a low around 34. Light and variable wind.

Sunday
Sunny, with a high near 57. Light south wind increasing to 5 to 10 mph in the morning.

Sunday Night
Clear, with a low around 34.

Monday
Sunny, with a high near 58.

Monday Night
Mostly clear, with a low around 42.

Tuesday
Mostly sunny, with a high near 65.

Tuesday Night
A chance of showers. Partly cloudy, with a low around 46. Chance of precipitation is 30%.

Veterans Day
A chance of showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 59. Chance of precipitation is 40%.

Wednesday Night
A chance of showers. Partly cloudy, with a low around 38. Chance of precipitation is 30%.

Thursday
Mostly sunny, with a high near 55.

Chuck Kempf has been named by the City of St. Joseph as the new director of Parks, Recreation & Civic Facilities.

Kempf was selected over one other finalist in an interview process that took place last week.

Kempf received his bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Missouri Western State College, in St. Joseph, Missouri. He began work for the city of St. Joseph in 2005, as project manager in the city manager’s office. He moved to the parks department in 2010, serving as supervisor of recreation programs and facilities, and interim parks director since March 2015.

Kempf replaces long-term director Bill McKinney who retired earlier this year. He will begin his duties as director on Monday, November 9, with a salary of $89,500.

A special enforcement held Wednesday in St. Joseph put a special emphasis and led to tickets for drivers failing to stop a railroad crossings when signals were active.

According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol eight drivers were ticketed during the operation for failing to stop at a rail crossing when activated.

The “Trooper On A Train” enforcement was held from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. Wednesday as a joint operation between the St. Joseph Police Department, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad Police and the Missouri State Highway Patrol. One officer from each department rode the train while ground cars from each of those departments were stationed at rail crossings in the train’s path. The goal of the operation was to detect vehicles failing to stop at railroad crossings when the crossing signals were activated.

“Railroad crossings pose a significant danger when motorists choose not obey the signals at those crossings. Motorists need to remember when they see railroad tracks they need to think train,” said Captain James E. McDonald, commanding officer Troop H.

Police broke up a Halloween party in St. Joseph last week and issued nearly 60 tickets for underage drinking.

The St. Joseph Police Department said officers were called to the 2500 block of Olive St. just before 1 a.m.

“It came in as a citizen complaint,” Sgt. Larry Stobbs with SJPD said. “College kids lived there, there were like three or four that lived there and they had about 100 people over there.”

Stobbs said it took about three hours to process all of the kids through the breath tests and issuing summons.

“The best thing for us to do is get them closed down and get them all taken care of and get them a safe ride home because if you just sent two cops there and they scatter that crowd then you have 50 or 60 underage kids getting into cars and heading down the road and they could get into a wreck,” Stobbs said.

Police had to have an ambulance come by to check on three people.

“One of the was completely passed out in the basement, the other two kept nodding off and puking, probably had fairly high alcohol contents,” Stobbs said.

He said four officers with the Midland Empire Alcohol Task Force and two uniformed officers responded to the scene. Stobbs said the minors were turned over to sober adults.

Atchison, Kan. – An improvement to tap water taste and smell is in the works for the City of Atchison, Kan. as officials work to consistently meet EPA regulations.

Earlier this week, the Water Treatment Plant staff began treating the water with ozone after completing training on the new equipment in recent weeks.

On January 21, 2014, the Atchison City Commission authorized a contract with Walters‐Morgan for the construction and installation of a new ozone disinfection treatment process at the City’s Water Treatment Plant.

“An effective disinfection process is critical to producing clean, compliant water,” said Director of Public Works and Utilities, Justin Pregont. “With ozone up and running, the occasional taste and odor issues with our water should be a thing of the past once all the water in the distribution system turns over. Additionally, once the filter upgrade project is complete at the plant sometime next year, the nagging TOC compliance issue will also be a thing of the past.”

Prior to initiating construction of the ozone disinfection process at the Water Treatment Plant, the City struggled to consistently meet EPA regulations on removal of total organic carbons (TOC) during the water treatment process. Water plants that treat surface water, such as that
from the Missouri River, are required by federal rule to monitor levels of TOC, a disinfection by‐product precursor. TOC has not been shown to have any adverse health effects, however, it does provide a medium for the formation of disinfection by‐products such as Trihalomethanes (TTHM) and Haloacetic Acids (HAA). TTHMs and HAAs are also monitored with regularity and contaminant level violations for both of those byproducts have been rare.

“The ozone disinfection system, when coupled with the filter project that we’re just getting started, will allow us to produce higher quality water with fewer taste and odor issues,” said Director of Public Works and Utilities Justin Pregont. “This project was a huge investment and we’re excited to see it up and running.”

Buchanan County deputies and fire protection personnel from Dekalb and Rushville responded this morning to a car fire south of St Joseph.

The vehicle was believed to have been stolen on Wednesday.

It was spotted fully involved in flames in the area of Horseshoe Lake, on Bluff Road at US-59 highway.

Fire crews were dispatched shortly after 4 a.m., and by 5 a.m. crews had the fire out.

A 19-year-old was killed and an elderly man seriously injured in a crash Wednesday morning in Savannah.

Joshua Spears of Savannah was pronounced deceased at Mosaic Life Care around 10:47 a.m. Wednesday after a two-vehicle crash on Business 71 and 5 St.

According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol, Spears was westbound in a 2005 Cadillac STS and Norman Johnson, 70 of Savannah was eastbound in a 1997 Ford F150 just after 10 a.m.  The Patrol said Spears’s vehicle crossed the center line and hit Jonson’s vehicle head-on.  Spears’ vehicle came to rest facing south on its wheels, Johnson’s facing east off the southside of the roadway.

Both were taken by ambulance to Mosaic Life Care for treatment.  Johnson was taken with serious injuries, Spears was pronounced deceased.

 

UPDATE 3:12 p.m. – An accident involving two semis blocked traffic at a busy south-side intersection Wednesday afternoon.

Sgt. Chris McBane with the St. Joseph Police Department said one semi was northbound on 59 highway and another was eastbound on Alabama around 2 p.m.

“The semi on Alabama pulled out and hit the side of the other trailer causing the semi on 59 highway to overturn onto its side and lose its load of hay-bales,” McBane said.

The driver of the overturned semi was a 34-year-old man from Wisconsin.  He was taken to Mosaic Life Care for treatment of minor injuries.

The driver of the other semi was a 73-year-old man from Drexel, Mo.  McBane said the Drexel man was issued a ticket for failing to yield.

At 3:18 p.m. the roadway near Lake Avenue and Alabama streets was still closed while tow trucks worked to remove the semis.

UPDATE: A man was seriously injured after a motorcycle accident Wednesday afternoon on N. Belt Highway in St. Joseph.

According to Sgt. Chris McBane with the St. Joseph Police Department the driver of the motorcycle, James Deyarmon, 55 of St. Joseph was taken to the hospital with what was initially reported as serious to life-threatening injuries. As of 3 p.m. McBane said the driver’s injuries were deemed non life-threatening.

McBane said Deyarmon was driving his Harley Davidson motorcycle northbound in the right-hand lane of the Belt Highway around 1 p.m. when a Pontiac G6, driven by a 71-year-old Kansas City, Kansas man, pulled out from the Anderson Ford parking lot in front of the motorcycle causing the crash.  The motorcycle driver was thrown from his vehicle.

Police shutdown the northbound lanes of the Belt Highway in the 1900 block in front of Anderson Ford for around an hour.

McBane said the case is being submitted to the prosecutor’s office.