HUTCHINSON – With flooding widespread and more rain in the forecast, the Reno County Commission once again has approved a disaster declaration for the county.

The request came from Emergency Management Director Adam Weishaar.

“It opens up our emergency operation plan, basically both our response and recovery operations,” he said. “It also gives law enforcement some teeth to keep people out of the river and make sure people aren’t driving around the barricades as well.”

The declaration also goes to the office of Gov. Laura Kelly, which could help the county with the costs of flood recovery efforts.

“This opens us up for both state and federal resources and, if we hit our dollar threshold which we already did on our previous disaster which is just over $243,000, we qualify for 75 to 85 percent reimbursement of the expenditures that we have due to this flooding event,” Weishaar said.

This is the second declaration approved by the Reno County Commission in the last month and is effective for seven days.