Swollen Rivers A Danger In Much Of Kansas

Rain-swollen rivers in southeast and northeastern Kansas have claimed one life and nearly took another.

Crews in Allen County recovered the body of 23-year-old Iola resident Zane Forbis-Burgardt in Elm Creek around 9 a.m. Sunday.

The sheriff’s department says three men on inner tubes went over a small dam on the creek Saturday afternoon. The others were able to escape after their tubes flipped, but Forbis-Burgardt drowned.

In northeastern Kansas, a bystander helped Wamego police officers rescue a 9-year-old girl from the Kansas River on Sunday afternoon. The high water and swift current had pulled the girl about a mile from where she and her 17-year-old sister had been sitting on the bank.

Emergency management officials say high water remains a concern in much of central and southeastern Kansas.