WICHITA, Kansas, May 8, 2008 – Storms this week have dropped heavy rain causing flooding concerns across Kansas.

Wichita is just hours away from the Riverfest and when you come downtown, you’ll see the Arkansas River is thick from our recent rains. And it’s probably only going to fill up more with storms expected to hit Wichita late Thursday night.

Flooding was a bad problem across the state last year and many along the river hope this isn’t another record breaking storm season.

From Ellinwood, where one year ago residents were scrambling to find dry land, to Fredonia where in early July, record rains washed out homes leaving many wondering where to turn.

It was a summer of devastating floods in Kansas. Coffeyville got a double dose of disaster when flood waters caused the refinery to spill at least 71,000 gallons of oil into the river destroying hundreds of homes and businesses.

In Reno County, the problem was levee breaks. One to 300 foot holes on both sides of the river damaged crops and left water districts worried about how to pay for repairs.

"It would take 30 years of our budget to repair that dyke,” said Richard Seck with Reno County Drainage District #2.

One year later, the levees in Reno County are fixed and every hole has been filled in thanks to federal aid.

"After working with FEMA, we finally got the money and got the FEMA and we finally got everything completed toward the end of February I believe,” said Jerry Schmidt with Reno Co. Drainage District #3.

But Schmidt admits the repairs haven’t eliminated every concern. He knows a big rain storm could create more problems along the Arkansas River.

"Even though we got the levees fixed, there is still the possibility of it still breaking somewhere,” Schmidt said.

It should be fine if the area sees one or two inches of rain at a time like we’ve seen lately. Those storms create only moderate flooding. The big problems happen when we get six, seven or eight inches of rain from one storm. So far, we haven’t seen a rain event like that in our region this year. But in Kansas, anything is possible.