3 young men killed in Kansas grain elevator blast

Unstable concrete, hanging steel beams and other damage caused by a powerful explosion that ripped through a Kansas grain elevator are complicating efforts to find three more people likely killed in the blast.

Crews were hoping to stabilize the debris and resume their search Monday in the Bartlett Grain Co. facility in Atchison, about 50 miles northwest of Kansas City. The bodies of three other workers were recovered after the Saturday blast, and two people are hospitalized with severe burns.

The explosion was a harrowing reminder of the dangers workers face inside elevators brimming with highly combustible grain dust at the end of harvest season. The blast fired an orange fireball into the night sky, shot off a chunk of the grain distribution building directly above the elevator and blew a large hole in the side of a concrete silo.

The search for three people presumed dead — another worker and two grain inspectors — was temporarily halted Sunday because of fears that the building could fall on rescuers. Local officials met with victims' families to explain why crews pulled back, but understood they wanted their loved ones found, Atchison City Manager Trey Cocking said.

"Uncertainty is always the worst for folks," he said late Sunday, as candlelight vigils were held near the still smoldering building.

The three Bartlett workers whose bodies have been recovered were identified as Chad Roberts, 20; Ryan Federinko, 21; and John Burke, 24. Bartlett officials said the three others are presumed dead and search crews have a good idea where they were at the time of the explosion.

Among the missing was Travis Keil, a war veteran who had served as a site inspector for 16 years. His parents, Gary and Ramona Keil, drove from Salina to Atchison to wait with his three children — ages 8, 12 and 15 — as crews searched.

"We have all our prayers working for him," Gary Keil said. "It's a parent's worst nightmare to go through this."

for more detail visit usatoday.com

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Central Texas fires cause a handful of high school sporting delays

As the raging wildfires neared, Bastrop High football coach Gerald Perry rushed from his home Sunday with his wife, Michelle, and their three children. On Tuesday, he and his family had settled into an uneasy existence at a shelter for evacuees at Bastrop Middle School.
Perry, who left home with "a pair of shorts and two T-shirts," said he had no idea whether his house was among the roughly 577 homes destroyed by two fires in Bastrop County that had burned 34,800 acres by Tuesday night. He did know that two of his assistant coaches and at least two of his players had lost their homes to the wind-driven flames .
"It looks like a war zone out there," Perry said. "We've got friends who have lost their homes. This is a daunting task. Football is about the furthest thing from my mind."
On Friday night, Perry's team shut out Seguin to even its record after two games. By Tuesday, the Bears' football season had been pushed into the background, as a handful of high schools in Central Texas postponed or cancelled sporting events and other extracurricular activities in the wake of the devastating fires.
Tuesday's varsity volleyball matches involving teams from Bastrop, Cedar Creek, Vandegrift, Rouse and Smithville high schools were called off.
Bastrop and Cedar Creek also won't play Friday after the Bastrop Independent School District cancelled classes for the rest of this week.
The decision also meant Bastrop's football team won't play its scheduled game against Akins on Friday night.
Cedar Creek, which won't field a varsity football team until next year, will not play its scheduled junior varsity game on Thursday. Coach Dan Hernandez said he had contacted most of the 85 to 90 juniors, sophomores and freshmen who play football for Cedar Creek, which opened in 2010.
for more detail visit  statesman.com

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