Explosions from a leaking underground natural gas field and the effects of the nationwide economic downturn have been voted the top stories of the year in Kansas.
The impact on Kansas from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon finished a close third in voting by the state's Associated Press newspaper and broadcast editors.
The No. 1 story of 2001 started in mid-January after natural gas apparently leaked from a storage facility and traveled underground for 7 miles before erupting in gas geysers in the Hutchinson area. The geysers spewed gas and mud through old abandoned brine wells that had been dug decades earlier for salt mining.
Explosions from the gas killed two residents of a mobile home park and destroyed two downtown businesses.
Scientists with the Kansas Geological Survey at Kansas University teamed with Kansas Gas Service and the city to pinpoint and vent about 143 million cubic feet of natural gas under the city. By year's end, little, if any, gas was still leaking and the first of the wells were being plugged.
Economy
The Kansas economy was already hurting when the terrorist attacks took place, but things only got worse in the weeks after the attacks a story that was voted No. 2 by the state's editors.
Boeing, Raytheon and Bombardier and other aviation industries announced nearly 7,000 layoffs at their Wichita plants, and Cessna cut 175 workers in Independence as the battered airline industry cut orders for new planes. Some positive news followed those cuts when Cessna announced plans to build a Citation service center in Wichita, which would employ 1,200 workers. Cattle prices fell dramatically with the decline in travel after the Sept. 11 attacks, about the same time as the discovery of mad cow disease in Japan, the biggest importer of U.S. beef.
Even before the attacks, Sprint Corp. was experiencing difficulties in some operations. In October, the telecommunications company announced it was cutting 6,000 of its 88,000 worldwide jobs, half of them in the Kansas City area where the company has its headquarters. Much of the state's wheat was salvaged by late spring rains, but drought forced farmers to abandon 1.6 million acres, shrinking the harvest by 6 percent.
Terror impact
The terrorist attacks occurred far from Kansas, but there were almost daily reminders that no one was immune. On the day of the attacks, commercial airliners were grounded nationally and some landed planes at small airports in Kansas, taxing local facilities. In the weeks after the attacks in New York and Washington, there were daily reminders in the form of increased security at airports and government buildings. And there was a brief anthrax scare at a Topeka facility that repairs U.S. Postal Service equipment from around the country.
One of the most visible effects was the increase in patriotism: Flags lined the streets of many towns and flew from cars and trucks. And red, white and blue bunting adorned shops.
State budget
Editors voted the state government budget crisis the No. 4 story of 2001. It became clear early in the year that the boom years of the 1990s when the state cut taxes aggressively were over.
The Legislature found it had to plug a $206 million gap between revenues and spending in the new budget for the 2002 fiscal year and expectations fell even more after the Sept. 11 attacks. At year's end, there was a $426 million gap between expected revenues and spending commitments already made for 2003 and the talk going into the new year turned to big program cuts or tax increases.
No. 5 through 10
Other stories in the Top 10 selections of editors:
5. The State Board of Education with three new members repudiated controversial science standards adopted in 1999 and restored evolution as a central theory in Kansas science classes.
6. A tornado tore through Hoisington on April 21, leaving one man dead and damaging 45 percent of the town's houses. Also damaged by the storm was the high school, one grade school, the hospital, three churches and numerous businesses.
7. With Gov. Bill Graves prohibited from seeking a third term, the jockeying for the 2002 elections started early. Sen. Sam Brownback and Congressmen Todd Tiahrt and Jerry Moran opted out. House Speaker Kent Glasscock jumped into the race early, but dropped out to become Atty. Gen. Carla Stovall's running mate when she decided to take the plunge as the moderate Republican candidate. She could face State Treasurer Tim Shallenburger, a conservative Republican, in the GOP primary. The year ended with Insurance Commissioner Kathleen Sebelius as the presumed Democratic candidate for governor.
8. Reno County Sheriff Larry Leslie resigned effective Jan. 2, 2002, while accused of 34 bribery counts and facing dismissal.
9. The 2000 census confirmed what many suspected that the Kansas population had grown and become more diverse. People were leaving rural areas for the cities. And the number of Hispanic residents had doubled in the past decade.
10. Kansas missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham were abducted May 27 by Muslim extremist guerrillas from a tourist resort in the Philippines. Most of the other hostages taken in a kidnapping spree had escaped or were released, and others had been beheaded, but the Burnhams were still being held at the end of the year.
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