National Transportation Week...
Next week marks the observance of the annual National Transportation Week. This year is the seventy-fifth observance of this event. To celebrate, please encourage your sections and chapters to recognize this week with events to raise the awareness of transportation in our world.

There is a National Transportation Week website (http://www.ntweek.org/). Check it out. Print out the poster from the website, and post it at your place of work.

Also, please consider proclaiming the observance of National Transportation Week (see ITE's sample proclamation). Post your proclamation on your section's website, or read it at an upcoming section or chapter meeting. If you are involved in public agencies, consider having your elected board issue a similar proclamation commemorating the week.

Our livelihoods are based on transportation. Let's celebrate, but also look for ways to increase mobility, safety, and funding for transportation initiatives into the future.

Midwestern Weather Disasters...

Our thoughts and prayers are with all those victims, rescuers and caregivers who are working in the weather-ravaged areas in the Midwest. We also recognize the valiant efforts of Midwestern public works personnel in who are dealing with the ravages of nature through tornadoes, storms, and now floodwaters.

Pictures of the destruction in Greensburg, Kansas, was unbelieveable. Fortunately, the early warning systems prevented further loss of life.

Storms with heavy rain and high winds also deluged other areas of Kansas, as well as Missouri, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Iowa and Arkansas. The Missouri River and its tributaries are flooding their banks and impacting the levee systems. Roads are flooded and bridges are out. We hope and pray the municpal, county, state and federal officials are able to deal with the conditions quickly and effectively.

(Photos from the Kansas City Star, the Wichita Eagle, and the Salina Journal.)