Springtime in Kansas

Greensburg, Kansas. This is what happens to a small town when a F4-F5 tornado runs through town.  It was 1 1/2 mile wide and destroyed 90% of the town.  As of this morning 9 people were dead.  Rescue efforts are still going on because they were stopped last night when another round of storms went through the area.  In fact Kansas is bracing for still another round of storms today and tonight.

I bring this up because on June 3, 1980, nine tornadoes tore through Grand Island, Nebraska.  There were five fatalities.  Granted, this was a larger town and the damage was not quite as extensive, but the effect was similar.  I still recall the events of that night as clearly as if it were last year.  I remember walking north with two friends who lived on the same street.  We had been watching the junior high school boys play baseball.  The wind picked up from the east and small stones began stinging our legs with some force.  We decided to go to Brandie's boyfriend's house and call our parents.  Our houses were still a good 3/4 of a mile north and the weather was getting bad.  In fact, Brandie looked to the north and stated "That's a tornado"  Brenda and I scoffed.

We got to the boyfriend's house and before we even called all of our parents showed up.  All three of us lived on the same street and our parents had pulled out of their respective driveways at the same time and went to the same house.  We hadn't had a chance to call yet and they hadn't talked to each other.  I got home and went downstairs and turned on the tv.  Dad and I had been watching tornadoes for quite a while and I figured the storm warnings were far enough north I didn't pay much attention.  That is until mom and dad told me to get under the stairs.  The three of us kids and the dog were squeezed under the stairs.  Sis, on the end me in the middle and Soup closest to the door way with mom and dad on chairs in the doorway.  This was 9:45pm.  We stayed there for three hours.  At one point mom said she smelled insulation and we thought the roof was gone.  Our ears were popping.  It was scary but more annoying than anything else.  By midnight dad went upstairs and we realized we were the lucky ones.

This is where it gets sketchy cause at some point our neighbors to the south found their way to our house since theirs was gone.  Their roof was in our backyard.  The neighbors to the north weren't home and their roof was in our front yard.  The sliding glass door facing south was gone and the roof insulation from the house to the south was plastered in our kitchen and dining room.  It was embedded in the cupboards.  The other damage was in the bathroom on the south side of the house.  A 2 X 4 had gone through the roof and was lodged in the bathroom ceiling allowing water to drip in the room.  If it had been 6 inches over the drip would have fell in the toilet.  No such luck.  But we were one of the lucky ones.  All the trees were stripped yet we still had a house. 

The National Guard were called in and imposed a curfew to stifle looters and someone had gone door to door to perform a head count.  The doors were marked with a circle with an X and some numbers.

If you would go back to that same area, the growth of the trees belie the fact that the area was almost bare over twenty years earlier.  I can't even imagine the feelings those people in Greensburg are going through.  They have lost everything.  The trees are stripped of bark and most of their branches.  It will take a while for clean up and rebuilding to begin.  But, these people of the midwest do not give up.  They will rebuild.  Neighbors all around will rally to their aid.  Livestock will get fed.

So, why do I bring this up?  I was reminded of the futility of fighting mother nature last night when our sirens went off.  There was a touchdown not twenty miles from where I live.  Yet, I really wasn't scared.  There wasn't anything I could do except watch the progression and listen to the scanner and ham radio Dastard has.  I will do the same thing today as the weather starts to threaten again.  Oh, and study for my final tomorrow!

Keep those people in your thoughts and prayers and yes, I do know someone whose family lived in Greensburg.  They survived, but the house did not.

Keep on Go!