Photo Gallery
Greensburg's tornado
Associated Press photographers document the destruction wrought by a tornado Friday, May 4, 2007, in Greensburg.
Help from the Emporia area began arriving Saturday in Greensburg and continued this morning through the local emergency management system. Meanwhile, at least one local church is preparing to send a group to Greensburg on Saturday.
Martin Peres, who is in charge of the city’s code services, was sent to Greensburg on Saturday and Sunday to help assess damage; he returned home this morning.
Two Lyon County sheriff’s deputies and two Emporia police officers left here in two pickup trucks about 2 a.m. today and were expected to arrive in Greensburg around 7 a.m.
Preparations for the response began on Saturday, when the Kansas Department of Emergency Management activated its system to coordinate resources to help in Kiowa County. City and county officials met with local emergency management director Rick Frevert on Saturday to determine what resources were needed and when they should be sent.
“My understanding is they’re ... opening up the city for the citizens to get back in there, and they wanted enough officers to control what’s taking place there,” said Lyon County Sheriff Gary Eichorn.
The officers are expected to return in about 72 hours.
“We’re assisting them like they’d assist us,” Eichorn said, adding that mutual aid is part of the emergency management process. “I imagine through a period of time, there’ll be more people going.”
Emporia’s street department supervisor, Ron Childers, who also was called to the emergency management meeting Saturday, anticipates that some of his workers will be needed.
“We’re right now waiting on that call for assistance,” Childers said. “We’ve got equipment and manpower available so when they call, we’ll be ready.”
He said that when the call comes, his department also will maintain adequate manpower in Emporia.
“We’ll for sure have enough people here, with our flood waters rising, we’ll have enough to take care of our community,” Childers said.
Clean-ups and restorations of service after natural disasters go much more smoothly when they are done in stages that build on each other. The Kansas Department of Transportation already has gone through Greensburg to open up streets and pile debris to the sides. The area will be rife with nails, he said as an example, and Childers expects that tire companies will send farm trucks loaded with new tires to help support the clean-up and beyond.
Childers said he has been unable to get in touch with a friend in Greensburg.
“The cell tower was down out there Saturday,” he said. “Cell service was very limited ... and virtually no land lines available.”
At Messiah Lutheran Church, plans are being developed to send help on Saturday. Church members Kathy and Dave Johnson of Emporia already have gone to Greensburg, where they’ve heard that relatives have lost everything.
Elaine Whiteneck, minister of Christian education, said that the local church’s plans will be flexible as it waits for information from the Lutheran Disaster Response group that was to be in Greensburg today and tomorrow.
“And we probably aren’t going to know anything until Thursday afternoon or even Friday as to what kinds of things that they’ll need help with,” she said.
Whiteneck said that, because of liability and other issues, the Messiah group will be adult-oriented. If high-school students wanted to go, that would need medical release forms, tetanus shots and parental permission slips.
“My preference would be that a parent just go along,” Whitehead said. “I think that would just simplify it.”
More information about the Messiah volunteers will be released as it becomes available.
Kevin Ryan, director of the Lyon County chapter of the American Red Cross, said that the organization’s Wichita chapter is in charge of taking care of needs in Greensburg.
People who want to make donations may send them to the Red Cross office here, 904 E. Sixth Ave., with a notation of “Greensburg” on checks or money orders.