The Emporia Gazette

May 27, 2012

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ITS REPUTATION precedes it.

Like everyone else, I had seen the photographs and video clips, so I expected to find chewed-up trees and vacant lots.

Yet the goose bumps came as we drove into Greensburg on U.S. Highway 54. I could feel tragedy still hanging in the air, 18 months after a tornado decimated the place.

On our November trip through Western Kansas, Dave and I, along with Jim and Susie Aber, spent a couple hours in Greensburg.

Arriving in town from the east, first we saw the new John Deere building, followed by a few structures that survived the storm.

Propped against posts are hand-painted signs - thank you notes to emergency responders, Americorps, Salvation Army, FEMA, and other groups.

The trees here look like forks that had been caught in a garbage disposal and then stuck upright into the ground.

Then we drove into the emptiness, the missing town.

We found paved streets with curbs and gutters, and sidewalks which have no buildings attached. Diagonal parking stripes on the street indicated that we were downtown.

One two-story building (S. D. Robinett-1915) on Main Street remains from the old days (before May 4, 2007).

The Kwik Shop is back in business. City hall and the Sun Chips Business Incubator are under construction. Greensburg State Bank has a new building.

New stoplights, new street signs, and new power poles are up.

Dozens of new homes line residential neighborhoods and more houses are being built. On a quiet Saturday afternoon, shots from a nail gun rang through the air.

It was closed on our visit, but we saw the exterior of the 5-4-7 Art Center built by University of Kansas architectural students. It’s green in color and is built to take advantage of solar, wind and geothermal energies.

The Big Well was not accessible for safety reasons, but the gift shop was open. The T-shirts that are for sale promote the Big Well, Greensburg/Green Town, and even tornadoes (the Kansas Moving Company.)

There are plans to build a new museum which will highlight the Big Well, regional weather, and the meteorites found in the area.

Most of the old town was hauled away, but a few things remain: a flag pole bent at a 45-degree angle in front of the Big Well; church steps, but no building; and a merry-go-round with a metal floor, bent, but still usable, in a playground of otherwise new equipment.

There are so few things remaining, that these tangible pieces from the past seem sacred.

Ground has been broken for a new hospital and a new school. Meanwhile, the hospital operates out of trailers and the school has a fleet of mobile classrooms. The Lutheran Church hauled in a small building and the funeral home office is in a trailer house.

The Kiowa County Courthouse is one of the few structures still standing. It was heavily damaged and is being repaired. You can find county offices nearby in trailers – the county attorney’s office in one, the health department in another.

It was a monster of a storm: 1.7 miles wide, 205 mph winds. The twister damaged or destroyed 763 homes.

The town is rebuilding with conscious thought. The Greensburg Sustainable Comprehensive Plan not only deals with energy issues, but layout, infrastructure, hazard mitigation, economic development, and keeping Greensburg as a walkable community.  (The 150-page master plan is online at www.bigwell.org.)

The town already had a history, but it now has another layer. Devastation and reconstruction have become the town’s new story.

Hundreds of residents are rebuilding in Greensburg. It takes more than an EF-5 tornado to yank some Kansans from their roots. After all, home is home.

Cheryl Unruh can be reached at cheryl@flyoverpeople.net.