More than a year after a tornado devastated Greensburg, the town, with the help of volunteers, is still working hard to rebuild.
A group of volunteers from Lyon County helped with the rebuilding earlier this month. Ken Roemer, Jim and Karolen Harrouff; Frank and Liz Voorhees, Gary and Doris Christy; and Marshall and Sharon Miller all braved rather stormy weather to help residents get back on their feet and into their new homes. The group, which worked under the United Methodist Group of South Central Kansas Tornado Recovery organization, spent a week in Greensburg helping drain basements from recent rains and doing other work on homes.
Right after the tornado, there was not much left of the town. The water, gas and electrical infrastructures were destroyed. Today, the town is hooked back into utilities and residents are starting to move back in.
The town is still largely nothing more than level ground. Gary Christy said his first reaction when returning to the town was a surprise.
“I was amazed at the fact that the town was level,” Christy said. “There was nothing there. I was really taken aback by the vastness of that and how much area it covered.”
Miller said he saw a lot of changes since the last time he had been to Greensburg, in July 2007. Then there was a tent for the Methodist Church and many empty lots. Since July, a lot of work has been accomplished. CBS recently built a new playground and dedicated it to the children of Greensburg and several homes and condos are going up. The Kiowa County Courthouse, which was largely spared from the tornado, still stands empty. Miller said the residents do their grocery shopping at the convenience store, which plans on expanding to accommodate more groceries. The town’s grocery store owner has decided not to return.
The Carriage House, a retirement home, is slowly taking residents back, Miller said. However, there’s the challenge of finding people to work at the home.
“That’s the real problem, trying to find people to work service jobs,” he said.
The first project the Emporia group worked on was staining and painting a home in Greensburg. They then helped install wiring and painted the home of an elderly woman who brought them cinnamon rolls every afternoon.
“That was pretty impressive,” Gary Christy said.
Doris Christy said the women helped pump out a flooded basement.
“We had a terrible amount of rain when we were out there,” she said.
Gary Christy agreed.
“It was a very good experience and I would definitely go back,” he said. “But we were kinda busy dodging the storms.”
Miller said Greensburg received four inches of rain one night they were there.
“It was a massive rain,” Miller said, adding that the dry creek bed they parked their RVs near the night before was running with water the next day.
While there is a lot of work to be done, the town has a long way to go.
“The community is pretty rough yet,” Miller said. “It is predicted that 50 percent of the homes will be rebuilt. Main Street is pretty void of businesses. There’s very little left.”