Search under way in Greensburg for tornado victims

[proud2BlibKansan]

Source: Kansas City Star

Search under way in Greensburg for tornado victims
By ROXANA HEGEMAN
The Associated Press

GREENSBURG, Kan. | Rescuers finished pulling about 30 people from a partially collapsed hospital early Saturday after a massive tornado turned much of this southwest Kansas community into rubble and killed at least one person.

The injuries of those who were trapped were minor, said Sharon Watson, spokeswoman for the Kansas Adjutant General's Department.

The tornado struck at 9:45 p.m. Friday, damaging about 75 percent of the Kiowa County town about 110 miles west of Wichita, Watson said. Dazed residents later walked the streets, looking for loved ones and taking in the sight of crumbled buildings and smashed cars.

Watson said authorities were trying to account for all the residents of the town and didn't have an exact count on the injured.

more . . .

Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/116/story/95464.html

[Coyote_Bandit]

1. Saw a pic

of this tornado on the 10 o'clock news last night. It was reported to be a mile wide. Nasty.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. 75% of the town is gone

I have a good friend who grew up in Greensburg. It's a pretty little town. This is very sad.

[Coyote_Bandit]

3. I didn't

hear anything about the wind speed or how strong the tornado was - but from the pic I could tell it was bad. I'm sending that little town and all the people there lots of warm thoughts. This kind of thing can be especially difficult for rural areas to recover from. They don't have the same resources and infrastructure. Many are struggling to survive before the physical destruction.

Earlier this week was the anniversary of the Oklahoma City F5 tornado from a few years back. I knew several folks who were affected by that. And I know folks who were devasted by the tornados in NE Oklahoma and NW Arkansas last year. Tragic for everybody. And these crazy storms are so unpredictable. I saw a home last year that was completely undamaged while the homes to either side had been completely removed from their foundations and tossed about. Every spring as tornado season approaches I swear that I am going to move out of tornado alley. Someday I will.

[greenbriar]

19. 90% is gone and 9 deaths so far

almost everything is gone

[RL3AO]

4. I wonder if this will be the first ever EF5?

[BadgerKid]

11. Easily (radar pic)

There are posts on the storm boards pointing out that the rotation was faster and spread out over a larger field than two EF4's. Plus, there seems to have been one to two satellite tornadoes.

Below is a radar pic from this event that shows the reflectivity of the radar beam. The latter is an educational image for interpretation.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

12. You can see the dramatic change in temperature

in the tightly packed precip bands at the edge of the storm just east of the tornado/Greensburg.
The clear definition of that front is impressive, in a frightening way.

[thecrow]

13. In the first picture, what is that splash thing around Dodge City?

[NewYorkerfromMass]

14. It's the radar station that made the image

so the precip nearest the radar appears in that radial pattern you see.

[thecrow]

45. ahhhhhh................thanks for splainin'

:)

[Keefer]

5. I live in Greensburg..

PENNSYLVANIA. I hope our sister city will pull through this.

[nealmhughes]

6. CNN has the daylight pictures up now, it was devastating.

A storm chaser headed towards town after it hit said there were dazed people walking down the highway towards town and injured dogs and cattle everywhere, the brick buildings appeared to be utterly destroyed. It looked like pictures of Berlin in the Sping of 1945 or Richmond in 65.

They appear to have had 20 mins. minimum of warning, so the death toll is low.

Gratia Deo.

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. CNN now reporting 4 dead

[nancyr]

8. If I remember correctly...

Isn't Greensburg the home of the world's largest hand-dug well?

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. yes

http://www.bigwell.org/bigwell.html

[greenbriar]

20. yea, and I have been told it is in ruins too

we used to go every summer

[NewYorkerfromMass]

10. 7 dead as toll rises- Massive F4 (F5?) storm

I think you should update the headline, this was one massive storm. I am reading accounts of 2 mile wide path of destruction and 1 mile diameter funnel.

Massive tornado in Kansas kills seven
05-05-2007

At least seven people were killed after a massive tornado collapsed a hospital and wrecked up to 90 percent of a small town in southern Kansas, local officials and US media said Saturday.

Seven people were reported dead in the area and around 60 people were injured after the storm made a direct hit on Greensburg, Kansas, Sharon Watson, spokeswoman for Kansas Emergency Management, told CNN.

According to reports some 30 people were pulled from the rubble of Kiowa County Memorial Hospital in Greensburg as the storm ripped homes off their foundations and even damaged below-ground shelters..

The death toll rose from one to seven through the morning, with communications in the devastated area severely disrupted....

http://www.anatoliantimes.com/hbr2.asp?id=&s=int&a=070505144436.ivihjz8h

[kestrel91316]

18. Sounds almost as bad as Xenia, OH 1974. That had a mile-wide

funnel with a mile on either side destroyed.

[greenbriar]

22. 9 dead now

tornado was massive

[BadgerKid]

15. Red Cross Hotline / Media report w/tornado pic

Red Cross Sets Up Hotline
Reporter: KAKE News
Email: [e-mail]

5-5-07 - A large tornado caused massive damage in Kiowa and Pratt Counties Friday night. A state official says the number of tornado fatalities in southwest Kansas has risen to at least seven. The largest damage is in Greensburg, where the city administrator says the small town suffered 100 percent damage.



http://www.kake.com/weather/headlines/7347256.html

[puffthemagicdragon]

16. Deadly twister flattens Kansas town

Source: CNN.com

(CNN) -- A powerful tornado killed at least six people as it wiped out Greensburg, Kansas, on Friday night, emergency official Sharon Watson said Saturday.

A seventh person died in Stafford County, about 30 miles away, according to Watson, of the Kansas Emergency Management Agency.

The storm destroyed or seriously damaged about 90 percent of the rural town, the American Red Cross said. Greensburg has about 1,600 residents and is located about 110 miles west of Wichita.

The twister demolished the central business district, city hall and a high school, but the courthouse remained standing, witnesses said.

"There's just nothing left in a lot of these areas," said Sgt. Ron Knoefel of the Kansas Highway Patrol.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/WEATHER/05/05/severe.weather/index.html

[KamaAina]

17. Should we rebuild Greensburg, KS?

After all, they're just gonna have another tornado in 300 years or so!

:sarcasm:

A-duh! Of course! And while we're at it...

http://ashleymorris.typepad.com/ashley_morris_the_blog/2007/05/mission_accompl.html

[durtee librul]

21. PLEASE DO NOT SEND $$$ TO RED CROSS

for these victims unless you CLEARLY mark on your check that it is to be used ONLY for these folks - otherwise, if you mark it 'disaster' it goes into a 'pot' for use anywhere AND if you just send a check with nothing on it - it goes for salaries. I know. I spent 8 years as a paid staffer at that hell hole and I can tell you right now, they are the BIGGEST bunch of crooks this side of DC. (even tho their hdqtrs is in DC). Each check has to be 'coded' to be accounted for (they do have financial audits every year) and again, if you don't specify, chances are the $$ you send will NOT be used for what you think they will be.

I saw this first hand with the CA earthquake and Hurricane Hugo and I would bet 60% of the donations which came into our chapter went elsewhere than what the people sent it for. We would get letters with intentions stated, but if it wasn't on the check, it went to the general fund. This was NOT just our chapter - there was a letter from National with these instructions.

Send your money to the Salvation Army instead. They use a larger percentage of donations for victims than the red cross does anyhow.

[Maat]

24. I know that what you say is true.

I've decided to give my dollars to Habitat for Humanity. When I was a social worker, I had very bad experiences with the Salvation Army. The people in the programs would try very hard to convert my clients, who were so desperate for assistance, they took it. The management at this one center pressured my client into signing over the rights to her welfare checks and food stamps. I needed her to have an apartment in order to successfully resolve her case. They refused to tear up her agreement - UNTIL I paid them a little visit. Suddenly, after our lovely conversation, she had the rights to her money back. I will never give the Salvation Army another penney, and I won't give it to the Red Cross either.

Recently, I questioned our local Habitat director extensively. They do not discriminate in the hiring of employees (e.g. they don't have to believe in the Trinity), they do not discriminate as to volunteers, and they definitely do not discriminate as to her gets assistance. And, Jimmy Carter is highly involved with them.

So sad that one has to be SO careful these days.

Our family's thoughts and prayers go out to all those who live there, and their families, and to the deceased, and their families.

[jollyreaper2112]

46. I don't know how shady they are

I won't say the Red Cross are crooks, I just know they don't have a fucking clue as to what they're doing, a real Bush-league operation. I'm in Palm Beach County. We were skirted by two of the 'canes in '04. Martin County to the north got the eyes of both storms. We had winds up between 70 and 90 here, lost power, but very few people lost their homes. Those that did caught unlucky trees or had shitty roofs. So for the most part, people had places to live, they had their jobs, but they needed cash and assistance for repairs. I was unemployed at the time so I went down to the Red Cross office to volunteer. They were worse than worthless with no plan, no idea on what to do. They spent a lot of money on meals and then had no idea where to deliver them. At the end of the first day they ended up trying to break the meal packs up into separate bags to dump in different dumpsters so nobody would know how badly they screwed up! I salvaged what I could and took it to a nursing home. Shit, at least those people could eat the food!

In order to operate efficiently, the Red Cross needs to restructure the way they handle things. First off, the people coming in from national should be the ones who know how to marshall and coordinate resources. Nobody should be sitting around with a thumb up the butt, there should always be someone in the know. And that's where the second part comes in, the local chapter rep should know the lay of the land. Who are the vulnerable people? where are the areas at greatest risk? Local government and emergency services should have the damage assessment in hand and get that information to the civilian disaster agencies.

The whole Red Cross effort was pretty fucked up, almost as bad as the disaster cleanup that came later. They got out-of-state contractors to come in and run the show. They had a bunch of hicks from Disaster Recovery Corp come in from north of here. The guy running the project I was at carried a gun and thought he was fucking John Wayne. He even pulled it on a contractor he was arguing with to get the man to back down. Crazy, ignorant shit. Good old DRC, stands for "Don't require contracts." They screwed up so many things by making verbal agreements instead of signing on paper. The whole cleanup effort was a clusterfuck. The Feds were paying $90 a cubic yard for debris removal and that got subcontracted out several times until the guys in the trucks were making maybe $20 a load. They couldn't figure out where they wanted to operate the debris sites. At first it was at the Stuart landfill, then it was at the property of this local hick landowner who was up to his ass in graft and dirty dealing. When they couldn't agree on what the verbal contract said, DRC upped and moved operations to a wildlife preserve and we started dumping debris there. That landowner was so pissed he fired the entire debris pile, just to show DRC a thing or two. Holy shit, that was an immense burn. The final thing that really made the operation great was that they were operating big-ass tub grinders right by the road. Tub grinders are the ones where you have a big open tub that you dump vegetative material into. Like a blender, things can go flying when the blades are whirling. We had huge pieces of logs go flying into the rural highway running along the site. This is a 55mph road so you can imagine the hazard that represented.

Bah. Enough on this.

[RL3AO]

23. Preliminary reports are an EF4 tornado.

[Heidi]

25. Kick.

:kick:

[Xipe Totec]

26. New flurry of twisters strikes Kansas

Source: Associated Press

GREENSBURG, Kan. - A fresh wave of tornadoes ripped through southwest Kansas on Saturday evening, a day after a tornado all but destroyed this town, killing nine and injuring dozens more. The National Weather Service said it had received reports "well into the double digits" of twisters touching down in six counties.

Among them were a series of half-mile wide "wedge" tornadoes — similar to the one that devastated Greensburg on Friday night, meteorologist Mike Umscheid said.

"We're going to expect quite a lot of damage," he said.

Earlier, emergency crews called off the search in Greensburg for victims as the weather deteriorated again.


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070506/ap_on_re_us/severe_weather_58

[SharonAnn]

27. Prayers for them all. Truly frightening weather with horrific consequences.

And our National Guard is in Iraq, with its equipment. When it's needed so bady right here at home.

[Bobbieo]

36. And our National Guard is in Iraq. That is the most depressing thing of all.

[hfojvt]

28. what time was this posted?

It's 9:41 central time as I type. The six o'clock news was showing severe t-storms heading to Greensburg. Local news is in about 15 minutes.

[Mabus]

30. 25 mintues ago, link to current radar

http://radar.weather.gov/radar.php?rid=ict&product=N0R&overlay=11101111&loop=no

edited to add link to Wichita's KAKE weather site: http://www.kake.com/weather with more local radar pictures.

[Suich]

29. A friend called today to tell me two of her kids

each lost a home. One of them found some clothes scattered around but their house is gone. Her son doesn't have anyplace to go to work Monday.

[Fovea]

31. Do you think Her Honor the Gov has called for FEMA?

Would that be better or worse than not asking for federal asst?

[hfojvt]

32. news just reported live from Greensburg

Apparently the tornado just missed the town about an hour ago, but it's quiet enough to report live.

[flyarm]

33. so so sad..my heart breaks for kansas...i used to live in Leawood Ks

my child was born there...and we went through the twisters more than a few times!! once with the front tree through the front door...those poor people..it is a tragedy..but they will rebuild and they will realize..it is only stuff they have lost ..as long as they haven't lost a loved one..

I know a little about losing it all..i lost my home in the 94 Northridge earthquake..

it is devistating..and emotionally damn hard..to rebuild..but one realizes the values in our lives are not things and houses and jobs..the values most important are our family and friends..

saying prayers for those who lost a loved one..and prayers for all who will need to rebuild their lives..a piece at a time...

Sending love to my old home state of Kansas..

fly

[bigworld]

34. wow -- aerial photos of Greensburg

or what's left of it:

http://www.kansas.com/static/slides/050507tornadoaerials/

[eggplant]

38. Wow.

I'm speechless. It's amazing more people weren't killed.

[brer cat]

39. that is beyond comprehension!

How will they rebuild? Where is a competent FEMA?

[deutsey]

44. They're doing a heckuva job where ever they are, I'm sure.

:sarcasm:

[ORDagnabbit]

41. holy crap! n/t

[maddezmom]

43. OMG

:(

[friendly_iconoclast]

35. Reminds me of the backstory to Bruce Sterling's "Heavy Weather"

The novel describes the Great Plains as a depopulated wasteland due to the disappearance of the Oglalla Aquifer and nearly constant tornado outbreaks.

It is extremely funny in spots, yet convincingly describes life in a Texas,Oklahoma, & Kansas that is slowly turning into a near-Saharan desert

Read it, it will really stick in your memory. I'd like to see Robert Rodriguez
do a movie version. IMO Michael Crichton cribbed a lot of it for "Twister".

[LiberalFighter]

37. Haven't we figured a way to control and direct them??

Like to the Crawford Ranch?

[Name removed]

40. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[truthisfreedom]

42. Toto played here in Minneapolis tonight...

Some weird connection. They aren't in Kansas anymore... they played Kansas City on Friday night.

Wow, what an incredibly powerful tornado. Such incredible devastation... it's like an A-bomb went off.

[Felix Mala]

47. When tornado hit our town, the community searched fields for 3 days

to find all the dead...

[maddezmom]

48. Tornado victim found alive

Tornado victim found alive
GREENSBURG, Kan. (CNN) -- Two days after a tornado destroyed this Kansas town, rescue crews found a survivor under the rubble, authorities said Monday.

"Last night, late evening, we did recover someone alive," said Ronald Knoefel with the Kansas Highway Patrol. "So we are very very happy with that. ... The search and rescue continues because we still have optimism that we're going to find more people alive."

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius earlier told CNN the rubble was so deep in some places that even trained dogs might be unable to pick up the scent of people who may be buried beneath.

Tornado-packing storms killed 10 people in Kansas over the weekend -- nine Friday night in the area around Greensburg and one in a new set of storms the next night in the northern town of Ottawa.

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/05/07/monday/index.html