Survivor found in debris of killer Kansas twister

[HeeBGBz]

Source: CNN

GREENSBURG, Kansas (CNN) -- Two days after a giant tornado flattened a Kansas town, police said Monday a survivor has been found buried under rubble from the killer storm.

A Kansas Highway Patrol spokesman said the person was found late Sunday. No other details were immediately available.

Authorities said Monday they were continuing the search for survivors from the mile-wide twister, whose 205-mph winds killed nine people in and around Greensburg.

Word of the discovery came as residents returned to the town of 1,500, to inspect what was left of their homes.


Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/WEATHER/05/07/severe.weather/index.html

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I'm glad this person was found alive. It must suck to live through a killer tornado and have to lie around waiting to be found.

[valerief]

1. Good for him or her. I have a question about Kansas, if anyone cares to answer. Did FEMA

show up? Did they keeep the residents at gunpoint to keep them from wandering off to nearby town? Just wondered how the Kansas disaster compared with NOLA.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. They evacuated the town and wouldn't let them come back

until yesterday. Then they all had to be gone by sundown.

Don't know about FEMA.

Kansas generally has good state services. Let's see if they respond adequately to the tornado victims.

[valerief]

7. Thanks. I was half serious and half wiseguy with my question. I'm

still angry about Katrina, as are many other people. I wish the best for the Kansas victims.

[Sabriel]

3. I had the same thought.

Did law enforcement from nearby towns set up road blocks to prevent survivors from seeking help there?

[valerief]

8. Yeah, and did they shoot at them? And were there Kansas looters?

It's a tragedy for the Kansas victims and the NOLA victims both, but it sounds like the Kansas victims were treated with dignity by the media and the govt.

[tblue37]

12. Four soldiers in uniform from Fort Riley

showed up, ostensibly to help as volunteers (on their own, not with an authorized detachment). They were arrested for looting cigarettes and alcohol from a Dillon's grocery store in Greensburg.

[maddezmom]

4. 2 more bodies found in Kan. town's ruins

2 more bodies found in Kan. town's ruins By ROXANA HEGEMAN, Associated Press Writer
12 minutes ago



GREENSBURG, Kan. - Rescue teams searching the rubble that was once Greensburg found two more victims and a survivor, raising the death toll from a powerful tornado that largely obliterated the small town to at least 10, authorities said Monday.

The massive tornado, an enhanced F-5 with wind estimated at 205 mph, was part of a weekend of violent storms that tore across the Plains and were also blamed for two other deaths in Kansas.

Little remained standing in Greensburg Monday but the grain elevator as the town's 1,500 residents were allowed back in to check their property. The tornado demolished every business on the main street. Churches lost their steeples, trees were stripped of their branches, and neighborhoods were flattened. Officials estimate as much as 95 percent of the town was destroyed.

One of the latest victims was found under debris in the middle of town, city administrator Steve Hewitt said. The other body was pulled from a nearby lake.

Rescue teams also found a survivor as they searched the wreckage on Sunday, two days after the tornado hit, providing hope for other discoveries, said Kansas Highway Patrol spokesman Ron Knoefel. He did not release details on the survivor's identity or condition, and authorities had not identified any of the victims.

more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070507/ap_on_re_us/severe_weather;_ylt=AvP8IGxbMecTdgODS.vWHgWs0NUE

:(

[jollyreaper2112]

5. it looked like an abomb went off

I'm surprised the death toll has been so low, seeing as the tornado hit at 9:40pm when people would be home. News reports say there was 20 minutes warning before the tornado hit so people who had weather radios could have gotten to their basements but so many of those homes don't even have basements left.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

9. The small town I grew up in has a tornado siren

a one minute long blast that can be heard even by the farms close in. Luckly we haven't had a direct hit, but if we did, I guarantee 90% would be ok. We were all trained very young, and it was fun, rushing down to the root cellar at home, or lining up along the walls of the school basement. :)

[jollyreaper2112]

10. but what do you do if you lose the house off the basement?

I saw one report on the news that showed the house, semi-intact, pushed right off the basement. The people in the basement somehow didn't die. But wouldn't most people be crushed by falling debris or sucked out into the storm? 200mph winds! Unreal.

[Oak2004]

11. That's pretty common in major tornados

and why it helps to get under something while *in* your basement. Still, just being underground will change your odds from "nearly none" to "pretty good"

--an F-4 survivor

[uppityperson]

6. Debris piles 30 ft deep. Wondering about pets also.

I am glad they are finding (a) survivor(s) and even glad bodies are being discovered in a timely manner.