75% of Greensburg Kansas is destroyed

[SoCalDem]

There is video at the link..

I hope FEMA has gotten their act together this time around.. It's a nasty looking mess.:(



http://www.cnn.com/2007/WEATHER/05/05/severe.weather/

CNN) -- A half-mile wide tornado swept through Greensburg, Kansas, on Friday night, injuring at least 50 people, 16 of them critically, and wiping out the majority of the town, according to officials and witnesses.

At least one person was killed, according to local media and The Associated Press. A body was found early Saturday and taken to a temporary morgue set up in Kiowa County's only tavern, according to The Wichita Eagle.

"The entire town was pretty much wiped out," said storm chaser Allan Detrich. "There wasn't too many buildings standing." (Watch aftermath of devastating tornado

snip

[LizW]

1. CNN showing video

The town is wiped off the map. Horrifying.

Death toll is at 4 right now.

Thoughts are with the residents.

[SoCalDem]

4. The day I was born, a llittle town called Kipp, Kansas was wiped clean

by a tornado. My mother told of me being handed to her by a nurse, and told to get under the hosptial bed.

The tornado missed our town, but slammed that little town..

[proud2BlibKansan]

20. Where were you born?

[SoCalDem]

21. Smoky Hill Air Force base..Salina Kansas n.t

[proud2BlibKansan]

27. I have spent a fair amount of time in Salina

Glad you got out! :)

[proud2BlibKansan]

25. Death toll now 7.

[babylonsister]

2. I just turned the news on and saw the coverage; I'm speechless! nt

[ChairmanAgnostic]

3. how long before some religious leader claims it was due to a lack of prayer?

I give it four hours.

I am glad that the death toll is so low. That comes, not from prayer, but planning, building codes, warning systems, and rational behavior in the face of danger.

What a disaster. What an awful event. What is worse is how the insurers will react, squeezing their insureds for each and every penny, cheating their insureds out of what their salesmen and policies pretended to promise.


My heart goes out to the town.

[Selatius]

13. Fred Phelps already cornered the market there.

He says all the bad things happening to America is because the US tolerates homosexuality, hedonism, and immorality. I don't see this as somehow being exempt from Phelps blanket condemnation as well as the blanket condemnation of other religious fanatics.

[Ilsa]

16. They only shut up when you remind them that

several churches were destroyed by the tornado as well. Or maybe then they switch gears and mention the randomness of these events. I hope no DUers are shy about pointing out the error in their analyses and conclusions.

Those poor people. I hope the agencies get coordinated and help them pronto.

[RL3AO]

5. Amazing damage

But it seems that it went as well as it could have. NWS gave 20 minutes warning and the people took it seriously. Only 4 deaths is quite amazing considering the damage.

[SoCalDem]

6. Some Greenwood Facts from Wikipedia

100 miles west of Wichita
..............................................
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 3.9 km² (1.5 mi²), all land.

Demographics

As of the censusGR2 of 2000, there were 1,574 people, 730 households, and 453 families residing in the city. The population density was 407.9/km² (1,055.9/mi²). There were 887 housing units at an average density of 229.8/km² (595.0/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 97.01% White, 0.83% Native American, 0.06% Asian, 1.02% from other races, and 1.08% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.59% of the population.

There were 730 households out of which 23.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.3% were married couples living together, 6.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 37.9% were non-families. 35.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 19.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.14 and the average family size was 2.76.

In the city the population was spread out with 21.5% under the age of 18, 6.5% from 18 to 24, 20.5% from 25 to 44, 25.2% from 45 to 64, and 26.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 46 years. For every 100 females there were 91.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 88.1 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $28,438, and the median income for a family was $39,188. Males had a median income of $28,426 versus $20,875 for females. The per capita income for the city was $18,054. About 8.4% of families and 12.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 16.6% of those under age 18 and 8.0% of those age 65 or over.

Attractions

Greensburg is home to the world's largest hand dug well. Work was begun on the well in 1887 to provide water for the steam engines of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway and Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad. When the well was completed in 1888 it was 109 feet deep and 32 feet in diameter. The well was used as the town's water supply until 1932. In 1939 it was opened as a tourist attraction allowing visitors to descend to the bottom of the well. The adjacent museum displays a 1000-pound pallasite meteorite.

On October 16, 2006, a related smaller meteorite measuring 154 pounds (70 kilograms) was dug up near Greensburg; the excavation proceedings showed that the Brenham meteor strikes occurred roughly 10,000 years ago, during the Pleistocene epoch, rather than 20,000 years ago as previously thought.<1>

A younger attraction is the Twilight Theatre, which first showed movies in 1915. There is also an old soda fountain in the downtown drug store.

External links

[Pirate Smile]

7. The scope of the damage seems huge. How wide was that tornado?

Wow.

[Cooley Hurd]

9. At least a 1/2 mile wide...

...likely more, given the swath of damage.

[RL3AO]

11. I've seen between 1/2 mile and 1 mile.

[Cooley Hurd]

8. They're showing sweeping aerial video, and there's block after block...

...of flattened homes. This HAD to be an F5...:(

[RL3AO]

10. The NWS doesnt use the Fujita scale anymore, it uses the enhanced fujita scale.

So it might be an EF5, but more likley and EF3 or 4.

[Cooley Hurd]

12. Thank you - I wasn't aware of that.

:hi:

[RL3AO]

17. Actually, it makes it more likley that it will be an EF5.

In terms of wind speed, an EF5 is eqivlent to a F3 or 4.

[CrazyOrangeCat]

14. Been thru Greensburg many times.

My dad had an account there, and I used to travel with him in the summers.

I remember the well.

Something tells me it's the only thing left now . . .

[proud2BlibKansan]

24. It's a cute little town

This is so sad.

[Pithy Cherub]

15. CNN is showing horrifying video.

It looks leveled. This is devastating. My heart breaks for them as it does for the lady who lost her three children here in Orange County as a tractor trailer smashed into their vehicle. :cry:

In Kansas, "there's just nothing left" 1500 people live in Greensburg.

[LiberalFighter]

18. Google map -- What is with those green and white circles?

Google Map

[ChairmanAgnostic]

19. crop circles. Seriously

the irrigation system rotates around from the center pipe, and waters the crops.

[Wcross]

28. Green circles- Crops grown with a watering system.

I don't know whats up with the white ones, maybe fields out of production this year?

[LiberalFighter]

35. OK... checked to see if there were any in Wisconsin and found

some along I-90 where I knew they did irrigation.

[etherealtruth]

22. Really horrible ...

I don't know how else to respond.

[proud2BlibKansan]

23. Local news in KC completely ignored this story

I turned it on after hearing about the tornado on CNN.

Top story - a police standoff in the hood that ended peacefully

Then - a story about a girl shot but she will survive

Next - a story about a 'gunman' at Sprint Headquarters last night
http://www.kansascity.com/115/story/95352.html

FINALLY, 15 minutes into the 'news' show, they did maybe 30 seconds on the tornado.

Unfrickingbelievable. And the storms are still in the area. We could get hit again today by a tornado. But police standoffs take priority on local TV 'news'.

[SoCalDem]

26. KC is "out of the box" , so I guess they think they are safe.

:shrug:

[proud2BlibKansan]

29. Same storm system is headed this way

Which makes sense since most storms here come from the west/southwest.

Of course, the same stupid news channel that thought a frickin police standoff was more important said that storm system is headed this way. So who knows?

Ok, just checked that channel. Cartoons are on now so all must be right with the world. Well, at least no police standoffs or gun rumors at Sprint. :eyes:

[SoCalDem]

30. Whaaaaat? No fancy ladies in fancy hats..slurping mint juleps?

That's what our local news out here was showing :)

[proud2BlibKansan]

32. Oh that will be on later today I am sure

and if the weather gets bad and they interrupt The Derby to tell us about it, there will be a ton of complaint letters in the KC paper tomorrow.

[LeftCoast]

31. And as good Kansas Republicans, I'm sure they'll want no Gov't help at all...

You know...bootstraps and all that.

:sarcasm:

[proud2BlibKansan]

33. Guess you haven't heard what has happened in KS

We have a Dem governor who is the 3rd most popular governor in the USA. We have a lt governor who used to be head of the state republican party but switched to Dem and won the lt gov election. Same with our state attorney general.

The insane conservatives (like the ones on the state school board) are driving the moderate repubs out of the party. The latest state Dem convention in March had more in attendance than any state Dem event in history.

Kansas is turning blue!!

[LeftCoast]

34. Hadn't heard that

That's good to know. And for the record, I don't begrudge them any help, even if they are 'bootstrap' Republicans. :)

[Onlooker]

36. Wondering if the well survived?

http://www.ksn.com/news/local/7301591.html

GREENSBURG, Kansas, May 2, 2007 – Greensburg, Kansas, population 1,500. The town's claim to fame is the largest hand-dug well in the world.

[SoCalDem]

39. The well may be the ONLY thing that did survive n/t

[MuseRider]

41. I was down in that well

a few months ago. It really is pretty cool. There were lots of cool things, historical documents and pictures in the little store above it, they are most likely gone now. Too bad. I will have to look for the stuff I picked up there.

[uppityperson]

37. Picture by Marty Logan

Oh. Shit.

[CrazyOrangeCat]

38. Nightmares.

Unless there happens to be a good hiway at a 90 degree angle, a person just doesn't get away from that monstrosity.

[misanthrope]

40. Don't worry about FEMA...

...Kansas ain't New Orleans.