Even the well is gone

[proud2BlibKansan]

Nine confirmed dead; Roberts vows quick federal aid
BY TIM POTTER, BRENT WISTROM, P.J. GRIEKSPOOR AND HURST LAVIANA
The Wichita Eagle
An aerial view looking down one of Greensburg's streets.
Jaime Oppenheimer/The Wichita Eagle
An aerial view looking down one of Greensburg's streets.
Remains of the "World's Largest Hand Dug Well" sit in a pile of rubble in Greensburg. People walk past an overturned vehicle in Greensburg, Kan., early today after a tornado ripped through this southwest Kansas community and killed at least seven people. The tornado struck Friday night, leaving a broad swath of destruction in the Kiowa County town about 110 miles west of Wichita.

* Updated forecasts, radars, watches and warnings
* Find loved ones on Red Cross registration site
* Map of the tornado
* Most of Greensburg is gone
* 'There's just not a lot down there'
* Photos from the tornado-devastated area

GREENSBURG - Two more bodies have been found in Kiowa County, bringing the death toll from last night's devastating tornadoes in western Kansas to nine.

Eight of the victims were from Kiowa County, including the county seat, Greensburg. One was a sheriff's deputy killed in Stafford County.

Scores of others were injured; relief officials said they didn't know how many. About a dozen are in hospitals in Wichita, including at least two men in critical condition at Via Christi-St. Francis.

U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts and U.S. Reps. Jerry Moran and Todd Tiahrt were on the ground in Greensburg to survey the damage and work with survivors.

http://www.kansas.com/197/story/62467.html

[greenbriar]

1. maybe they mean the store and top of the well, it is many feet deep

underground....???

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. Well looks like the well won't be open for awhile

[uppityperson]

2. street and link to other pictures

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

[greenbriar]

3. wow

jsut wow

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. It's just unreal

[rodeodance]

4. Reminds me of Ladysmith WI a few years back.

[Ghost in the Machine]

9. Looks like Homestead after Hurricane Andrew too.

It's more surreal when you're standing in the middle of it looking, and you've just lost everything you had, but luckily escaped with your life.

Pictures show the devastation of the physical, but you just can't capture the devastation to the heart and soul. You are at your most vulnerable point in your life. You have nothing but the clothes on your back, and looking around you, seeing destruction for miles, you have no hope of a quick or full recovery.

Things do get better with time. Material possessions can be replaced, but they never replace the sentimental value of things you lost. The afghan your grandma made you.. the punch bowl your grandmother left your mother... family pictures from way back... those things can't be replace.. by anything...

Let's just hope they get help faster than NOLA did...

[uppityperson]

7. Has it been rated yet, Fujita scale?

Where is everyone evacuating to? Wishing I was closer and could go help.

[DURHAM D]

8. Its been 50 years but I remember the well very well.

Like every school kid in central and western Kansas - you go see that well. When my sister called this am to say that Greensburg had been hit by a tornado the first thing I said was "Greensburg - as in the largest hand dug well in the world Greensburg?" I got online immediately and started looking for pictures.

The pics are just unbelievable. I heard earlier that a two year old is missing - any update?