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Alumni in Greensburg rebuild after tornado

GREENSBURG – Take your image of a small Kansas town and tear it down, piece by piece, until nothing is left, and you will have Greensburg, Kan.

The first thing a person notices driving into Greensburg in November, six months after an 1.7-mile wide F5 tornado went through the middle of the 2-mile wide town and obliterated 95 percent of it, is the trees. Residents have nicknames for these trees: Chia-Pet trees. Dr. Suess trees.

Shorn off at the tops, the mangled trees during the summer sprouted a few feet of new growth on every gnarled limb. The trees are reclaiming life, and so are the residents of Greensburg. About 20 ESU alumni lived in Greensburg before the May 4 tornado. Although fewer remain after the exodus, they are focused on recovery.

It is not an easy process. Outsiders see the initial loss on the national news, but they don’t see the drawn-out grieving process as each resident copes with a sense of loss – loss of neighbors, of community, of the psychic anchor that was the four walls of home. They are prone to “crying attacks,” as one puts it. In fits and starts, the community is moving forward.

“The grieving process is something that they’re going to be struggling with over time,” said Dr. Wes Jones (MS 1976), who as clinical director at the Mental Health Center of East Central Kansas led the first mental health disaster response team into Greensburg, arriving two days after the tornado. “It’s a loss of community. The city as it was will never be the same. You might have lost a neighbor or friend – not because they’re dead but because they’re never going to come back.”

Gone, too, is the home as an anchor that grounds the individual. “When people start losing their anchors, along with the loss, it’s a kind of disorientation that’s on top of the general loss,” said Dr. Jon Sward, an assistant professor of mental health counseling at ESU.

Still, what’s left of the community is coming together. About 1,500 resided in Greensburg before the tornado, and now around 500 live in FEMA trailers on the south end of town while others live in town. As one alum said, “The doom-and-gloom people have already left.” Those who have stayed are linked by a positive attitude, for what they have – their health, their gratitude for overwhelming support.

“I’ve been amazed really at the people of Greensburg,” said Elizabeth Pew (BSB 1946) who lost the home she built in 1962 and now lives in “FEMAville.” “I’ve heard very little complaining. Too many times you’ll hear, ‘Why me, why me?’ But I haven’t heard that.”

Money has poured into a Greensburg rebuilding fund. Rotarians from around the world have donated more than $200,000 to the Greensburg Rotary Club. Residents of Udall, Kan., whose town suffered a similarly devastating tornado in 1955, came to town and planted trees and flowers. Organizations such as the Salvation Army were so reliable for meals that residents joked that they’d rebuild homes without kitchens.

The question of rebuilding, for now, is for some a matter of waiting. Chris (BSN 2005) and her husband Peter Blanton (BSE 2004) returned on Monday morning, after the Friday night tornado, to find their home mostly standing, minus a roof. Chris remembers the lumberyard smell of the town. “That’s something I’ll never forget – it smelled like freshly cut lumber,” she said.

The Blantons and others might wait to smell more fresh construction. “We’re renting a house here in Pratt until we figure out what we’re going to do,” Chris said. “There’s a lot of optimism about rebuilding, but… what if it doesn’t happen? It’s either we build a $200,000 house and we have to live there for the rest of our lives and Greensburg doesn’t come back, or we stay here in Pratt and wait it out and see what happens. There’s a lot of talk [of businesses rebuilding], but until something actually happens….”

Grieving is a “highly individualistic” process, Sward said, “but the unifying factor is everyone is experiencing some kind of loss. Some are going to be more connected to the nostalgia – things they can’t replace, looking backward, and some are looking forward, wondering how they’re going to replace this house.”

Chris (BSE 1975) and Sheryl (BSE 1975) Christenson are refurbishing their salvageable home, and took a break from trim work in early November to join a group of ESU alumni at a city park with newly installed playground equipment. They’re excited to see the new town grow. “There’s going to be a neighborhood there in a year,” Sheryl said of their home. “(The town) just looks so much better than it did.”

Max and Joleen Seacat, 1957 graduates, returned to ESU in October for their 50-year reunion, and were presented with a 1957 yearbook – their yearbooks were destroyed in the tornado. Now living in FEMAville, the Seacats expect to rebuild. They’re reminded at least every 30 days, when a FEMA representative checks in to ensure residents are making plans to relocate. They have 18 months from the day of the storm to live in the trailers.

Scott (BSB 1984) and Susan Reinecke were both self-employed – Scott ran a body shop and Susan an antique store – and they found their livelihood running dry when the population base disappeared. A common problem for Greensburg residents was finding a place to live. In neighboring communities, rentals filled quickly and homes on the market grew pricier. The Reineckes managed to find an apartment in Haviland, east of Greensburg. “I’ve never been so excited about moving into an apartment since I moved out of the dorms in college,” Scott said. Things are looking up now, but it wasn’t easy in the first few months.

Recovery for Greensburg residents may hinge on “how long they try to hang on to their perceptions of the old town, or whether they shift [to saying], ‘It’s a town of the same name, but we’re not reclaiming the old town. We’re building a new town,’” Sward said. “It’s akin to a military family that gets uprooted and suddenly has to move to a new location – it’s smoother if everyone agrees that this is a new place.”

In that case, much progress has been made, but much work remains. At one intersection, best described as the “four corners of the apocalypse” by the Spotlight photographer, there are four variations of post-tornado activity. On one corner, a condemned home awaits demolition. At the second corner, a concrete slab stands exposed. At the third, a basement-sized hole in the ground grows purple flowers along the edges and in the basin. On the fourth corner, a newly built house stands alone.

The trees on all four corners sprout new growth, bearing the scars of 200-mph winds. This town will bear the physical and psychic scars of the tornado for decades to come, but those who remain – in their words and in the sounds of construction heard around town – signal a sense of hope. As the gathering of ESU alumni parted ways in November, Max Seacat collected hugs from the neighbors he’s known for decades.

“I’ve been hugged more since May 4 than I have the first 70 years!” Max said.

If you would like to support the city of Greensburg in its recovery, checks payable to the “Greensburg Rebuilding Fund” may be sent to the Greensburg State Bank, P.O. Box 787, Greensburg, KS 67054. The fund is controlled by city officials.

Last Updated April 17, 2008