F4/5 Tornado in Kansas

[EWolfe]

Kevin King surveyed the destruction from the Greensburg tornado on Saturday and was amazed.

 

 

"The town was just razed," he said. "It's absolutely unbelievable.

 

 

"I've never seen anything like this," said King, director of Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS). "It was so powerful. The brick walls of churches and homes, every brick was separated. It wasn't just walls that fell over together, bricks are just strewn about."

 

 

King was in the central Kansas area Friday to attend a graduation ceremony at Heston College. When he and his crew heard about the tornado, they immediately drove to Greensburg to help. Greensburg Mennonite Church and its parsonage were destroyed when the twister hit shortly before 10 p.m., but the pastor and his family were not injured.

 

 

The tornado was estimated by some National Weather Service officials as an F4 or F5, with winds from 166 mph to more than 200 mph. The storm killed at least eight people and injured 60 others when it tore through the small rural town of about 1,600 located 110 miles west of Wichita. A ninth fatality was reported in Stafford County.

 

 

King said little remains of most homes. The west side of the town suffered the most damage, with every building nearly obliterated.

 

 

"There are just piles of rubble 4 feet high all over the place," King said. "Trees are stripped down to 8 and 9 feet tall."

 

 

He said a few structures on the east side of town had some walls remaining and several more buildings were still standing.

 

 

MDS cleanup teams were awaiting the go-ahead to enter town to help residents. Some teams were already assisting people in other affected communities north and east of Greensburg.

 

 

Greensburg Mennonite Church members planned to meet for a 9 a.m. Sunday service in a parking lot near a shelter in Haviland. An MDS mental health professional was expected to be there to assist the pastor and congregation.

 

 

King praised the nearby town of Haviland for being so open and welcoming to the hundreds of Greensburg families sheltered there. He said the mood at the shelters was one of shock.

 

 

"You can easily hear neighbors asking each other, 'Do you have a house? No? Me neither,'" he said. "And they're also saying, 'My house is gone, how about yours?' It's quite moving here for these residents."

 

 

Search and rescue teams pulled trapped families from basements throughout the day Saturday. Many spent frightening moments praying for their lives as the tornado passed overhead.

 

 

King said the local Mennonite Church pastor and his wife, Jeff and Lori Blackburn, rode out the storm in their basement.

 

 

"He said they heard the sirens and ran to the basement, and then the sirens stopped because the electricity was knocked out," he said. "They huddled in the basement and their ears starting popping. I asked him how long it took, and he said it felt like an eternity, but it was maybe five minutes.

 

 

"The next thing they noticed was that rain started pouring in on them in the dark," King said. "He thought a pipe broke, but then when he took out his penlight and looked up, sure enough, he saw the sky."

 

 

The United Methodist Church was also planning to respond to the disaster.

 

 

Cherri and Bob Baer, disaster response representatives from the United Methodist Committee on Relief, were scheduled to arrive Monday to help conference disaster ministers Nancy Profitt and Julie Pohl.

 

 

"We're not sure yet if they'll let any of us in, but we're planning on being there Monday," Cherri Baer said.

 

 

She said they will partner with local Greensburg pastors. Because of the extensive damage, Baer predicted the emotional impact would be significant.

 

 

"We'll have to do a lot of spiritual care and listening," she said. "Everybody was affected by this."

 

 

Pastor Gene McIntosh of the Greensburg First United Methodist Church was reported safe with his family after riding out the storm in the parsonage basement. Both the church and homes were severely damaged or destroyed.

 

 

Baer said United Methodist volunteer teams were on standby until they are allowed entry to the town.

 

 

"I think the volunteers may just have to hang it up for a while," she said. "They're not going to let us in there. (The city) is assessing which structures volunteers can be around to see if any are safe to have volunteers around."

 

 

She said that churches from throughout Kansas and the U.S. were calling her to ask how they can help. The conference was asking people to donate to the Kansas Area Disaster Fund and was encouraging churches to take up a special offering Sunday for recovery.

 

 

Baer said she was shocked by images of the destruction. She said they reminded her of the devastation on the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina.

 

 

"Usually in a Kansas tornado or elsewhere, there's the path of destruction, and then on the left and right side there are people who can come help," she said. "Yet in a hurricane everyone is affected, and that's how this was.

 

 

"Everyone was affected," she said. "It included everyone and it took out everyone."

 

 

One local emergency official described the situation as "the most significant emergency the state of Kansas has faced in a long, long time."

 

 

The National Weather Service said the tornado's path was 1.4 miles long. The Kiowa County Hospital and two local schools were severely damaged or destroyed. National Guard troops were sent in to assist and a curfew was imposed from 8 p.m. Saturday to 8 a.m. Sunday.

 

 

"There's just not a lot left down there," said incident commander Terry David. "It's a mess."

 

 

City Administrator Steve Hewitt said 95 percent of the town was damaged or destroyed.

 

 

"It's a devastating sight," said Hewitt, whose home was among those destroyed. "How are we going to rebuild? We've got to do this right, and it's going to be a tough road ahead of us."

 

 

Hewitt said town would need to rally itself for the recovery.

 

 

"We've got to come together as one," he said. "It's not going to be easy, but we can do it."

 

 

The severe weather Friday night also spawned tornadoes in Oklahoma and Illinois but caused only minor damages and no injuries.

 

 

More severe weather and tornadoes affected the central U.S. Saturday night as the storm system moved through the region. The National Weather Service reported 75 tornado touchdowns across the region. A tornado also touched down in Pratt County just east of Kiowa County Saturday evening.

 

 

In Sweetwater, Okla., a tornado Saturday night caused $2 million in damage to the local high school and damaged some homes. One minor injury was reported.

 

 

Forecasters said the severe weather was expected to continue across the region on Sunday, stretching again from the Dakotas into Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and the northern part of Texas. Thunderstorms were forecast for western Iowa and western Missouri.

 

 

 

[rob]

nasty

 

 

[Crux]

Freight cars at standstill, then airborne from the railway and warming globally to the vortex. Dorothy, this is home.

[EWolfe]

DNL7ASvl4k4

[tvashtarkatena]

Forecast for Greensburg, KS:

 

60 degrees F

Feels like someone up there has it out for you folks

 

Clouds: With your name all over them

Dew Point: The point is, you’re done for

Humility: 100% in the face of Nature’s wrath

Pressure: 10 times more than your house can withstand

Wind: From the North, South, East, and West at 200 mph

Precipitation: Bricks, freight cars, and the occasional uncontented cow.

 

Edited May 6, 2007 by tvashtarkatena

[TREETOAD]

don't fuck with mother nature

[G-spotter]

And your little dog too!

[EWolfe]

 

[sk]

i don't even know what to say to that. it is so devastating my brain can't focus on it.

[G-spotter]

President Bush declared his sympathy for the victims of the Kansas tornado and vowed that the US government will increase funding for the War Against Nature. Only when Nature has been totally destroyed and subjugated will Americans be safe.

[EWolfe]

Half court shot. Nothing but net. Dru scores!

[pope]

DNL7ASvl4k4

 

I've always wanted to see a tornado...this video makes you feel like you're there (minus all the danger and tragedy). Thanks for posting.

[archenemy]

It's great at the beginning of the video when you can hear the radio announcer saying that "We don't want you out there looking at this".

[Weekend_Climberz]

Talked to my grand-parents and they missed the bullet only by a few miles. Pretty scary shit to go through, having gone through a bit myself.

 

As a sidenote, with last weeks t-storms here in Seattle, I saw a wall cloud and beaver tail over downtown I think on Thursday at about 4pm. There's too much terrain between the Olympics and Seattle for systems here to organize quite right for a tornado, but that was as close as I'd seen a cloud come to forming a funnel without actually forming one.

[Dechristo]

The TV man said the last F5 was eight years ago outside of Okiehoma City

[Weekend_Climberz]

There was also a pretty big one that hit Heston, KS I think the year before the Oklahoma City F5. Not sure if the Heston twister was F5, but it was said to be 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile wide. I have some relatives with some first-hand footage they took as it wiped out downtown Heston. SCARRRRYYYYYY!!!!1!

[G-spotter]

I read somewhere about the theoretical probablility of an F6, which would be self-sustaining and would last for years, sort of like an earth size version of the Red Spot on Jupiter.

 

Wouldn't it suck if you had been relocated to Kansas from New Orleans after the katrina flood.

[archenemy]

At least the grain silos are still standing.

[wayne]

I read somewhere about the theoretical probablility of an F6, which would be self-sustaining and would last for years, sort of like an earth size version of the Red Spot on Jupiter.

That is truly incredible!

[tvashtarkatena]

I read somewhere about the theoretical probablility of an F6, which would be self-sustaining and would last for years, sort of like an earth size version of the Red Spot on Jupiter.

 

Wouldn't it suck if you had been relocated to Kansas from New Orleans after the katrina flood.

 

Such a storm might actually bore a hole all the way through the earth, creating a giant whistling sound that would drive everyone crazy.

[Dechristo]

There was also a pretty big one that hit Heston, KS I think the year before the Oklahoma City F5. Not sure if the Heston twister was F5, but it was said to be 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile wide. I have some relatives with some first-hand footage they took as it wiped out downtown Heston. SCARRRRYYYYYY!!!!1!

 

it was said on "the news" that this recent one was over a mile wide.

[kevbone]

President Bush declared his sympathy for the victims of the Kansas tornado and vowed that the US government will increase funding for the War Against Nature. Only when Nature has been totally destroyed and subjugated will Americans be safe.

 

 

That is funny. War against nature.....that good.