Photo Gallery
Greensburg Adult Weekend Mission Trip
June 29-30, 2007
(photo by Melanie Metz - see links at bottom of page)
The mile-wide F5 Tornado devastated almost the entire town of Greensburg, KS on May 4, 2007, killing several people and injuring many.
Our visit there to help clean up was almost 2 months later, which was sometimes hard to believe. However, when you consider that what was left of about 980 houses needed to be demolished, carted away, not to mention smashed vehicles, downed power lines, tree limbs etc. then you start to realize how much has been done already. These photos actually show quite a bit of progress from what things looked like shortly after the event. (see links at bottom of page)
There is still no water, no power, and very little new construction. Even with the small army of diligent workers, disaster cleanup on this scale is a very slow process - as we came to appreciate after our meager 2 days of cleanup help. There will be need for volunteer assistance in Greensburg for quite awhile yet.
Click a photo to see a larger version.
There used to be houses here - a typical small-town neighborhood.
Most of the debris cleared away from this street - the trees starting to grow back
A section of town where most of the debris has already been cleared
Less has been done in this area so far
Electric crews are working, but there is no power yet.
Most of the town looked more like this a few weeks ago, except the roads were full of debris too.
There were still a few vehicles here and there -- most have been removed.
In case you need an illustration of why it is not safe to ride out a tornado in your car....
Part of an old house awaiting demolition
Cleaning up a home site after the bulldozers push away the largest debris.
The biggest hand-dug well. The building covering it is now gone, as is the town water tower that was right next door.
One of the footings of the water tower
Amazing.
Our coordinator (in red) lost her church (the slabs behind her) and her home. Her family lives in a trailer and her daughter will attend her senior year of high school in a trailer.
Homes like this are demolished with the big machinery, and the debris pushed into big piles by the street.
Then crews like ours move in and finish cleaning up.
The remaining rocks and cement in the hole are piled.
Debris from around the yard is sorted into piles to be hauled off.
We were fortunate to have mostly cloudy and relatively cool whether - unusual for center Kansas in the middle of summer.
Cleaning up along highway 54
We worked under the supervision of the Mennonite Disaster Service - here's Pastor Dustin checking in with George, our MDS foreman, after finishing up the last afternoon.
Some damaged personal belongings just remain behind where the tornado dropped them.
We didn't have much contact with Greensburg residents, but their presence was all around.
Somehow, this rose bush next to the front porch hung on when all else was destroyed. (There was also a small toad living at the base of the rose.)
Here are a few more:
One of the eerie things about Greensburg now is the lack of life -
The only humans present are cleanup workers.
There were almost no critters - birds, squirrels, etc. We saw a very few birds, and this was the second toad - living under some boards.
To find out more about the Greensburg Tornado:
(photo by Melanie Metz - see this site:)
Tornado and Damage photos
www.kansastowns.us/greensburg.html
Before/After Satellite Imagery
Amazing On-Location Damage Photos
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