Sunday, May 06, 2007
TOWN DESTROYED
Killer twisters hit Kansas:
More than a dozen tornadoes roared through southwestern Kansas on Saturday evening, a day after a powerful tornado nearly leveled the prairie town of Greensburg and left nine people dead and more than 60 others injured.
Greensburg is hometown to blogger Joni:
Every church in town, including the one my parents and my sisters’ family attend, was either severely damaged or destroyed. The roof of the small hospital collapsed ... Please pray for Greensburg, Kansas, my family, and the surrounding community. How do you rebuild an entire town?
Dan Riehl has extensive links; Patsy Terrell, who lives only 80 miles from Greensburg, is doing great work covering the aftermath. Donation information to be posted once I’m aware of any.
UPDATE. Some background:
Greensburg was named for stagecoach driver D. R. ‘Cannonball’ Green. He once ejected Carrie Nation from his coach after she snatched a cigar from his mouth and tossed it away.
UPDATE II. New twisters touching down:
The National Weather Service says it’s received reports “well into the double digits” of twisters touching down in six counties.
Among them were a series of half-mile wide “wedge” tornadoes similar to the one that devastated Greensburg last night.
UPDATE III. The sheer power of this thing:
Jose Peraza said he was driving his oil rig into town when he heard the siren and driving hail started pounding the area. He pulled over and hid with several other people in a convenience store freezer.
He said the storm ripped the side off the freezer, and when he came out he found the twister had thrown his truck - weighed down by 40,000 pounds of oil - “like nothing."
UPDATE IV. A Kansas TV report.
UPDATE V. When a 40,000-pound truck gets tossed around, smaller objects don’t stand a chance:
The tornado that razed the Kansas town of Greensburg also snatched one of its most valuable treasures. The thousand-pound Brenham pallasite meteorite is gone.
UPDATE VI. Shocking aerial photographs.