Greensburg, Kansas Tornado Anniversary

[Charles Kuster]

This Tuesday marks the third anniversary of the incredible supercell that produced the EF-5 Greensburg, Kansas tornado that leveled the entire town leaving eleven dead in its wake. It serves as another reminder of how devastating these storms can be to those affected. This documentary shows some of the aftermath and early recovery efforts. Its runtime is a bit long, (58 minutes) but it is worth watching. The reports and discussion thread here on Stormtrack also provide a lot of good information about this event (there is an impressive radar loop at the bottom of page 2 in the discussion thread).

May 4, 2007 was marked by a strong cap especially further south across southern Kansas, Texas, and Oklahoma. However, the first storm formed in the northeastern Texas Panhandle which started a chain of events that would eventually lead to the Greensburg supercell. The initial storm produced several left splits which in turn also produced left splits. Near the Kansas/Oklahoma border, however; a storm formed along the outflow of one of these left splits. This atypical storm, for this day anyway, became the Greensburg supercell. Without the formation of the initial storm in the Texas panhandle, it is possible that the Greensburg supercell would not have formed. In addition to the 1.7 mile wide Greensburg tornado, this incredible storm produced multiple long track tornadoes including one immediately after the Greensburg tornado dissipated (see here for NWS event report).

Remarkably, this small Kansas town is rebuilding and they are rebuilding green! They are building a twenty-first century community that utilizes many eco friendly technologies and sustainable building designs. Greensburg will serve as a model “green communityâ€￾ for the future, setting an example for other communities to strive for. On March 12, 2010 I visited Greensburg and was impressed and elated by the progress I saw. A few pictures follow:

New Main Street

New hospital

LEED Platinum "green" building

http://i40.tinypic.com/sxfq.jpg Bench made from tornado debris.
http://i43.tinypic.com/2wm485u.jpg New high school nearing completion.
Short clip about the green rebuilding plan.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who helped in the search and rescue efforts immediately after this tornado as well as in any other disaster situation. If anyone is interested in helping out with the rebuilding of Greensburg, please follow this link. Lastly, if anyone has any thoughts, pictures, ideas, or accounts regarding this memorable event please share them here! Thanks!

 

[rdale]

Discovery has a new series starting tonight on the rebuilding that has happened since.

 

[John Wetter]

Discovery has a new series starting tonight on the rebuilding that has happened since.

What's it called Rob? I'm not seeing it in the Discovery channel listings...

Edit:
Nevermind... Found it. It's on Planet Green... 'Greensburg' http://planetgreen.discovery.com/tv/greensburg/

Started at 8 central, Tivo says I'll pick up all the episodes I missed by the end of the week...

 

[Chris Foltz]

John,

Not sure if this is the show Rob was referencing or not but I believe it's simply called "Greensburg".

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/tv/greensburg/episode-guides/

 

[Mike Peregrine]

Some current photos of Greensburg, from today's kansascity.com.

 

[fplowman]

Hey Charles,

Interesting post. If I recall correctly You and your son and I and my chase partner Jim Cross sat at the Pizza hut in Russel, Ks . eating our after chase dinner being as we both picked the northern target that day. As I recall we enjoyed our pizza and then lumbered off to the hotel right next door.

In the morning we woke up and turned on the TV to then see all over the news the Greensburg aftermath. I think it was going down whilst we ate our dinner.

I recall looking at that cell on Baron right before I turned the car off to go in and eat.

So that's my only anecdote. And I probably wouldn't have left it here but since you started the thread I thought it appropriate.

Fred

 

[Mickey Ptak]

Wow that is a nice change sense the last time I was up there in 08. I am glad things are going well up there.

 

[Jordan Hartley]

Ill never forget this day. It ranks right up there with the 91' Andover and 99' S Wichita events. I knew I would be chasing the next day so it killed me that I had to work. At the time I worked in Augusta, KS but lived in SE Wichita. All that day every hour I copied and pasted satelite and surface observations until I left work at 7pm. By the time I got home cells were firing south of the OK/KS border and Jay Prater was doing live coverage on KAKE 52. Him and Lanny Dean did an outstanding job that night.

You knew that it was big, but unless you were there you really didnt have a clue as to how big of an event not just tornado that it was. The next day I drove from Wichita to Dodge City and got detoured north all the way to stafford co just to catch hwy 50 that runs from dodge to hutch. From that hwy that runs north out of pratt only went 1/2 mi and came across a 2 mi wide path of damage. It didnt make sense to me I mean tornadoes just dont get that big and this was a good 20-30 NE of Greensburg.

I didnt see a tornado until later in the day S of Great Bend. Followed the storm to just E of GB and decided to interecpt the next cell, thanks mom for now casting hehe As I went south on some paved road I came across f2-f3damage which was from a seperate tornado the night before. Truely amazing event and one the expanding the boundaries in my mind to what mother nature can do when she wants.

 

[Mike Smith]

Coverage from The Kansas City Star and The Wichita Eagle is here: http://meteorologicalmusings.blogspot.com/2010/05/today-is-third-anniversary-of.html

 

[Charles Kuster]

If I recall correctly You and your son and I and my chase partner Jim Cross sat at the Pizza hut in Russel, Ks . eating our after chase dinner being as we both picked the northern target that day.

Yep, you are correct! (Except I am the son, my father is technology challenged. ) We had no data, so were unaware of what was happening (though I do remember you mentioning a large storm in southern Kansas) until we saw the news that night. However, the scope of the disaster did not become evident until morning when daylight revealed the extent of the damage.

 

[Rob H]

I had never been through Greensburg before, so I was very curious as to what the town would look like when we ended up driving through on 4/22...

I was very surprised at how well they had rebuilt. The hospital looks beautiful. It's always inspiring to see a situation like this where people could have just given up and moved away, and instead they build things back up and continue living where their home is. I have a lot of admiration for the people of Greensburg.

 

[Zac Green]

I interned this past summer at a church in Mullinville, Kansas about 10 miles to the west of Greensburg. Some of the youth kids were in Greensburg during the tornado and told me some stories about it. From those current pictures it looks like the town has built up even more then the last time I saw it in August '09 when I left. Shows you what Americans are about you can take away our material possessions but our families, communities and friends mean so much more to use we will just rebuild and make it as back to normal as possible. I pray for those victims that they may be doing well on this third year anniversary.