Rebuilding Greensburg Kansas

[Jon Person]

Has anyone here heard about Habitat for Humanity starting a project in Greensburg? The last I heard, meetings were to take place on October 22nd, but I can't seem to track down anything official. Apparently H4H is "making progress" towards a project (http://www.kiowacountysignal.com/homepage/x805319040), but hasn't actually started yet.

For any chaser who'd like to do some good and see the damage first hand, I highly recommend volunteering for port-tornado clean-up projects. It was an incredible experience to help families out and hear their first-hand accounts of the tornado as it tore through their homes. It was also interesting to be involved near the heart of FEMA operations as they acted to respond. The AmeriCorps group coordinated all volunteer operations, so all I had to do was show up and grab a rake. The hard part is finding the right address with no street signs. Some of the residents in town had some resentment towards storm chasers, so it felt good to talk to them and show them another perspective. The only problem I had out there was that Mennonites prefer not to be photographed

I have a photo journal of my trip to Greensburg in May and June online at Flickr here if anyone's interested: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonperson/sets/72157600245914694, taken mostly about two weeks after the disaster. If anyone is considering a trip out to help with rebuilding, or if you learn of anything about the H4H project in Greensburg, please feel free to PM me.

 

[Eric Treece]

My girlfriend just started working for H4H and has been travelling pretty steady for the last month for them. I have already mentioned this to her and am hoping to find out more about it in the next couple of weeks when she gets time to check into it. When I find something out about it, I will post it. I know it is kind of early since little is known about dates, etc, but who is interested in somekind of "chaser" gathering for H4H in Greensburg if they do have a project in the works?

 

[Dustin Wilcox]

Depending on dates/times I would be completely willing to do some volunteer H4H work. If it were during Spring Break that would work great.

 

[Chris Allington]

I could help out any weekend for 3 days... I always have fri, sat, sun off and would be interested.

 

[beaudodson]

I have a photo journal of my trip to Greensburg in May and June online at Flickr here if anyone's interested: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonperson/sets/72157600245914694, taken mostly about two weeks after the disaster. If anyone is considering a trip out to help with rebuilding, or if you learn of anything about the H4H project in Greensburg, please feel free to PM me.

Great photographs and a nice way to tell the story. Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

[Jody Radzik]

Some of the residents in town had some resentment towards storm chasers.

I'm curious as to why there would be resentment toward chasers. Did it have to do with post-storm gawking, or are some folks looking to blame chasers for what God hath wrought?

 

[Jon Person]

I'm curious as to why there would be resentment toward chasers. Did it have to do with post-storm gawking, or are some folks looking to blame chasers for what God hath wrought?

I would guess it has something to do with cheering on destruction... which someone does not want to think about when their home was destroyed. I think the guy I talked to had a lot of anger and no answers. An event like that really tests one's faith, right? At any rate, it didn't seem to take much effort to change his perspective. The other fifteen people I met out there had no such resentment.

 

[Jody Radzik]

I would guess it has something to do with cheering on destruction... which someone does not want to think about when their home was destroyed. I think the guy I talked to had a lot of anger and no answers. An event like that really tests one's faith, right? At any rate, it didn't seem to take much effort to change his perspective. The other fifteen people I met out there had no such resentment.

I guess the guy thought chasers enjoy the effect rather than the cause.

 

[John Diel]

I don't want to take away from this thread (which is an excellent proposition BTW), but given the Media sensationalism (real word?) that we see on many TV shows and the like, it's a stigma that we are all bound with.

This has been discussed to the Nth degree in years past and yet we see more and more of it. Giving a helping hand is more grass roots to get the viewpoint changed. Kudo's to Jon and anyone else out there lending a hand where it's needed.

You folks are a sterling example of what we 'should' all be striving toward to some degree.

John Diel

 

[Jon Person]

...given the Media sensationalism that we see on many TV shows and the like, it's a stigma that we are all bound with. This has been discussed to the Nth degree in years past and yet we see more and more of it.

Hi John, yes I very much agree that the stigma will always be there for chasers to deal with. I used to get very frustrated about this because I felt powerless to do anything about it. But, something so straightforward as grabbing a rake and cleaning for a few hours will go a long way, and news crews are sometimes present to report on it.

I think that a great project well suited for ST is to keep tabs on significant tornadoes (LOL I'll go ahead and check that off the list already), then work together to relay volunteer information from AmeriCorps and other early responders such as the Salvation Army here to the forum to help folks make plans. In the case of Greensburg, the town was quarantined to prevent looting, so volunteers had to call ahead for instructions on how to help. Thankfully, however, since jobs around town were entirely coordinated by AmeriCorps, all people had to do was show up in the morning and be assigned to a job.

I imagine Wichita H4H will post information about projects in Greensburg once they're organized on their Current Projects page, and Eric thanks for the quick response to post H4H info once you find out more, too.

 

[Jon Person]

I just spoke with Linda over at the Wichita H4H office. She says that the current goal is to raise funding for the Greensburg projects, and she does not yet want to go public with a call for volunteers until funding is secured. It's important not to get families' hopes up until H4H can deliver on what they promise.

However, Spring 2008 looks like a good time for volunteering and I highly recommend that everyone here plan on spending even one afternoon to help. I'll be checking in with Linda to touch base, and will post details here once she gives the thumbs-up.