[meteorite-list] Greensburg Kansas Anniversary

Sat May 3 15:47:54 EDT 2008

Hello Dave and All,

Thanks for the  post.  As many of you know, my house in Greensburg was 
destroyed by the  tornado one year ago tomorrow.  Well, technically, it wasn't 
totally  destroyed then, but by the time the city came along and bulldozed it 
without my  permission it was then totally destroyed.   But it is now usually  
easier to just say "my house was destroyed by the tornado."

I have been  told that the Kansas media had decided to censor themselves and 
they agreed not  to write anything negative about the rebuilding of Greensburg 
as their way to  help the town have the best shot at getting back on its 
feet.  So, most  everything I have read has been quite positive.

The town does have some  major challenges.  It all goes back to that pesky 
"Supply and Demand"  equation.  It is translated here to the challenge of: The 
city needs people  living there for businesses to be able to come back, but the 
city needs  businesses there for people to want to move back. 

A bit of a Catch  22.

Greensburg is the county seat of Kiowa county, so part of it had to  be 
rebuilt, even if no one wanted to live there.  But it does seem there  are some 
people that do want to live there.  

One year ago today,  there were a LOT of homes in Greensburg with For Sale 
Signs in their front  yards.  Some of those homes had been on the market for a 
long time, as  buyers were not plentiful.  So it was no surprise when so many 
people met  with their insurance adjustors, standing in their yard with a big 
fat check in  their hands, they decided to take their checks and move elsewhere 
with their  money.  Many of these people were older, and the choice to live 
in a town  or city with better medical facilities was a decision most of these 
people faced  regularly with or without EF-5 help.

As a farm community two hours  outside of Wichita, and an hour east of Dodge 
City, it is too far for most  business and industry to want to consider 
building there.

I think I read  that there was 1,000 homes there before the tornado and there 
have been around  136 new building permits issued this year.  Most people 
still staying in  town are living in "FEMAville" the huge mobile home park set up 
with FEMA  supplied white mobile homes.  I am not sure how long people can 
stay in  them.  For many, they can't afford to rebuild, but they have no where 
else  to go.

Without a job, it is hard for some to want to rebuild.  But  there are some 
people that don't want to leave either.  

I did hear  from a local friend that it was determined that it cost 20% MORE 
to rebuild in  Greensburg than it did anywhere else in Kansas.  The primary 
reason was  that the construction workers have to commute often from and back to 
Dodge City  every day to stay in their hotels.  Top that with the need for 
construction  workers to return to their homes (wherever that might be) on the 
weekends.   Without a construction workforce living in the town, like all other 
towns have,  it is just more expensive to build.  

Then, real estate prices have  a trend to go DOWN in value in western Kansas 
anyway. 

I'm not sure, but  I think about the cheapest home that could be built would 
be around $125,000,  with most probably being between $150,000 and $250,000.  
Well, how many  Minimum wage workers can pay a mortgage or rent on that nice 
of a  home?   With no low cost options, much of the work force is prices out  
of living there.

I don't mean to sound to negative.  The attempt  here is to be maybe a bit 
more "realistic."  

I think there was a  strong desire for people to want to make the town "the 
way it was before."   But the reality is, if even half of the old residents 
returned, and the full  population grew back with new residents and 99% of the 
buildings in town are  rebuilt, there is NO WAY they can even start to get it 
"the way it was  before."  

And everyone there realizes that.  And no one is  really trying to make it 
the way it was before.

Greensburg, with the  people who are choosing to rebuild is an ongoing story 
of courage and struggle.  

Many people have chosen to fight their personal battles of courage and  
struggle in other places, and to not come back. Some older people moved strait  
into rest homes in other nearby and not so nearby towns.  Most kids  graduating 
from Greensburg High School go off to college, and few would return  home even 
back when they had a home to return to.  As a kid who grew up in  Kansas, I 
know first hand how most kids can't wait to "get the hell out of  Dodge" and to 
go experience the excitement that the real world has to  offer.  

Maybe community pride is stronger now in Greensburg, and I  think many of the 
kids leaving will seriously consider moving back.  But if  I had to bet, even 
after serious consideration, most won't.  There is a big  world out there, a 
world with fast food restaurants, and shopping malls, and  jobs, and other 
people.  All things, that in comparison, Greensburg in the  best case outcome 
will still be severely lacking.

Other challenges:   With maybe 80% or so of the tax base gone, that puts all 
the tax burden on the  few people staying.  With so many people gone, there is 
a smaller pool of  leaders to be elected from to oversee the rebuilding.  
With gas prices as  they are, there are fewer and fewer travelers driving 
through.  With  advancements in technology, it takes fewer and fewer people to farm 
the fields  surrounding the city, so fewer people are needed there.   

Communities are NOT entirely the buildings set inside the city limits  signs. 
 I remember that after I grew up and moved out of my home town of  Fort 
Scott, Kansas, the first few years I would return on some weekends, and go  to 
football games and see kids that I knew that were younger than me.  And  I would 
see people in the community that were older that I knew.   

Then over the years I mostly only came home to see my father, and most  all 
of my friends had moved on.  Then by the time he moved from the town 15  years 
later, there were few reasons to pull me back.  Yes, MUCH of the town  still 
looks the same today.  But for me it is a different community than  when I was 
there.  

But I can drive around today and see things that  still anchor old memories 
of growing up in the small town of 8,000.   Thoughts of how it might not have 
been all that bad to move back and raise a  family here after all.  Such 
revelations often take a 25 year Reunion to  realize.

While the town looks the same, although strangely, it seems  smaller, few of 
the people I knew before are still there today.  In  October, I brought the 
Brenham Main Mass to the High School and the Junior High  where I attended.  It 
was fun, but I only recognized 4 or 5 teachers (and a  couple of which I 
recognized because they were students when I was a  student).  Of course, many of 
the kids I saw were probably kids of people I  went to school with.   And if I 
had stayed there all along, then new  relationships would have formed as they 
would have replace old ones that faded  away over time.

And yet, all this happened in a town that didn't get ALL  the buildings blown 
away, where ALL the residents were temporarily displaced and  where maybe 75% 
will decide not to come back ever.

I can't image how  different Greensburg is going to be.  Yes, they will get 
some buildings  back up.  They will get some people back.  They will get some 
new  people to move in...maybe.   But there is no way it will be ANYTHING  like 
it used to be. 

When people return, there isn't the old theater  where they got their first 
kiss.  There isn't the old high school  basketball court where they shot the 
game winning shot their senior year.   There isn't the restaurant where their 
Grandpa used to take them for hamburgers  when they were little.  There isn't 
the neighbor lady that used to spend so  much time working on her rose bushes in 
front of her 1910's farm house that was  hauled into town from a farm 50 
years ago.  There isn't the swing set in  the park that would pinch you if you 
weren't careful, or the slippery slide that  would burn you if you went down it 
with shorts on.  There isn't the antique  store where you could spend hours 
shopping in that used to be the old Methodist  Church.  I could go on and on.  

And while the "community"  really is the people, the physical buildings and 
landmarks and such are some of  the anchors in one's memory as to the way it 
used to be.

So there has  been a purging.  Greensburg is for all intents and purposes a 
new  town.  The people rebuilding have to have a new and optimistic outlook on  
life.  The pessimists will find it easier to move on elsewhere.    

Humans tend to like to hold on to the familiar, to hold onto the  past.  
Well, there's not that much left to hold onto with Greensburg, so  they get the 
challenges to rebuilding from scratch.  

People in  Greensburg have asked if am rebuilding my house in Greensburg, and 
I chuckle and  say "no" as most of my work in the area is done.   The appeal 
of  building a $150,000 house I won't live in much, only to sell it later for  
$125,000 as real estate continues to depress in value is not my idea of  fun. 
 Now if I didn't have another home elsewhere, and since my income is  not 
derived from local business, I might have considered it.

I was  blessed in that I only lost a house, but not my home.  Some of my 
neighbors  lost their homes and even more.  

I am so happy for many of them  that are happy in moving on.  I am happy for 
those that are enjoying the  challenge of staying and rebuilding. 

I am happy that I got to experience  things such watching the movie CARS in 
the old theater in downtown Greensburg a  couple of years ago, and walking the 
streets home several blocks that night  comparing the demise of the fictional 
town in that movie on the old highway to  Greensburg and wondering if anything 
would ever be able to reroute people back  to that dwindling town on the 
prairie.  

I am glad I got to meet  some of my neighbors there, and got to form some 
friendships that will last a  lifetime.

I am not sure if that answers your question Dave?    If you want more 
cheerful stories, I invite you to go to the websites of the  Hutchinson and Wichita 
papers.  I am sure there are many great stories to  be told there.  

Honestly, I think it is going to take the 10 year  anniversary before we have 
a good idea of how this is going to all shake  out.

Steve Arnold  #1
Arkansas

In a message dated  5/3/2008 12:39:30 P.M. Central Daylight Time, 
david.carothers at verizon.net  writes:
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Lest we forget that one year ago, a  tornado ripped through Greensburg, 
Kansas, destroying most of it.  Many  of the members of this list contributed 
and worked the effort to donate to  the reconstruction of the town.

For those who might be interested, the  Discovery Channel is hosting a 60 
minute program on May 03, at 8:00 pm  titled "Blown Away: Greensburg, 
Kansas".   The program will be  shown again on May 04, at 12:00 am.

Steve Arnold #1 or Geoff  Notkin...  I'm interesteed in how Greensburg has 
progressed these past  12 months.  Would you or anyone else on the list be 
able to provide and  update?

Regards,

Dave  

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