Tornado Alley
Monday, May. 07, 2007 9:22 AM

�In some places it's known as a tornado. In others, a cyclone. And in still others, the Idiot's Merry-go-round. But around here they'll always be known as screw-boys.� - Jack Handy

I was watching CNN this morning and they had a report on the recent tornado activity here in Kansas. Between Kansas and Oklahoma, 75+ tornadoes touched down this weekend. The worst damage was in Greensburg located in Kiowa County. That's pronounced K-EYE-OH-WA. The newscaster read it like this, "Key-oh-wa." I'd have sympathy for her right now, but it's an Indian tribe. I believe all American's should know their Native American information, but that's just me.

As for Greensburg, Kansas? It's gone. Completely destroyed. Here's Video Coverage. Check it out. The damage is unbelievable.

The Greensburg water tower was blown away by the tornado. This was the structure with the warning siren on it. Everyone was given a 20 minute warning that a tornado was coming, but what do you do once your warning signal is blown away?

I stole the following quote from the weather channel's website. I wanted to know the statistics. "The National Weather Service has rated the Greensburg tornado as an EF-5 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale -- the highest category. The weather service said it had wind estimated at 205 mph, and carved a track 1.7 miles wide and 22 miles long.......... The last tornado classified as an F-5 hit the Oklahoma City area on May 3, 1999, killing 36 people."

Greensburg lost both of their schools, their hospital, all of their cell phone towers, their churches, their banks... About the only structure left standing is the grain elevator. In other words, 90% of the town was wiped out. Some are estimating that it's actually 95% of the town. One of my family's oil supply companies was demolished, while another one survived. The one that survived is located just outside of town. The parents of one of my coworkers lost their family business.

A total of 9 people died, including the aunt and uncle of someone who has worked with us for over 27 years. It was our Western Kansas supervisor who found her uncle while he was out looking for his son. Eight of the people died in Greensburg while 1 died at the hospital in Pratt.

CNN is reporting 10 deaths. This is because another tornado took the life of someone in Bennington, Kansas (where my aunt and uncle live) located in Saline County. While they suffered a bit of damage from the tornado, it wasn't even nearly as bad as Greensburg. However, they're now experiencing severe flooding. You can check out photos of flood pictures from the same site as the video link.

Saline County is in the north-central part of our state while Kiowa County is located in the southwestern part. Wichita, where I live, is located in the south-central part of the state. If you go here, Click This, you'll see a map of where the Greensburg tornado touched down. The area with the most red markers is where Greensburg is located. The closest white dot is where I'm located.

The state's going to be criticized for not responding 100% to this disaster when it comes to relief and aid. It's not the state's fault, though. We normally have these supplies on hand for such emergencies, but we've had to send the majority of the relief stuff over to Iraq to help aid the war instead. This only makes me bitter about the war even more.

I can't help but think about the situation today while I'm at work. My random thoughts on the whole thing go something like this:

What if the tornado had hit Wichita instead of Greensburg? One of the 75 tornadoes to touch down was just to the east of me less than 2 miles away, but it was insignificant in the overall scheme of things.

How can David handle coming across a man's dead body only to find out the body belonged to a coworker's uncle? What if that had been his son instead? How do people handle coming across dead bodies when they're not used to seeing them?

I remember when my cat Ashley died. She was just lying there in the middle of the hallway with her eyes wide open and her mouth slightly ajar. I'll never forget it. I'll never forget looking into her vacant eyes. That's probably why some people close the eyelids of the dead to make it look like they are sleeping. So that those of us still alive don't have to stare straight into the vacancy.

How is it possible that we can wake up every single day and take for granted all of our material possessions, when in a blink of an eye we can lose it all? What does it feel like to lose it all? Not only do you lose the structure that was built to shelter you from the elements, but you lose everything. Even your family photos and memorabilia, your family heirlooms.... Does it make you realize how these things don't matter eventually? That the only thing that truly matters is life? Does it prove to you just how fragile we are as human beings?

The storm kept me at home on Friday night, so I spent the evening chatting in the chatroom I frequent randomly. I know that when I was following the storm's progress on Friday night, the only person who seemed to care about the storm as much as me was a guy from Wichita. Other chatters joked that when and if it hits my area, I should just seek shelter. They made it sound like it wasn't important unless it was personally attacking me and the state of my being. For some reason, that upset me.

Yet, here I am. I still have my house. I still have my material possessions. My cats are still alive. Nobody I know personally lost their lives. The only thing that separates me from the victims is merely the fact that I was able to fall asleep in my own bed last night, wake up to the sound of my alarm clock going off, and go about my daily life as if nothing happened.

I don't think events like this really touch home until you're experiencing it first hand. I know that these chatters weren't experiencing it first hand so they had every right to feel removed from it. I'm just not sure which upsets me more, the fact that they can't relate to what us Kansans experienced over the weekend, or that I'm waking up as if nothing happened because it's the only thing I can do right now.

And yet, even more news keeps coming in. One of the ladies who died in the tornado was trapped in her basement. She bled to death before the paramedics could get to her. My coworkers father found her before she died but he couldn't get to her because of the debris.

I've been on the phone off and on all day with people who have lost absolutely everything. It's starting to get to me. I just got off the phone with a guy who lives in Great Bend. His entire town is swamped in water so that it's like they're trapped on an island.. and they're supposed to get three more days of heavy rain. He just told me he has no idea what they're going to do. The water doesn't have anywhere to go. Their sewer system isn't working. If they didn't lose their home to a tornado, they've lost it to the flood water. Almost the entire town doesn't have electricity, and they're all stuck trying to survive on high ground. In Kansas, high ground is hard to come by.

I can't believe how mother nature can destroy so much of my state in just one weekend. This must be what New Orleans looked like after Hurricane Katrina: overwhelmingly much like a war zone.

I'm going to Greensburg on Thursday or Friday. Once I see the damage, I think it will really sink in just how bad things are. I'm almost afraid to find out.