Greensburg still needs volunteers

[bad_robbie]

Greensburg, KS still needs your help. Volunteers of all skill levels are needed to keep rebuilding the town. November 4 will be 18 months since the tornado, and many residents who are still living in FEMA trailers will need to start paying rent. Although the rent itself isn't unreasonable, most of these folks are also still paying mortgages on their damaged or destroyed houses, so it's the "double-whammy" that gets them.


The Big Well


This house sustained relatively light damage on the East side of town. Siding, windows and roof were destroyed and interior was water-damaged.


Just a foundation


They don't build 'em like they did in 1915. The only downtown structure not destroyed or torn down.


Kiowa County Courthouse


County records in temporary storage.


The phone company built its offices to last.


Temporary City Government Buildings


Needs work.


Almost finished outside.


Storm clouds over the new water tower

To see how you can help, visit http://greensburgks.org/ways-to-help. Volunteers can contact the South Central Kansas Tornado Recovery Organization through the link. Religious organizations that also work with SCKTRO include the United Methodist Church Kansas West Conference, the Disciples of Christ Church and Mennonite Housing. People with construction skills are needed, of course, but SCKTRO also can use plenty of "Ordinary Labor", too.

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. Thank you so much for posting this

And whatever happened to all the green technology that was supposed to go into rebuilding Greensburg? And the promises Bush made?

[bad_robbie]

2. There is some green technology in place already.

Thanks for asking, here's what I saw and heard about . . .

The KU Architecture School-sponsored 5.4.7 center is the best example so far of green building.



The center was designed and built by KU School of Architecture Studio 806 students. It's powered by the wind turbines visible in the photos. The glass portico is raised on hydraulic rams when the building is open. Interior views show KUMED Wichita Pharmacy students giving flu shots. In the back view, you can also see a hybrid traditional-geodesic dome house. It is built mostly out of foam and cement.


Rendering of the new library/museum structure.

K-State and Kansas WaterLink have installed some modular demonstrator structures. Some are also sponsored by private firms.






These buildings are intended to demonstrate green and sustainable building techniques on-site, as well as provide emergency resources. The "wateringCAN" and "iceCUBE" are both intended for self-contained disaster relief. One of the realizations in Greensburg was the huge effort required to maintain all the porta-potties and provide drinking and bathing water.

The Federal contribution is not really as extraordinary as Bush had promised. I'm not surprised, but still disappointed. FEMA has a presence there, with trailer homes and emergency storm shelters. Unfortunately, as I mentioned in above, many trailer residents have to move out or start paying rent in November. Local housing stock is being rebuilt, but there won't enough to avoid a financial crisis for a lot of these folks. I guess the good news is there hasn't been much problem with noxious outgassing from the trailers like in the Gulf region. Perhaps these units are better designed and built, or maybe the drier and windier climate of western Kansas helps. Greensburg residents would have the windows open much more of the time compared to the Gulf Coast. Temperatures drop much more at night in the Summer in a dry climate.

The other Federal agency that I saw was the USDA. They've been helping with repairing the courthouse, and there are some grants and loans available to residents and businesses and assistance with the "cookie cutter" houses. These homes are so-called because of their minimal diversity in design. They don't look bad, though, and aren't nearly as cookie-cutter as one would see in, e.g. Lenexa, home of the eponymous beige.


Organizations and Universities have been helping, as have private citizens. Mennonite Housing has been very involved. The New York City and New Jersey fire departments have helped out in many ways. Here's a photo of one of the tributes to them.

The reflected dalmatian (Molly) was just there by accident. Kind of cool, in retrospect, since dalmatians are associated with firefighting. If you go to my photobucket album, you can see a much higher resolution of this pic and others.

Dillons is rebuilding its store ;

The adjoining KwikShop is one of the busiest in the state.

Here's a rendering of the Library Rebuilding:

note the "green roof".

City Hall groundbreaking was last Thursday.

High school football continues.

The Greensburg Rangers won the game last Friday against St. Johns. The game was played in Mullinville (10 miles west), since GHS was severely damaged and subsequently torn down. GHS students are attending school in temporary buildings. Groundbreaking for the new high school was 10/14.

One of Mullinville's attractions is the Outsider Art (aka Folk Art) of M. T. Ligget.

This is just a small portion of Mr. Ligget's work on display on US Highways 54 and 400. Ligget is world famous in Outsider Art circles, and is currently featured in a traveling exhibition of the genre. His works include political, social and religious commentary, caricatures of individuals, both famous and local folks, and stuff that to my eye was simply ornamental. Worth a stop if you are headed to NM or AZ on US 54 sometime. This one is warrants a look at higher resolution (see below).

I'm working on posting all my Greensburg photos on photobucket.com. You can see larger versions of these pics (and more, soon) here: http://photobucket.com/Greensburg_08.