Survivor Pulled From Rubble In Tornado-Ravaged Town

For mile after mile, the desolation continues. Where homes, schools, hospitals and churches once stood, now lies nothing but shards of wood, broken glass and debris that’s almost unidentifiable. It’s the new reality in the small town of Greensburg, Kansas, which is cleaning up after one of the worst series of tornados in recent memory. Amazingly, officials in Greensburg say searchers found someone alive in the rubble Sunday, more than two days after disaster struck.

The twisters struck with a vengeance on Friday night and there’s hardly a building or structure that wasn’t touched by the F5 category storm, the strongest of all such disturbances. Many cities in Kansas were affected by the wild winds, but few fared as tragically as the small south central town with a population of just 1,500. At least eight people are dead and 95 percent of the city is simply gone.

“Even though I have been to other disasters, this one was a lot worse — the amount of damage,” paramedic Annette Gasten relates. “It is such a large area that was destroyed that it made it difficult” to search. Residents were allowed back to scour for whatever was left of their homes on Monday, searching through the rubble for precious artifacts. Some didn’t find anything except their own tears.

School has been cancelled for the rest of the year, with graduation ceremonies to be held elsewhere. U.S. President George Bush has already declared parts of Kansas a disaster area, making it eligible for federal funds. But no amount can ever bring back what was lost and the feeling of security that was literally blown away by a sudden and unexpected attack from Mother Nature.