GREENSBURG RELIEF
SUNDAY, MAY 13, 2007 Departed Garnett 7:00 a.m. from airport. Arrived at Coffey Co. airport 7:15 and reloaded into Cessna 182 NR3D for flight to Greensburg. Arrived Greensburg 10:00 a.m.. Gary U picked us up at airport and transported us to Heart to Heart facility in downtown Greensburg. All activity closed down for church service in a large tent in East Park. Nearly 3,000 resident, volunteers, and families attended worship service shared by ministerial alliance of Kiowa County. Service was very inspirational. American Family Insurance provided free lunch afterward for 1200 people. Others also offered free food.
We then reported to Shannon of Heart to Heart, loaded a Gator style 4x4 with cold bottled water and cruised town offering it to workers. We then borrowed a fork lift from John Deere and moved several pallets of bottled water. Next, we met Mary, the hospital administrator, who was trying to salvage some records from her office. We moved them into some storage containers. The hospital is a total loss and awaits demolition. The town has been described as 95 % destroyed. That is an understatement.
We departed Greensburg airport at 6:30 p.m. and arrived back at Coffey Co. airport at 8:00 p.m... Upon my arrival home there was a message from Steve Burnett asking for help to set up office in Haviland. I returned his call and said I would come with volunteers.
MONDAY, MAY 14, 2007 Ray Arnett of Garnett and my brother Larry of Paola agreed to come. We left Garnett at 10:00 a.m. drove to Eldorado for lunch and on to Wichita and hitched onto the West Conference travel trailer. Arrived in Haviland 3:30 p.m., met Steve for directions to park trailer and then to church. There we met Jean Snead who asked us to move used clothes from one semi-trailer to another. Then we shuffled clothes from one room to another, after five hours work and a very warm day and no showers available we made our beds on the floor of the church. Larry’s mattress went down during the night but otherwise a good night. There was lightning and a little rain.
TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2007 Feeling sore but otherwise ok, after a good breakfast at Haviland, we finished small job a church then on to Greensburg. Met Norman Volz, a local fuel jobber, who operated a warehouse and two bulk plants. I checked fuel quanity in tanks and cardlock facility, and used his truck to replenish fuel supply, while Larry and Ray started repairing roof over office area. I then made visual check of both bulk plants and determined that the east one could be easily plumbed to load trucks using truck pumps since there was no electricity. Since this was the business I had been in for many years and Norman had sustained injuries, I felt I could get things working so emergency vehicles and equipment could get fuel. I then spent time with Norman and planned some work to do for him on Wednesday. After nine hours work today we were to ready to hit the hay.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 16, 2007 I returned to Volz Oil by 8:00 a.m., met with Steve Caplinger who brought a bobcat. He cleared debris next to warehouse while Ray and Larry worked on roof. Steve then went to bulk plant with bobcat to clear debris there. I helped Steve and then took fittings and installed them at the east bulk plant. Larry and Ray left for home by noon hour. I spent the rest of the day mowing and cleanup at the office and warehouse. Answered phone and manned office while Norman was away. Witnessed ATV accident at office drive. The rider was injured and taken to a temporary hospital tent that had been set up. Steve worked with bobcat most of afternoon at museum. It was a total loss as was the library across the street. There were 30 homes with minor damage, 75 with major damage, over 600 totally destroyed. By now the showers at the campground were working, wonderful.
THURSDAY, MAY 17, 2007 Worked with Steve and Bob Caplinger at Volz west bulk plant. Cleared debris and then moved to Norman’s house by noon. After lunch I met Ray who had returned from Garnett, and we commenced work on office warehouse, cleared a loading dock and removed debris. Checked damage to tanks at west bulk plant and planned for repairs of leaks.
FRIDAY, MAY 18, 2007 I spent the morning at Volz office answering phone and assisting Norman. He went to Dr. to get the lacerations on his leg checked. It is very swollen and he needed antibiotics. Ray worked at west bulk plant. I then delivered fuel to equipment at landfill, Mennonite disaster center and cardlock storage. We departed for home at 6:00 p.m. and stopped at Haviland for shower and supper.
GROUND ZERO GREENSBURG, KANSAS
May 13, 2007
I arrived home Sunday evening after a full day of trying to absorb the magnitude of damage from the previous week’s tornado. This was a small rural town much similar to Garnett. It’s fame was the world’s largest hand dug well and largest meteorite. It also was home to Kansas’s largest John Deere Combine Dealership. As a previous business owner, I could start to measure the actual financial loss of 34 combines, 8 tractors, numerous other equipment and an inventory of $1,000,000 in parts plus the total loss of their shop, office, and sales facility.
I had flown to Greensburg Sunday with Gordon Blackie, a pilot representing Midwest Mission Air. We had received special clearance to land at Greensburg airport because of Mission Air’s association with Heart to Heart, another Christian organization already working in Greensburg.
At home Sunday evening I returned a phone call from Steve Burnett, one of the disaster response coordinators of the Kansas Conference of the United Methodist Church, I had worked with in Mississippi. Steve asked if I would assist in opening an office at the United Methodist Church in Haviland, which would coordinate work requests from residents of Greensburg. I accepted his request and then called Ray Arnett of Garnett and Larry Lybarger of Paola, both had contacted me earlier wishing to volunteer. We met Steve at the Haviland church, after stopping in Wichita to locate and tow a donated travel trailer. The trailer will be used for sleeping quarters for office staff staying for extended periods. We met Jean Snead at the Haviland United Methodist Church, she ask for our help in moving donated clothes so that we might have sleeping room and make space for the coordinating office. The church was overflowing with clothes.
Tuesday morning the Southern Baptist church members were preparing and serving breakfast at the Haviland school, so we took advantage of that before departing for Greensburg. Kansas Hwy troopers were manning a checkpoint about two miles out of Greensburg. We were given clearance by showing our church disaster response identification. WE proceeded into Greensburg and met Norman Volz, owner of Volz Oil Co., the only fuel distributor in Greensburg.
Norman’s wife, Beverly, his business secretary-bookkeeper, perished in the storm, her father who lived with them is in a coma at the Pratt hospital, and Norman suffered a leg injury and is temporarily incapacitated. His key fuel driver was also killed in the storm. Volz oil office and warehouse suffered some roof damage and a portion of the building was torn off. Ray and Larry inspected damage to the building and Ray made plans for repair to the most obvious holes in the roof.
After meeting Norman Volz for the first time, I explained that we had come to assist him in trying to make his business operational again. The cardlock facility, one of a very few places with electrcity, was functioning satisfactorily but fuel was being brought from Kinsley 40 miles away. Upon inspection of a existing bulk plant in Greensburg, I determined that by installing some fittings that storage could soon be utilized. By Wednesday that was accomplished and Merle, a driver from Capital City Oil of Topeka, arrived and began to make deliveries from this storage. I continued to assist Norman at the office while Ray and Larry worked at repairing the warehouse roof.
Friday morning I responded to a call for fuel from the Greensburg landfill. I drove one of Volz Oil’s delivery trucks joining a steady convoy of dump trucks to the landfill. An average of 1200 to 1400 loads of debris per day has been hauled this week. Trucks and equipment have arrived from several hundred miles around. Volunteers, contractors, Kansas National Guard, Air Force Guard, Kansas State Highway, and many county and municipal units are leveling and removing debris.
Red Cross, Salvation Army, numerous Christian organizations and church groups are responding to assist the town. Volunteers from Mississippi and Louisiana have arrived to reciprocate the many trips Kansan’s made to the Gulf after Katrina. I must offer my observation that God performs miracles even in tragedy. One miracle is that only 10 people’s lives were lost. Another is that a 17 year old girl was found alive under rubble 7 days after the storm. The spirit of the town is positive and their attitude is of recovery and rebuild. With perseverance and prayer it can happen.
Submitted by Dale Lybarger
Retired Fuel Distributor
Garnett, Kansas