Kan. Town Vows to Rebuild After Tornado

Vern Catron, left, and his cousin, T.J. Fiedler, 7, both of Rossville, Kan., load sandbags onto a trailer as they volunteer at Rossville High School, where sand and bags were handed out, Monday, May 7, 2007. After filling his trailer, Catron drove around looking for people who needed assistance with the flooding and delivered the sandbags. (AP Photo/Topeka Capital-Journal, Mike Burley) (Mike Burley - AP)

GREENSBURG, Kan. -- Even before it was flattened by a monstrous tornado, Greensburg's population and fortunes had been in decline.

But Mayor Lonnie McCollum vowed Tuesday to bring it back as a new town with a new vision, looking more like an emerging suburb than a fading farming town.

"I don't see this mess. I see what it's going to be," McCollum said, standing in front of a sea of severed trees, crumpled vehicles and wrecked buildings. "Who wouldn't want to live in a brand new town? Who wouldn't want to have a business in a whole new town?"

Still, he couldn't predict when basic services such as sewer, water or electricity would be restored after the storm killed nine people and destroyed more than 90 percent of the town. Officials were trying to find a place for mobile homes sent by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Among the only buildings still standing amid the downed utility poles, stripped trees and rubble are the county courthouse and the 16-story Southern Plains Co-op's grain elevator, the tallest building here.

Before the storm hit, Greensburg had been facing an aging and declining population, mirroring Midwestern trends. The 2000 Census said more than a quarter of its residents were 65 or older; its population peaked at nearly 2,000 in 1960 and has declined to about 1,400.

Residents of other communities struck by past tornadoes wondered if and when Greensburg could recover.

In 1974, a tornado in Ohio tore up a six-block section of downtown Xenia destroying 2,200 homes and businesses and leaving 32 people dead. Barb Zajbel, the Area Chamber of Commerce's chief executive, said the city didn't fully recover until the 1990s.

"The problem was, there was no place to live in the meantime," she said. "It isn't that you make a conscious decision to leave."

In Hoisington, Kan., a 2001 tornado damaged about a third of the town and destroyed its only grocery store. Not only did its owners rebuild their business, they expanded.

"Our Main Street was intact," co-owner Randy Deutsch said. "Their question is, 'How many of our people are going to come back?'"

How much Greensburg recovers depends on the energy its leaders show and the networks _ church, social and business _ residents have formed, said Bruce Weber, director of Oregon State University's rural studies program.