2008 Woodie Awards
Helping Kansas town rebuild: Blog 1
Brittni Garcia/Online Reporter
Issue date: 11/30/07 Section: Writers Outlet
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Online Reporter spent her Thanksgiving break helping tornado ravaged Greensburg, KS rebuild and recalls her mission trip in four blogs. This is the first of four.
For the second year I have decided to work on a mission trip for my Thanksgiving break.
Today we arrived in Greensburg, Kansas, at 3:30 a.m. this morning to work with residents to help rebuild their town damaged by a 1.5-mile long tornado. The tornado disaster occurred May 4, 2007 at 10:04 p.m.
Before the tornado occurred, the town consisted of 1,452 people, but now it has a population of about 580 people. We worked with the organization called SCKTRO, South Central Kansas Tornado recovery organization. The town has been 95 percent destroyed and a group of fifteen of us came from EIU to rebuild for four days.
It was about a 12-hour drive from Charleston to Kansas and we got right to work this morning at 8 a.m. We woke up at 7 a.m. and arrived at a sight where we assisted on rebuilding a two-story home.
We worked with the homeowner who is a foster father of several children. Although I may not be as handy as the working people, I helped bring boards up to the second floor where four people built the roof.
A fellow member of the group and I decided to walk across the street to see if a resident needed help with his home, but he was not interested. However, he did thank us for our help toward his town.
We then took a lunch break at the town's community center, also known as our dining room for the next few days. Later a group of about eight of us went to "Femaville," located in the south side of the town, to clean up debris on the sides of the street.
The people of Greensburg call it Femaville because it is the location of where most of the remaining people live. In "Femaville" there are white trailers lined up next to each other, which were given to the residents from FEMA, Federal Emergency Management Association.
As a group we were given buckets and we went up and down Mockingbird Street, located in "Femaville." We found a lot of debris we wouldn't have seen from the bus. It gave us time to also interact with the community.
For the second year I have decided to work on a mission trip for my Thanksgiving break.
Today we arrived in Greensburg, Kansas, at 3:30 a.m. this morning to work with residents to help rebuild their town damaged by a 1.5-mile long tornado. The tornado disaster occurred May 4, 2007 at 10:04 p.m.
Before the tornado occurred, the town consisted of 1,452 people, but now it has a population of about 580 people. We worked with the organization called SCKTRO, South Central Kansas Tornado recovery organization. The town has been 95 percent destroyed and a group of fifteen of us came from EIU to rebuild for four days.
It was about a 12-hour drive from Charleston to Kansas and we got right to work this morning at 8 a.m. We woke up at 7 a.m. and arrived at a sight where we assisted on rebuilding a two-story home.
We worked with the homeowner who is a foster father of several children. Although I may not be as handy as the working people, I helped bring boards up to the second floor where four people built the roof.
A fellow member of the group and I decided to walk across the street to see if a resident needed help with his home, but he was not interested. However, he did thank us for our help toward his town.
We then took a lunch break at the town's community center, also known as our dining room for the next few days. Later a group of about eight of us went to "Femaville," located in the south side of the town, to clean up debris on the sides of the street.
The people of Greensburg call it Femaville because it is the location of where most of the remaining people live. In "Femaville" there are white trailers lined up next to each other, which were given to the residents from FEMA, Federal Emergency Management Association.
As a group we were given buckets and we went up and down Mockingbird Street, located in "Femaville." We found a lot of debris we wouldn't have seen from the bus. It gave us time to also interact with the community.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Melissa Alf
posted 12/01/07 @ 5:06 PM CST
This was really great to read. This blog is a wonderful reminder of the kindness that can be given in times of need. Britni is the biggest sweetheart and I'm so proud of her!
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