In Greensburg

A Kiowa County man who does not want to be identified has a frightening story about surviving the Greensburg tornado.
He was in jail in Greensburg on a DUI charge the night the tornado hit. He had been arrested and convicted in Sedgwick County, he says, but arranged a transfer to the Kiowa County Jail to [...]

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John Colclazier is a Greensburg native. He was a longtime volunteer firefighter, county appraiser for 12 years and served recently on the planning commission. He seems to be the kind of guy who works hard, but doesn’t appreciate being told how to do it — or when.
Maybe that explains the roof on one of [...]

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Ozi Utah came back from her work on the Scout cabin rock pile this afternoon with a big smile on her face.
“Guess what I found?” she asked as her smile grew even bigger. She held up a piece of mortar she chipped from one of the stones.
All of us in the fellowship hall at the [...]

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Sometimes, en route to the real story, you run across interesting tidbits about people.
Take Georgia Abrams, for example. She’s an intern with GreenTown in Greensburg and has been attending Indiana State, but is transferring to Kansas State University this fall.
Georgia, who is staying in the basement of the Methodist Church with our group, is back [...]

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Travis Heying of The Eagle works with Molly Walsh and Rebecca Zepick on their stories.
When it comes to providing expert guidance, Wichita media professionals are always more than willing to lend a hand to students.
Four Wichita media professionals — Larry Hatteberg of KAKE, Dr. David Kamerer of Wichita State University (soon to be at Loyola [...]

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Funerals are more common in some western Kansas churches than weddings. That speaks volumes about the plight of small towns and their dwindling populations.
Greensburg United Methodist hosted its first wedding since it was rebuilt after the 2007 tornado. Pastor Terry Mayhew said he has conducted 11 funerals since the arrived in town two years ago. [...]

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I’d never heard of Buster’s, but a couple of friends we met last year in Haviland insisted we needed to visit the saloon in Sun City before we went back to Wichita this year. I had to admit I also hadn’t heard of Sun City. And I’m familiar with a lot of small Kansas towns.
Sun [...]

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One of the most interesting obstacles we encountered last week wasn’t people we couldn’t reach for interviews. It was the sand roads north of town. Well, for one of us anyway.
Chandra Stauffer headed to an interview seven miles north of town. A while later, my cell phone rang. It was her husband, back in Wichita. [...]

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Vic Hannan, the owner, was on vacation in New Jersey, but the coffee crowd still showed up last week at Haviland Hardware. And, for the most part, they were happy without Vic around — until the store ran out of biscuits and gravy mid-week.
Bill Johnson, the ever-present volunteer, is still helping in the Greensburg [...]

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City Hall’s lost-and-found collection may not be around much longer. The city of Greensburg has been storing items recovered after the May 2007 tornado, but they soon may have to go when the new city hall opens.
City offices have been housed in portable buildings since the storm, but city hall is expected to be ready [...]

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