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 serve his six-month sentence on work release. It was his second arrest — the first was in the early 1970s, he says — so he was sentenced to jail.

The man was in his cell and watching the storm approach on TV. He heard the sirens, and then realized that sheriff’s deputies had forgotten to evacuate him when they hustled prisoners in other cells to shelter.

The TV went dead. He heard “one hell of a roar.” His ears popped, and then the jail took the brunt of the tornado. Part of the roof was ripped off, but the concrete portion held fast. The skylight was sucked out through the roof, he says, and he thought he was next.

The man held tightly onto the bars of his cell. “I thought I was gone,” he says. “That’s the scaredest I’ve ever been. I’ve had lung surgery, and I wasn’t near as scared as I was that night in the jail.”

After the storm had passed, deputies discovered that he had been left upstairs in his cell. They asked if he was OK, then left and didn’t return for about 30 minutes, he says. During the early morning hours, the man was transferred to the Dodge City Jail and then eventually brought back to Pratt, where he finished serving his sentence.

The man says he had considered a lawsuit against the county for what had happened to him, but decided against it.

“I want to live in Kiowa County,” he says, “but I couldn’t have stayed if I had sued.”

When people chuckle at his story and near misfortune, he says it’s a humorous story now. But, he adds, it wasn’t funny the night it happened. He says he’s lucky to be alive.

Those who departed early fretted about the stormy weather between here and home. No one ran into a problem, as far as we heard. It sounded like the Wichita area dodged most of the really bad stuff tonight.

We’re writing and editing the final print and audio pieces. Our plan is to wrap it up by Friday mid-afternoon, and then head back to Wichita. It’s been an exhausting but productive two weeks. We’re ready to sleep in our own beds again.

Besides, the oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies my aunt sent are almost gone.

The conversation early this morning among coffee drinkers at the Haviland Hardware store focused on politics and weather.

The possibility of an Obama-Clinton ticket sparked comments among what seems to be a mostly Republican crowd. Clinton’s reported plan is to drop out of the presidential race, endorse Obama and ask for party unity to carry the Democrats to victory in November.

Clay Corbet said he can’t wait until the Obama bumper stickers come out so he can plaster hardware store owner Vic Hannan’s vehicle with them. Vic is the most vocal Republican supporter not only in the morning group, but likely in this part of the state.

Today’s forecast of possible nasty weather was a recurring topic. Half-joking, a couple of the coffee drinkers asked others as they came in if they had their fraidy hole cleaned out in preparation for predicted bad weather later today and tonight. It figures, Clay said of the forecast of even stronger winds than we’ve had since late Wednesday. Today is league golf day for some of them.

Eighty-something Clifton Clark, farmer and school bus driver for more than 50 years, got the biggest laugh of the day when he proclaimed that women and weather were two things men always talk about but can’t change. At least with the weather, he added, you can hope.

Conversation stopped momentarily just after that when Debbie Smitherman joined husband Dwight and the group at the big round table.

“Why is it,” someone asked, “that when a woman sits down it suddenly gets quiet?”

It’s almost 8 Tuesday evening, and we’re finishing stories we worked on today. Several students are returning to jobs in Wichita tomorrow, so they’re the most frantic among the group. Some are leaving later tonight.

We’re under a severe thunderstorm watch tonight. Deb Folkerts, who works with the Salvation Army and also in the library at Barclay College, came up to us while we were picknicking in the park across from Jackson Hall, where we’re staying in Haviland. It was a treat, especially considering we’re without a microwave or kitchen this week.

Son Ben barbecued some pork for sandwiches, and made pasta salad and peach crisp for us to eat. We also had baked beans sent by Donna Schupp, plus cookies and brownies made by my aunt and cousin in Cheney and Garden Plain. Extra tasty. We’ll munch on those the rest of the week.

Ben and his crew left for home about 7:30, after checking the radar on our computers to avoid heading into the storm. We wanted to make sure they wouldn’t end up trapped in their van during a bad storm, like the unfortunate Colorado couple killed last week between Pratt and Cunningham when a tornado picked up their car in the roadside park.

One of Haviland’s two storm sirens is right behind Jackson Hall, so we’ll know quickly if the weather turns bad.

Conversation ranges from all the rain the Kiowa County area has received the past few days to the new city storm sirens that should arrive soon. Government spending is a frequent topic, too. Little progress is made on solving issues, but the discussion is spirited.

If you want to find out what’s going on in Haviland, the hardware store is the place to go. Vic opens at 6 a.m. and has plenty of company. It was that way after the Greensburg tornado, too. It was one of the few — maybe the only — places where media types could get Internet access. The hardware store also serves as the town’s grocery and convenience store.

This morning’s group that gathered just before 7 includes the mayor, one council member, a volunteer from Missouri who came a year ago to help and is still assisting those in need, two longtime employees at the farmers’ co-op, the head custodian for the school district, a bank employee who lost his home in the Greensburg tornado and a farmer-bus driver.

The farmer-bus driver is Clifton Clark, who was recently honored for driving Haviland school buses for 50 years. Today, though, he’s fretting over the abundance of rain — somewhere between 5 and 6 inches — that the area has received since Friday.

He and others at the table talked about how they’d like to save some of it for July. The same is true for the temperature, which dipped to a cool 49 early this morning.

Vic Hannan of Haviland Hardware, left, checks on morning coffee drinkers at his store.

Not all of us (including me) brought jackets. But it’s supposed to warm up in a day or so.

Tonight, we trying to grill hamburgers on a small charcoal grill outside the church where we’re staying. Pretty chilly work. We opted for boiling the hotdogs in the church kitchen.

Everyone who’s not preparing dinner is busy on their initial stories. It’s interesting to see big people working on their laptops at those little kids’ tables in the Sunday school classrooms.

Ashley Stone works on a story in the 2nd- and 3rd-grade Sunday school classroom.

As he talked, the storm sirens went off in Greensburg. Everyone’s expression abruptly changed.

“That’s not funny,” he said. “I think they’re training a new dispatcher. . . I hope.”

The siren wound down, as Deighton predicted. Everyone in the volunteer center relaxed.

Something like a siren going off can trigger anxiety and fear in those who have been through a disaster like the Greensburg tornado, he said.

A few minutes later, the siren sounded again. One of the volunteers went to check. “Not funny,” he said as he left.

He returned shortly and announced it was just a test.

Storm siren test spooks volunteers

A Colorado couple was killed when their car was hit by a tornado as they traveled on U.S. 54 between Cunningham and Pratt. The tornado apparently picked up their vehicle and carried it into a wheat field north of the highway. Recent news reports have focused on how dangerous it is to stay in your vehicle when a tornado is approaching. Since they were from out of state, I wonder if they were paying attention to the weather reports.

The Eagle reported at least 17 tornados across central and western Kansas Friday. It’s already been a season of deadly weather.

I’m relieved that we’ll be staying in the basement of the church in Haviland.