“It is morning in Greensburg, population uncertain.” That’s how a sobering article in Sunday’s New York Times began, updating national readers on the town’s progress since the May 4 tornado. The article pondered how much of the storm’s damage will turn out to be permanent because Greensburg, like so many rural towns in Kansas, had experienced many years of decline before the tornado struck. Fifty-eight-year-old Jon Clark acknowledged that many residents won’t come back and said: “It’s a real thorny issue. Was this storm a mercy killing?”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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12 Comments
Most people probably will never go back. Generally people go where their jobs are. If the job comes back, usually they will too. But from what I have seen many of the people in that town were retired or the jobs they had were destroyed too. And rather than have to go through rebuilding and all that pain, it is easier to take the insurance money and move elsewhere. And Kansas has hundreds of little towns that they can move to including Pratt that has all the services and businesses that were lost in Greensberg.
Before the storm, it must have been hard to sell a home in Greensburg. The truth is that Mother Nature purchased a lot of homes in Greensburg so that people could leave.
Kev and Think-1st: Both of your comments are right on track. When many Greensburg residents get that insurance check in hand, they are going to think long and hard about whether to rebuild during the next couple years while living in a FEMA trailer.
Alternatively, they could move some 30 miles east on Highway 54 to Pratt and resume their life quickly in a similar central Kansas community. Pratt, a county seat, offers a thriving Main Street, great schools and community college, many churches, full size Dillons and Wal-Mart, the 80 year old Fish Hatchery and a great tradition of small town friendliness. Even barber shops are open on Saturdays. Pratt’s old WWII army airbase, a test facility for B-29’s built in Wichita, is an industrial area with potential for additional job development.
A number of other central Kansas towns offer similar benefits: Great Bend, Larned, Dodge City, Liberal. I’m told Hugoton is an amazing oasis in western Kansas, presumably because of the natural gas industry.
One thing that could save Greensburg is a new industry to provide good creative jobs for Greensburg people. This might bring in new pioneering residents to replace residents who choose to move on.
I suspect Greensburg’s days were numbered when the first FEMA and KDOT officials arrived in town to announce, “We are with the government and we’re here to help you.”
I think you are all way off. Greensburg will be the first “new” town in western KS in 50 years! It will have all new schools, all new churches, and all new businesses. Momentum is building for this little town, there is a lot of talk going on in the business community on how we can help them, and there are some significant ideas out there. I think once the rebuilding truly starts.. when the schools and churches start… there will be a surge of other development. In fact, I think at that point it will be the other small towns in the area that will have to look out, their residents will be moving away to the new and improved Greensburg.
Well, Mr. O, Greensburg does have some major pluses:
1) The old Rock Island Railroad which travels from Chicago essentially to Los Angelos. Is it now the Burlington-Northern?
2) Highway 54, a major east-west highway, admittedly not up to interstate standards yet. Again this historic highway travels from Chicago to El Paso and then on with a different designation to southern California.
3) Perhaps a major truck stop could be located near downtown Greensburg complete with hotels, restaurants, repair services, mail drop for truck drivers. Transfer spot from railroad.
3) Hard-working honest bible-belt Kansans.
4) The World’s deepest hand dug well with its access to the pristine drinking waters of the Ogallala aquifer, that is until new ethanol production plants drain that aquifer down.
5) How about a Greensburg bottled water facility owned by Greensburg residents financed by seed money from Kansas Government to get it going quick. Utilize the excellent railraod transportation potential. Make “WATER FROM GREENSBURG” a world famous name.Greensburg — there’s your answer … go for it.
Build a recyled geyser of water with flashing laser lights as a symbol of “Greensburg, the destination water city of Kansas.”
6) Build a bigger wheat elevator to replace existing elevator with viewing area from top.
7) Existing municipal infrastructure such a water supply, sewers, wide straight streets, no concrete flyovers to need replacement in 25 years, etc.
Got to go. More ideas anyone?
Some will stay in this townAnd some will go awayFor sure though, we must striveTo live and prosper day to day.
Two interesting observations by thinkfirst and JWink in this thread, both worth reading.
Sometimes I believe, that the identity of a community is just as important as the physical attributes of a community.
As long as the Greensburg residents strive to maintain their identity, the rest will flow as time, money and efforts dictate.
Lots of people will stay because they have family buried in local cemeteries, they have family around them who will stay, they don’t want to live anywhere else. You can destroy physical structures, but you can’t erase memories.
I don’t know what the best course of action is in Greensburg. My main recommendadtion at this point would be to “go slow” for a bit. Decide just what Greensburg will become and THEN move forward to make it happen.
I think they have been discusing what to do with Highway 54 – through or around Greensburg. Now, with no demolition to do, is the time to make such a decision.
As I pointed out earlier:
January 1 is an important date. That is when property values matter most. This is when property values are determined and the budgets are spread over those taxing jurisdictions so that mill levies can be set.
Greensburg will have to lower its budget or the property taxes of those who rebuild by 1 January will be tough to deal with.
I am guessing special help from Topeka or Washington will be requested to “fix” this problem.
Still, I would hate to own the most expensive property in Greensburg.
Utilities and Commercial property will be taxed at the highest rates, but if there isnt much property at all, whatever is there will get hit very hard.
Very good point Econ. With little tax base upon which to spread their municipal (and school and county) budget they will have real problems.
This kind of situation suggests a need for tax abatements for the ‘early builders’ who might be jump-starting the economy.
Many many of these small Midwestern towns will eventually have to look at consolidating or simply closing down and people moving to a city that has enough tax base to actually be viable. Many simply do not have enough tax base to be an economically viable functioning entity. They cant fix the streets, pay for schools, fire, police etc. These things are simply to costly unless you have a critical mass of business, industry, etc.
When in the next 5 years the EU and the WTO forces the US to pull all farm subsidies, the farms in the area wont be worth the time it takes to move. Once they pull the subsidies from Ethanol, Wheat, Milk etc. they will all fart and blow out the window. Remember, the only reason we have all these silly Ethanol plants now is due to a 53 cents per gallon Tariff on Ethanol from outside the US. If they pull it, ethanol will pour in here for below our cost here…then you see empty plants setting on the prairie.
Heck, even the entire states of North and South Dakota are barely economically viable, they only have a population of 1.3 million between them both. Thats about the same as Oklahoma City. A few years ago they got together to look into combining into ONE state called “The Dakotas”. They dont have the population or tax base to pave new highways etc. Remember a highway costs just the same per mile in a populous state as it does in one with only a few people, so the cost per tax payer is enormous.
This would be like Oklahoma City being taxed enough to pay for the entire state of both So. and No. Dakotas highways, schools, fire, police etc.
Plus the midwest would have lost 2 Senators and that would prove costly to the entire midwest. The more Sen. votes given to East and West coast entitie increases their pull in the lawmaking business…which would hasten the demise of the entire middle earth.
A thought occured to me … Greensburg needs a corporate sponsor. My thought is Coca Cola, Pepsi Cola or other company that promotes bottled drinking water. A bottled water “factory” built in Greensburg to bottle water from the World’s Deepest Handdug Well.
This water is presumably some of the best water available in the world. Admittedly, in recent years, that eons old aquifer has been penetrated by municipalities for drinking water (good), agricultural irrigators (maybe/maybe not), power plants (maybe if not over done) and ethanol plants (idiotic but acquiesed to by uninformed politicians over other sources of water such as sewage treatment plant effluent).
THE HIGHEST AND BEST USE FOR OUR OGALLALA AQUIFER WATER IS FOR, GUESS WHAT … DRINKING WATER!
How does this proposed label sound?
“Greensburg’s sparkling aquifer water from the World’s Deepest Handdug Well as mentioned in Ripley’s “Believe it or not.” Our world renowned Ogallala aquifer water is cool for you. Bottled in Greensburg, Kansas, the world’s first “green city.” While in Greensburg, visit the summit observatory of our new 100 story grain elevator to view the Rocky Mountains 250 miles west.
Hello Greensburg — what do you think?