Greensburg KS F-5 Tornado

¶ … convert it into "Green Town"

Overall Analysis of the Rebuilding Process

The region of Greensburg is an agricultural community, which is located in south-central Kansas. The day of May 4, 2007, marked a great tragedy in Greensburg, when it witnessed an EF-5 tornado. The study by FEMA (2007) states that according to the standard meteorological scale this was the most severe tornado in terms of wind speed. The consequence of the Greensburg tornado were very brutal, it demolished the region. The report by Paul, Che, Stimers and Dutt (2009) provides a complete description of the tornado. The author writes that the winds had a speed of over two hundred miles per hour. Moreover, the tornado cut a swath twenty-two miles in length and one and a half miles in width through the region. After the tornado passed, the damage was analyzed and it was found that approximately ninety-five per cent of the farming community and structure, which included some historical landmarks, was destroyed. Eleven people lost their lives were killed, vehicles were broken, and most of the electrical infrastructure was severely damaged. As a result, life for residents became too difficult to live and they had to be relocated. Most of the residents were displaced from their homes and businesses (National Weather Service, 2008).

The tornado was mostly unexpected but after the shock subsided, the time for rebuilding Greensburg initiated. Once again there was something for the locals to look forward to; turning a tragedy into something extraordinary. A lot of different options were discussed and the most passed around idea was to build the new Greensburg town as a "green" community. The voices of the locals were soon heard by the government and they dispatched a team that comprised of energy experts, civil engineers and architects to provide the locals of Greensburg with all the technical support they needed. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) both collaborated cohesively to work on the rebuilding phase. Soon after, the work started and a number of local and national agencies, institutions and industries volunteered to help the locals with financial and physical resources.

The works of Langdon (2007) claim that the teams sent by DOE and NREL had an instrumental role in making planning and development projects. This review their involvement and other federal policies used to construct the path to recovery. This report will evaluate the evolution of use of energy in the region, which will also include historical evidence till the present date. Moreover, the study will summarize all the available energy sources and the plan to use it.

Introduction

When the tornado hit Greensburg, a thirty minute advance warning was issued to the local. The works of Langdon (2007) state that if this warning was not issued than the death toll could have been even higher.

However, considering the extent of the tornado, the overall death toll is not very large, but the devastation caused is immense and as mentioned earlier most of the residents lost their homes and all of their possession with it. The devastation immediately gained the attention of the whole country and it was soon visited by various government officials, including President Bush. The involvement of the government was apparent but many nonprofit organizations such as American Cross, United Way and the Salvation Army assisted as well.

It is important to note that the first priority of the response team was to safely relocate the victims to a safe place and also operate a search and rescue operations for the people loss of under the rubble.

Furthermore, the devastation caused by the Greensburg tornado was unlike most tornado disasters; it demolished more than ninety per cent of the structures in the region. This kind of a disaster requires more than usual resources to accomplish the job, as it tested both the disaster response team during and after the occurrence of the tornado. Another factor that should be considered is that the weather was also not supportive to the response team. Hence, the nature of this case, also extends the usability of this report and can be applied a number of disaster hit regions (National Weather Service, 2008).

If all of these factors are added up then the paramount task of the response team can be gauged. The paper will review the comments of various researchers on the initial efforts and the rehabilitation process at Greensburg.

Objectives

The primary objectives of this study are to examine the following points:

(a) The extent and nature of private and public emergency responses to the devastating tornado in Greensburg on May 4, 2007.

(b) Develop an understanding of the prospects of Greensburg to rebuild the town.

Related Studies and Incidents

One of the outcomes of a severe natural disaster is that it is often followed by a large or small scale of migration of locals from the affected region to their relatives or other regions. The works of Cross (2001) give the example of 'Spencer', which is a small town of just over three hundred people, located in South Dakota. The author claims that the incident of Spencer is closely related to the tornado in Greensburg. Firstly, Spencer also witnessed a tornado in 1998, which resulted in one-hundred and eighty-six buildings to collapse. This corresponded to as much as eighty-four per cent of the structures in Spencer. The author states that the rehabilitation process at Spencer was very slow, only about one-half of its original residents were able to return back to their home by 2000.

Similarly, the example of the town of Hoisington is also closely related with the tornado of Greensburg. The town of Hoisington also had a small population of three thousand people. The town witnessed a severe tornado in 2000 and a huge number of families had to migrate away from the region because of the devastation. Most of these families have not returned back to the town even till now.

After reviewing these examples, it would not be wrong to suspect that a large percentage of the Greensburg's residents would not be tempted to come back to the region if they are not given appropriate financial incentives. This will make rehabilitation even more difficult.

Analysis of Emergency Response

By definition, emergency response signifies all actions that are taken before, during and after a catastrophe takes place. The primary purpose of emergency response is to save lives, enhance the effectiveness of recovery and minimize the damage to structures of the affected region. The works of Brock and Paul (2003) suggest that the term of emergency response is most commonly used to define actions taken immediately after a disaster. Hence, this section will go by that definition and evaluate the emergency response provided after the Greensburg tornado in 2007. This evaluation will also demonstrate the effectiveness of government policies and preparations for such events.

In order to analyze a specific emergency response, the corresponding disaster must also be considered. For the case of a disaster like a tornado, the emergency services are communicated to act with most urgency. Moreover, few of the services offered for such a disaster are search and rescue operations for possible survivors, provisions for temporary shelter, and provisions for mental health counseling, general medical care for the victims and resources to remove debris. The following analysis will evaluate all aspects of the emergency response team. This is illustrates how well the policies of the government faired with such a catastrophe (Langdon, 2007).

Search and Rescue Operations

The town of Greensburg was not densely populated and a thirty minute warning was issued before the tornado hit the region. Fortunately, most of the population was able to move to relatively safer locations. However, just as the tornado faded and the citizens came out of the shock, a number of 'missing persons' reports were registered and many victims made it back to Greensburg to start the search and rescue mission themselves.

The report by Paul, Che, Stimers and Dutt (2009) conducted a study to analyze the emergency response by using the actual victims of this tornado. The findings of this report claim that approximately seventy per cent of the respondents participated in search and rescue operations for these missing personnel. Among the respondents, who went on the search and rescue mission, thirty per cent started this operation immediately after the tornado left the town.

Moreover, forty per cent of the respondents followed after one hour and the rest came back within six hours' time.

When these respondents were inquired about the role of public and private agencies in search and rescue operations, then not much positive feedback was received. The official search and rescue missions did not start until twenty-four hours later. However, the respondents concede that the delay was primarily due to bad weather. Similarly, different volunteer groups and private agencies also arrived relatively late. However, once they arrived, the search and rescue operations were conducted in a systematic manner.

Approximately the operations carried by a particular unit were between eight hours and many victims were found under the debris and rescued.

Mental Health Counseling

Many commentators and psychologists believe that victims of any disaster face an uphill battle against depression and post-traumatic stress. The reason for depression could be shock and loss of personal or possession. The survivors of disasters, such as the Greensburg tornado would require mental health counseling (Blaikie et al. 1994)

The respondents of the study by Paul, Che, Stimers and Dutt (2009) stated that not a large number of the survivors needed mental health counseling. However, they conceded that mostly people older than sixty years old benefited from counseling. They also stated that the temporary shelters provided by the authorities had adequate resources to provide counseling to all those who needed it. Moreover, the individuals who received counseling expressed satisfactory perspectives regarding these services.

Debris Removal

Researchers claim that more than twelve different private and public institutions, such as The Kansas Highway Patrol, USDA Forest Service, Kansas National Guard, FEMA, Red Cross, Salvation Army and little other organization began the task to clean up the region. In addition to the public and private organization, the survivors of the tornado, volunteers from neighboring towns, farms and ranches came and contributed towards clearing the debris.

The destruction caused was immense and it took a little over five months to clear all the rubble and debris. The number of volunteers and the enthusiasm of public agencies to clear the region were very promising (Tierney et al. 2001, U.S. Department of Energy, 2008).

Among the survivors, they first consideration was to reclaim their personal belongings before helping out with clearing debris in other locations of Greensburg. The report by Paul, Che, Stimers and Dutt (2009) suggest that the participating survivors took as much as nine days to clear debris from their own property and then later joined others to help clean other regions.

For self-motivated volunteers, the time spent to remove the debris varied between one hour and two months. The enthusiastic response of the volunteers was due to public messages for help issued by various government representatives, as many senators urged volunteers to pour in the region and offer their resources.

Most commentators agree that the amount of debris present at region of Greensburg would have taken years to clear up if response from the public and government organization had not been so overwhelming. The respondents of the study prepared by Paul, Che, Stimers and Dutt (2009) expressed their delight at the turn out and the manner through which debris was removed. The respondents scored a '4.8' (out of '5') on the Likert scale to demonstrate that they were 'very satisfied' with the debris removal operations.

They added that everyone involved in the debris removal process did a wonderful job. However, among the positive feedback received for the debris removal teams, few respondents claimed that there was not enough heavy equipment to take away the extracted materials. Another respondent suggested that the extensive amount of volunteers created some problems as well, such as difficulty in coordinating between mini teams.

Provisions for temporary Shelter

It has been stated earlier that almost all of the residents of the town had to leave the region within twelve hours of the emergence of the tornado. This tornado destroyed most of the building in Greensburg, which meant that evacuees did not have complete access to their damaged homes for a considerable duration of time.

The survivors had to face a lot of problems. Some went to the residence of their relative in unaffected areas, while others had to rely on the government to provide shelter for them. The victims of the Greensburg tornado were not happy with the arrangements for shelter. Many of them had to stay at three different places during the early phase of debris removal. Both the public and private sectors organized the formation of shelter homes for the displaced personnel. FEMA organized mobile homes in Pratt (near Greensburg). Moreover, for the first eighteen months of their stay in these mobile homes, they were not charged any rent but were asked to pay for their utility bills. Hence, there was adequate number of shelter homes for the victims of the Greensburg tornado.

Overall Emergency Response

Considering all of the factors stated above and the comments of a number of researchers, who have analyzed the emergency response of the Greensburg tornado, it can be concluded that the emergency response was effective, timely and adequate.

The survivors of this traumatic experience were themselves pleased with the role and services of the government, private and volunteers.

The death toll for this disaster reached thirteen but many believe that if the response of medical services and search and rescue operation been inadequate then more deaths people could have died.

The only flaw in the emergency response was noted in the lack of communication between the rescue services. However, this was expected as the participating organizations were from all parts of the country. However, the overall performance still remains quite satisfactory.

Analysis of the Rehabilitation

This section will analyze the government policies after the initial phase of emergency response ended and determine if they contributed towards the recovery of Greensburg.

Building of Residential blocks

There have been a lot of questions regarding the recovery and rebuilding of Greensburg. A number of residents were not too optimistic about rebuilding as they fear that it will be too expensive for them. These fears were justified as at the time of the disaster, the average Greensburg home had a value of $47,000. However, the estimated costs of a new building (three bedrooms) is coming up to be $140,000. Similarly, the rental apartments would also have high rents as compared to rents before the tornado. Hence, most of the residents would be forced to buy moderately prices homes in the neighboring vicinity of Greensburg. On the other hand, a large portion of interest has been devoted to rebuilding the town. There is a lot of talk about a "Green" Greensburg (U.S. Department of Energy, 2008)

The extent of the housing recovery is the most significant aspect of rebuilding the town of Greensburg as it will define the future of the region.

The extent of housing recovery will shape the town's future. The U.S. development authorities have recognized this and have issued a statement to make available a funding of one million dollars to aid the local of Greensburg with their planning and administrative expenses. Moreover, the USDA's 'self-help' program for housing loan is designed to help low income families to construct their homes. Similarly, residents looking to rent an apartment were also issued supportive programs by the Kansas Housing Resource Corporation (KHRC). Their program was designed to aid those making less than eighty per cent of Greensburg's median income (Langdon, 2007)

The town of Greensburg is very old and this tragedy provided an opportunity for the local government to enforce the updated building regulations and codes. This includes, using better constructions material, safe room and protective house designs.

Policies

The works of Brock and Paul (2003) suggested that once the emergency response is provided then the local and federal governments can move their focus on the recovery part of the process. One of consequence of such a disaster is that the mitigation measures are revised to make them more capable of preparing against future disasters. The total death toll for the Greensburg tornado is not huge but still arrangements have to be improved to minimize the death toll in future such catastrophes.

The first part of this document comprises of an analysis of the initial emergency response to the Greensburg tornado and it was found to be both effective and effective. Unfortunately the rehabilitation process has been a lot slower than the first phase.

The report by FEMA (2007) states that it should be noted that it is very difficult for a community to come out of such a huge disaster so soon. The recovery process for such devastation could take up from several months to several years. For the case of Greensburg as ninety-five per cent of the structures were destroyed then it is more likely that it will take several years to be completely rebuilt. Unfortunately, the extent and complexity of this project will also discourage the concerned authorities to invest in rebuilding.