Greensburg, Kansas

June 4, 2007: We left Albuquerque at 9 a.m., passed through the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma and into Kansas on U.S. 54 and we're getting hungry. All the towns listed in the Atlas are small or virtual ghost towns with no cafes. But Greensburg is listed on most mileage signs and at a crossroads so that's our goal figuring that, if it merits a sign, it must have a place to eat. We're looking for Kansas steaks, by the way. At Bucklin, eight miles before Greensburg, we find an open cafe with meat and potatoes and chow down. I pick up the Hutchinson, KS Leader, the local paper, and the headline has a One Month Ago Today headline with a big photo of a flattened Greensburg. The tornado struck Greensburg on May 4. We drove the eight miles. Highway 54 goes right through Greensburg's north end. The grain elevator (every town in Kansas, seems to have one) on the north end was the only structure to appear to be undamaged. Everything else was mostly flattened with just a few beat-up structures for relief. It was similar to what I saw of Katrina over 90 miles on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, meaning it was total destruction. There's nothing left for a round 2. Greensburg had a high school and a city hall. Just some brick walls remained. The Guard or Army Reserves has trucks and tents on the track and foot ball field. The rest of the photos I took will be on my photo site.