National Guard cleaning up devastated Kansas town

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Greg Rudl
  • National Guard Bureau
GREENSBURG, Kan. (AFNEWS) --  It's hard to describe the immensity of the destruction in Greensburg, Kan. 

State and FEMA officials say 95 percent of the town is destroyed; gone as well are 961 homes, and 136 businesses have major damage.

Standing in the center of town and looking in all directions is an endless scene of disaster: houses ripped apart, vehicles crushed, garbage strewn everywhere and trees -- those left standing -- are stripped of all but their main limbs.

What's easy to describe in the unfortunate town of Greensburg are the efforts of hundreds of Army and Air National Guard members helping the residents here recover from this disaster.

After this small southwestern Kansas town was leveled by an F5 tornado on the evening of May 4, nearly 500 Kansas National Guard Airmen and Soldiers were called up and reported for duty. Soon after arriving, they provided crews for debris removal, security, transportation, damage assessment, power generation, communications and fresh water.

Some of those responding were from Det. 1, 226th Company of Pittsburg, Kan.

After getting the call, Army Sgt. Marcus Chamberlin arrived in the nearby town of Pratt. The 14-year Guard veteran got two hours of sleep and was on his way to Greensburg by 4 a.m.

"The first thing my work crew did was remove trees from the city hall area and debris from the hospital," Sergeant Chamberlin said. They used front-end loaders, dump trucks, back hoes and mainly their hands.
 
There have been equipment shortages to the point of hampering relief efforts, but what equipment they don't have they get by sharing with other organizations.

"We had a lot of support from state employee workers and their trucks. We work side-by-side with them and ... the Air Force (Air National Guard) ... with KDOT (Kansas Department of Transportation). They bring their equipment, we bring ours. We work through it pretty well," he said.

Later, the same Soldiers worked till sundown, removing a large, downed elm tree near the FEMA trailer by the courthouse, making the road there more passable. It would be the same trailer President George W. Bush would hold a meeting in the next day during his visit there and the same road his presidential motorcade would travel on.

With steady rain falling, Army 1st Lt. Mark Doud of the 891st Engineers supervised his Soldiers as they removed rotting food from a market on Greensburg's main strip. Using shopping carts, they took out hundreds of packages of spoiled cheese, yogurt and others, tossing it into a dumpster in the back of the store.

Other members of Lieutenant Doud's unit were busy clearing easements, "so the gas company, electric company, water, and other utilities can get cleared up" he said. "(That way) big movers can clear the roadways to keep everything moving so the contractors and civilians can come in and start taking care of the houses." 

Cell phones served as the main communications link for three Army work crews because the hand-held radios weren't working, said Army 1st Lt. Drew Poulon. Knowing where his teams were was made more difficult by the fact that all but a few of the town's road signs were lying twisted on the ground.

His teams are under orders to only remove rubble 8 to 10 feet from the edge of the road, the easement area. Residents are being instructed to place debris they want removed next to the curb so it can be hauled away.

The spirit of these people is incredible, Lieutenant Poulon said. They come and say thank you after you haul away their roof that's been blow off their house.

Air Guard members were in action in Greensburg as well. Sixty-five members of the 190th Air Refueling Wing's Civil Engineer Squadron cleared debris from public areas of town as residents combed through the wreckage at their homes.

"We're separating the wood from the metal (and) from the plastic and regular junk. That makes it easier to take out to the land fill where they burn it," said Master Sgt. William McClain.

"We're mainly picking through stuff by hand, using the heavy equipment on the big stuff," he said. "There's a lot of opportunity for injury out here."

His work crew had to be careful to stay hydrated and look out for nails protruding from wood.

These Air Guard members were quartered in a college dorm in nearby Haviland and in three tents they erected nearby.

Army Guard Spc. William Glasgow of the 242nd Engineering Battalion has first-hand tornado experience.

"I've been in an F2, chased by an F5 and been hit by stuff from an F1," he said.

Specialist Glasgow lives in a small town southeast of Greensburg. It was his fourth day of back-breaking work, but exhaustion was not evident on his sun-baked face under his yellow hardhat. He said his fellow crewmembers, about eight to 10 Soldiers, were clearing two to three blocks a day of rubble. They were under strict orders not to touch valuables, he said.

After his shift ends, he'll jump on a bus and head back to an Army Guard armory in a town 50 miles away were he's being lodged. Dinner will be a Meal-Ready-to-Eat.

One of the 134th Air Control Squadron first tasks was setting up 18 light carts to help rescue workers see what they were doing, said Tech. Sgt. Jared Delong.

Two large generators were set up to power city government offices.

Sergeant Delong and a fellow squadron member drove around on an all-terrain vehicle with a fellow squadron member assessing damage and stopping occasionally to retrieve a fallen American flags from the rubble. When they find one, they fold it and dispose of it properly with all necessary honors. His unit plans to present one flag -- muddied, torn and found under rubble -- to the Greensburg mayor.

The work by the Soldiers and Airmen has allowed the residence of Greensburg to return to their homes and to do what has to be done. 

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