Growing Green After a Tornado Strikes

Making the best of a bad situation…

This is happening in a small south-central Kansas town.  Working to rebuild after a deadly tornado in May 2007, mangled nearly every building in town.  The new approach is for Greensburg to be reborn, “Better, Stronger, Greener.“

The entire town of about 1400 from city to county officials to residents and business owners, is pulling together to regenerate as an example of environmentally friendly living.

Town officials are installing new wind and solar technology to harness power and geothermal heating, while builders conserve energy through the construction of concrete homes that allow in more natural light through state-of-the-art windows and use better insulation.

One of a dozen new “Eco-Homes” is being built with energy-efficient features is a silo-shaped building that’s expected to be about 70% more energy efficient than a typical house.  And it’s tough, too, to withstand the realities of living in tornado alley.  The builder was so sure it could withstand flying debris that he hefted a junked Ford Escort 60 feet in the air above the concrete home and dropped it on the roof—twice!  The silo home suffered NO damage.

And the Escort?  Destroyed.

The demonstration typified Greensburg’s townspeople:  resilient and confident.

The tornado did that, says Greensburg City Administrator Steve Hewitt.

“It forced people to make change,“ Hewitt says.  “It forced people to say, ‘You know, what we have is an opportunity unlike any other community gets to reinvent itself.“