[meteorite-list] Greensburgs, Kansas Further Updates

From: MARK BOSTICK <thebigcollector_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 05 May 2007 11:00:08 -0500
Message-ID: <BAY111-F5B2E2D8851C205F067500B3470_at_phx.gbl>

Seven people currently confirmed dead, 6 from Greensburg. 16 in critical
condition.

The town has been evacuated and the National Guard has the place locked up.
They are only letting people in, with escort, to recover pets.

They have just completed a second sweep of the area, and are starting a
third. In that reguard, the death toll is much lower then it could have
been. The scene has a Katrina appearance, the houses being marked on the
outside if any people are inside and the like.

They have also issued a 12 hour tornado watch today, something I have never
heard of. A tornado watch means that conditions are right for a tornado.
When one is spotted, it becomes a tornado warning and we sound bomb sirens
as a warning. It will likely start raining soon as well.

One family survived hid in the one room that was left standing. The radio
was talking with the mother of the house last night and she kept
asking....is it going to rain. Which I thought strange at the time. House
destroyed, almost killed, everything is in pieces and she was wondering
about the weather. This was before any shelters where built and she had
nowhere to go.....which was her very fair concern, having kids and all.

Greensburg is about 60 miles from here, which isn't very far when you
consider a mile wide tornado. The closest somewhat good sized city is
Pratt, about 8-10 miles away, and the closest major city is Wichita. Having
worked a lot with the two towns the last few years, getting to know both
mayors to some degree and many of it's citizens, this has greatly saddened
me.

One of the projects I was kind of working on, was getting a meteorite
museum, which we were looking at putting on the highway at the empty gas
station, ground zero of the impact, or the Big Well, which also appears to
have been in ground zero. I am sure this will backshelf the project.

Anyway, I will type more later and figure out what I can do from here to
help,
Mark
Received on Sat 05 May 2007 12:00:08 PM PDT