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Other towns out of spotlight

BY BECCY TANNER

The Wichita Eagle

They lost everything, too.

Their homes.

Their livelihoods.

A church.

A brother.

In the days and weeks after an EF-5 tornado roared through Greensburg, hundreds of people outside the town began to piece their lives back together, too.

They were in the path of a storm system that spawned 20 tornadoes over three days.

But they were out of the spotlight that followed. They didn't get air time on national TV or a massive outpouring of donations from across the country.

In typical Kansas fashion, they mostly don't complain about that. They had the support of neighbors and friends. Good credit and faith helped them rebuild.

"The people of Greensburg deserved all the attention. But there were a lot of other people who needed just as much help. I feel for them, losing their town. But like them, we lost everything, too," said Carolyn Devine of rural Great Bend, who slept in her new house for the first time Monday.

At 8:03 p.m. May 4, the tornado that eventually grew into a monster killer touched down in Comanche County south of Greensburg, striking oil tanks and trees and strewing oil across pastures and a county road.

The system spawned 12 tornadoes during about four hours. Two lasted for more than an hour, churning up the ground, leveling homes and injuring or killing people along their path.

The tornadoes continued the next night. Thirteen people would die, including three outside of Greensburg.

There is no firm count of the number of homes destroyed outside Greensburg. But the tornadoes swept some homes off their foundations. They destroyed oil storage tanks and damaged 250 pivot irrigation sprinklers.

In Barton County, 500 power poles were knocked down, causing at least $4.5 million in damage, said state climatologist Mary Knapp.

A combine was thrown at least a quarter of a mile and disintegrated upon impact, she said. Dozens of cattle and horses were killed.

Macksville

Near Macksville the night of May 4, Laura and Joe Stimatze focused their attention on the border collie training clinic they planned to host the next day. More than 20 dogs were staying in the kennels at their farm.

Laura's brother, Tim Buckman, a Macksville police officer, called to warn of the threatening storms. They took shelter beneath the basement stairs.

They turned on the TV, and heard about Greensburg.

Then, the storm hit.

"It took forever to get over us, somewhere between five and 10 minutes," Laura Stimatze said. "We had three pressure changes that made our ears pop. The third one was really strong and loud and there was settling dust.... We came up from the basement. I sat in the kitchen and waited for the rest of the people to tell me what was alive and what wasn't."

The dogs survived, although one didn't show up until the next day. Their horses also made it.

The storm cracked the foundation on three sides of their house, blew off all the siding and sucked trees and machinery in the yard.

Almost immediately, neighbors and friends began pulling into their driveway to help clean up. Everyone, Stimatze said, except for her brother.

"He always checked on us and let us know bad weather was coming," she said.

At 3 a.m., Stimatze heard her brother had been caught in the tornado. His patrol car was found in a field off a Stafford County road. He was flown to Wichita's Via Christi Regional Medical Center-St. Francis Campus, where he died a few days later.

A neighbor, Alex Giles, was also killed in the storm system.

The next night, another tornado following the same path hit their neighborhood, wiping out their pasture fences.

"Nine houses of our neighbors' were wiped out completely," Stimatze said.

For the next six months, the Stimatzes worked nonstop rebuilding and cleaning. They did not qualify for assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency because they rented their farm.

"With all the government programs and money available, if you rent it is no good to you," Laura Stimatze said. She saw at least one advantage in being outside Greensburg, away from the attention.

"It is great they are getting help," she said of those in Greensburg. "But they have not made nearly as much progress as people on the farms have made in getting cleaned and rebuilt. We didn't have green rules to abide by. Right or wrong, we dug holes and buried the shed. They couldn't throw a match in it and be done with it like we could."

In the past year, the Stimatzes have survived other setbacks. The ice storm took whatever trees the tornado hadn't and knocked their electricity off for 10 days. Last month, a prairie fire threatened their cattle.

"It's one of those years you want to ask, 'Now what?' But you don't want to say it because of what else. Considering everything that happened to us, it could have been a lot worse," she said. "The night we lost Tim, Mom and Dad could have lost us, too. You learn to focus on the good and not the bad."

Seward

Mom's Bar and Grill is the hub of almost all activity in Seward, a tiny town on the line between Stafford and Barton counties. People gravitate from miles around to eat home cooking.

The night of May 4, Carolyn Devine, aka "Mom," was at her cafe listening to storm warnings and encouraging her patrons to leave. But they had nowhere to go. The town has since invested in two storm shelters.

The storm bypassed Seward. The next night, Devine and her husband, George, didn't open the cafe. They stayed at home, 6 ½ miles from Great Bend.

As they listened to the storm warnings, they went to their basement.

"All hell broke loose," she said. "George watched the ceiling come way down and lift up. It sounded like a bomb went off."

Their double-wide mobile home was destroyed. Their cafe was forced to close for two weeks because of problems caused by flooding in Seward.

A friend rented them a house to live in while they replaced their own home. Insurance paid some of the cost, so they did not qualify for Federal Emergency Management Agency assistance, Devine said.

"FEMA has too much red tape and too much paperwork," she said. "They get your hopes up and then slam them right down when you need it the most. Red Cross came in with a little voucher and helped the most."

Trousdale

Kenneth and Charlene Keen hunkered down in their basement the night of May 4.

The tornado that had hit Greensburg, 30 miles to the south, was headed their way. It was expected to hit Trousdale at 10:37.

Kenneth Keen waited until 10:45.

Nothing happened. He wanted to go upstairs. His wife said to wait.

At 10:47, the tornado slammed into their home. When there was silence, he went upstairs. The house was gone.

The next morning, 30 neighbors showed up to help them salvage whatever could be retrieved.

The next night, the Keens lost their church, Trousdale Methodist, and four uninsured circle irrigation systems.

The irrigation systems cost nearly $200,000 to replace. Kenneth Keen ended up taking out a loan through Farm Credit to pay for them.

Still, he is grateful for how life has turned around.

Their church with about 35 faithful attendees has been rebuilt with $100,000 raised by the tiny community.

The Keens rebuilt their home with insurance money, then held church services there after they moved in in January.

Keen says all of this matter-of-factly, without bragging.

"We've come back real good," he said. "We got a new house and have planted 54 trees. And after all of that, we still raised pretty good crops."

Reach Beccy Tanner at 316-268-6336 or btanner@wichitaeagle.com.