Greensburg

Last May, a tornado completely destroyed the town of Greensburg, Kansas. One known for having the world's largest hand-dug well, it briefly became known for being a site of utter chaos. Last June, I was driving from Denver to Texas on back roads. By sheer coincidence I drove through Greensburg. It was one of the most shocking things I had ever seen. The city was gone. A few of the old brick Victorian Era buildings were sort of standing. Then, like a line was drawn through the eastern side of the town, everything was standing, as if nothing had ever happened. Remarkable. I thought about taking pictures but I felt it was immoral to be a tourist in someone's space of suffering.

I did have to wonder about the future of a destroyed town in western Kansas. The western Plains have been losing population for 90 years now. Greensburg isn't on the interstate. There's no real reason for people to move back there. It's a county seat but that's about the biggest economic engine in the area from what I can tell.

But Greensburg is rebuilding. What's more, it is doing so in an environmentally friendly way. I'm surprised that a small Kansas town is taking such a radical step, but as the linked article suggests, this is an opportunity to rejuvenate the town based upon the independence that locally created wind energy can provide. That they are moving into LEED certified buildings and connecting the region's farms to an environmentally based economy is even more surprising and suggests that forced into a crisis, even leaders in the nation's most conservative areas can think creatively about environmental issues.

It's a fascinating story and perhaps a model for keeping people on the Plains.