Rural Kansas Town Destroyed by Tornado 14 Years Ago Aids Greenville Recovery

Three people from Indian Valley travel to Kansas to learn more about natural disaster recovery from a town that was leveled by a tornado 14 years ago. In 2007, 95 percent of Greensburg Kansas was destroyed by that tornado, reducing the towns population by half. Like Greenville, Greensburg was a small rural town of 1200 people. Now only 700 remain. Sue Weber, Moorea Stout, and Tyler Pew traveled the near 1500 miles to learn what they can do for their town as well as things to avoid during the recovery process. In the Greenville Elementary school over 100 people came to hear their findings. The three brought back a mission of economic development. That rebuilding Greenville will not only be rebuilding homes but must include business and tourism. Plumas county supervisor Kevin Goss called the meeting the “first kickoff of a lot of meetings for the rebuilding of Greenville.” The recovery will be long but already over 100 properties have been cleaned up, frontier has put in fiber optic cables, Evergreen market has reopened, and the town can look forward to a gas station coming next year.