After the storm

(By Erik)

Last week I traveled to Greensburg, Kan., to cover the aftermath of the May 4 tornado that destroyed the town. Eleven families who attend the church in Mullinville, about 10 miles west of Greensburg, lost their homes in the storm. An additional church family lost its business.

I wrote a story about it that’s online now at christianchronicle.org. I had a bunch of leftover photos that didn’t get used, so I thought I’d post a few of them here with some brief descriptions.


Greensburg residents flew flags from bent poles, shattered support beams — even trees — after the tornado.


The town’s John Deere dealership was demolished, including almost a dozen combines.


The storm didn’t spare the town’s fire department, either.


Mark Ralston, a member of the Mullinville, Kan., church, finds recipe cards among the remains of the home of Ray and Wilma McChristian. The McChristians were one of 11 church families who lost their homes when a tornado nearly two miles wide destroyed Greensburg, Kan., on May 4. Most of the Mullinville church’s 80 members are assisting in the recovery, along with church relief ministries from across the nation.


The Mullinville Church of Christ has become a relief center since the storm. Churches of Christ Disaster Relief Effort Inc., Churches of Christ Disaster Response, White’s Ferry Road Relief Ministries and Bread of Life Humanitarian Effort have all used the building as a base of operations.


When I visited the church on May 10, the phones were ringing constantly. Churches from as far away as Alaska called to offer assistance.


The boxes of supplies in the church’s multipurpose room were donated by Churches of Christ Disaster Relief in Nashville, Tenn.


Jim and Karen Smith’s house looked mostly intact. “But you should see the inside!” Karen Smith told me.

The May 4 tornado claimed 10 lives and destroyed 95 percent of the buildings in this farming community with a population of about 1,400.

Jim Smith worked as a mail carrier in Greensburg for 35 years, but said that even he lost his bearings as he drove through the remains of the town.

Karen attended a women’s conference at the Northside church in Wichita, Kan., exactly one week before the storm. She heard a lecture about God’s promise to King Solomon in the book of 2 Chronicles that, if his people will humble themselves and turn from sin, he will “forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

After the storm, Karen Smith realized that promise “is for me, right here,” she said.

Their daughter made the sign, by the way, in support of the local high school.


Nico McMurry stands by the artwork he painted on one of the few remaining walls of his family’s home. His family had a really neat story about how they survived the storm and how they originally found the church. Here are a few snippets from my first draft of the Chronicle story. This material was revised and shortened for our print edition:

Sirens, rain and hail — followed by dead silence. Cindy McMurry had lived in Kansas long enough to know what that meant.

A tornado was seconds away.

McMurry and her 14-year-old daughter, Laina, members of the church in nearby Mullinville, took refuge in the basement of their neighbor, Doug Ulrich. They covered Ulrich’s kids with blankets and pillows and Laina crouched over them. The adults surrounded the children, threw more blankets over their heads and “just held on for dear life,” Cindy McMurry said.

She heard rocks and sticks pelt the sides of the house, then the monstrous roar of wind. She felt dust and sand on her back. Her ears ached with intense pressure.

“It seemed like it lasted forever,” she said. “Then it kind of died down — then it started again. I really thought that was it for us. I really thought I would probably not see my husband and son again.”

Her husband, Greg, and 16-year-old son, Niccolo, were 160 miles away, with a group of 30 high school students at a forensics meet in Salina, Kan. They heard about the storm on the news. Many tried to call their families’ cell phones, but there was no response.

“I prayed with the kids in the hall several times,” Greg McMurry said. “Some of them would come by, just scared to death. ‘What do we do?’ And I said, ‘Well, we just lean on God. It’s the only thing we can do.’”

Back in Greensburg, the storm subsided. Ulrich made sure everyone was OK before he ventured up the basement stairs. He returned with grim news.

“Your house is gone. The roof is gone. Greensburg is gone,” he told the McMurrys.

…

Five years ago the McMurrys moved to Greensburg, where Greg McMurry took a job with an oil field supply company. Before that they lived in Mullinville, next door to Scott and his family. The minister introduced them to the Church of Christ — and baptized them not long after.

“We just fell in love with the church,” Greg McMurry said. “The truth seekers that are there … It’s a unique family.”

Members from at least a dozen communities attend the church — some more than 50 miles away, Mosshart said. Instead of a Sunday evening service, the church eats lunch together every week and has a brief afternoon devotional.

That’s helped to make the church a tight-knit family, despite the distance, Greg McMurry said. Cindy McMurry agreed.

“I’m not worried about anything at all,” she said. “I know God is going to provide through his people. We’ll make it.”

DONATIONS TO REBUILD HOMES in Greensburg may be sent to: Mullinville Church of Christ, P.O. Box 184, Mullinville, KS 67109-0184. Please note “Tornado Relief” on checks. The church's e-mail address is mullincoc@havilandtelco.com and its Web site is mullinvillechurchofchrist.org.