Multiple Kansas towns destroyed by tornados tonight

[Displaced Flames fan]

That storm has fallen apart a bit so the warning we were under was cancelled. Still have the watch so it's not over.

Tranny...I'm about 10 miles due west of Wichita.

On the radar map I'd put us right on the upper right corner of the W in the Wichita graphic.

[Displaced Flames fan]

Here are a couple more photo slide shows of damage and tornadoes from the past couple of days.

http://www.kansas.com/static/slides/050507tornado/
http://www.kansas.com/static/slides/050507macksville/

Things not too hairy here now. Looks like we are going to get pounded with some big rain here shortly though.

[Displaced Flames fan]

Well, thankfully there was very little action here today. Lots of heavy rain and there is serious flooding north of us, but no tornadoes that I'm aware of.

Hopefully that means we can close the book on this horrific weekend!

[Displaced Flames fan]

Didn't want to start a new thread for this because a look back through this thread and some of the links to damage pictures might help with perspective.

There's a new study completed on the Greensburg tornado and the supercell that generated it.

Some pretty significant revelations.

http://www.kansas.com/news/story/638855.html

[BlackArcher101]

Wow, I had no idea they were that powerful at the time.

[pepper24]

I've been through that part of the state, SW Kansas and have heard that it's the windiest area in the entire US. Dodge City which isn't too far from Greensburg is the windiest city in the US. This is just on normal days without tornadoes.

An other interesting fact about wind is that Chicago I heard got it's nickname "The Windy City" from it's corrupt politicians not the fact that it gets strong winds from Lake Michigan. Fitting that Obama is from that area

[Displaced Flames fan]

We decided to drive out to Greensburg today. 3 and a half years removed from the tornado and near complete destruction of the town, I was curious about the much publicized rebuilding.

I had not been to Greensburg since a couple of years before the tornado, but I did see lots of pictures of the destruction so I feel like I had some idea of what kind of shape the town was in though the reality of seeing it in person is something I could not claim.

Anyway, as we pulled in to town I was stunned. Many of the trees that were not killed are still standing, limbless and forboding. They were an instant reminder of what happened. Seeing a town with no full trees was strange.

What was most sobering was the fact that there are huge parts of this town where houses once stood that are still empty. The number of new homes was incredibly short of what I expected. I would wager that it was less than 100. The town, which boasts brand new buidlings 'downtown' that are full of businesses and look incredible, has lost most of its residents....presumably forever.

It was a sad sight.