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Tornadoes kills 2 in Kansas

by cynthia yoo | June 12, 2008 at 04:17 pm | 132 views | add comment

Tornadoes in Kansas killed two people and caused extensive damage at Kansas State University.

The town of Chapman was devastated. The town of 1,400 residents saw 100 homes destroyed and one death.

Brad Homman's reaction epitomized optimism: "We've still got half the town intact."
Homman, director of administration and emergency services for Dickinson County, will need that kind of attitude to help bring the community back.

The twister tore a path of destruction six blocks wide through the town of 1,400 people, about 140 miles west of Kansas City.

The town residents recounted frightening stories.

About 100 people huddled in two locker rooms in the school district's gymnasium for shelter as the tornado roared over them.

Construction worker Zac Arensman shielded his 4-year-old stepdaughter with his body after abandoning his family's nearby trailer home. After the twister passed, he and others used a dislodged door as a stretcher to carry to safety a man who had been trapped in his car, one of three people authorities said had been critically injured.

"He was covered in blood," Arensman said of the man he helped carry. "It was chaotic. That's the best way to describe it - I mean, everybody freaking out, a mess."