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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN WWW.KANSAN.COM News WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18, 2008
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Mess in Manhattan
The community of Miller Ranch in western Manhattan works to clean up their neighborhood with the help of the Salvation Army. Miller Ranch was one of the hardest hit neighborhoods in Wednesday's tornado.
Kristin Hoona/KANSAN
Kansan reporter Christine D'Amico describes the damage from tornado at K-State
BY CHRISTINE D'AMICO cdamico@kansan.com
Students described it as a typical tornado. First came the rain followed by the hail. After a small calm it hit: an F4 tornado that would scare the campus of Kansas State University.
A Kansan photographer and I drove into Manhattan two days after the tornado, which covered an area of five miles, ripping through the college town last Wednesday.
Clean-up crews had been working tirelessly since the incident, cleaning up blown over trees and debris. However, new student orientation was in full swing, as if the $20 million worth of damage to campus had not phased them.
The engineering hall was one of the first buildings hit on campus. Yellow tape still trimmed the building. Dane Sylvester was one of the
volunteers aiding with the clean-up.
"The main damage was to the atrium," Sylvester said. "There was a lot of glass and water from the
tornado."
Dick Hayter, associate dean of external affairs, showed us around the building and we saw the cleanup that started the night of the bad weather.
Kristin Hoppa/KANSAN
A smashed truck sits outside the home of Kent Dick, Manhattan resident, Friday. Dick said his house was a total loss but planned to rebuild
During a tour from the roof of the building, he pointed out other buildings on campus affected by the storm. In what looked to be a perfectly diagonal line through town, the path of the tornado hit a fraternity house, the engineering building, a nuclear reactor, green houses and a wind erosion lab, along with countless cars and trees in its path.
"We got in here an hour later and you could see through the roof," Hayter said.
Our next stop was the Sigma Alpha Epsilon
bers sought shelter at the nearby engineering building's loading dock. Along with five other people, the Greek members watched the tornado rip through their home and move onto the engineering building.
"There was green lightening and then a calm." Brunkow said.
While hiding in safety, Brunkow watched a car crash into the bay doors of the engineering building.
"We got in there an hour later and you could see through the roof."
Jared Brunkow, senior vice president of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, was in-the house when the storm hit. After watching the weather reports on the news of the invasive storm, Brunkow and other fraternity mem-
DICK HAYTER Associate dean of external affairs
fraternity house, whose roof still lay across the street. Outside a group of fraternity members sat and watched as construction crews reconstructed their roof.
After surviving the initial tornado, all the members started to clean up the surrounding area. An apartment building located across the street from the fraternity house also lost its roof. Brunkow
went to help where needed. The fraternity brothers assisted one couple in particular, newlyweds who barely had time to recoup from their honeymoon.
"We were cleaning up their stuff and found all of these bows and wrapping paper in all the debris," Brunkow said.
The cost of the damage to Brunkhow's fraternity house is still