Tornado cleanup efforts not over
Residents recover belongings before building demolition
The landscape still looks ugly, and people continue to struggle.
Cleanup and salvage efforts continued Monday throughout the area in southwest Lawrence where a tornado struck five days earlier, causing an estimated $6.4 million in damage.
The owner of the hardest-hit property, Aberdeen South apartments, spent the day supervising a more-than 30-member work crew as the last of his displaced tenants removed their belongings.
“I feel like Jonah or something — like I was being told to get out of here,” said former resident Thomas Clough, 28, who collected his security deposit Monday.
Clough, his wife and two children lived in one of three buildings at the complex now slated for demolition. He moved into the complex two weeks ago.
The complex’s owner, builder and developer, 57-year-old Mike Stultz, said he’d asked residents to have their belongings out by the end of Monday if they wanted to leave.
Thomas Clough, who lived in Aberdeen South apartments with his wife and two children before a tornado ravaged the complex, returns to the site to collect his security deposit. Residents were asked to finish scavenging for their salvageable belongings by the end of Monday.
Stultz walked back and forth between the apartment buildings, occasionally directing a Bobcat loader or speaking into a cell phone. Workers were busy replacing glass, cleaning insulation out of air-conditioning units, hauling trash and salvaging appliances, among other tasks.
“Today’s been a big cleanup day,” he said.
The three condemned buildings should be demolished within two weeks, he said, and then new construction will begin.
Congressman Jim Ryun, left, talks with Ann Riat, whose home was damaged by last week's tornado. Ryun toured tornado-stricken areas of Lawrence Monday afternoon with officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Relief workers and government officials said they sensed that people affected by the tornado weren’t making full use of the available volunteer resources, such as a temporary Red Cross service center at Wesleyan Church, 3705 Clinton Parkway.
Congressman Jim Ryun, R-Kan., who toured the wreckage along with officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, stopped and spoke with a homeowner who said she didn’t want to ask for help because she knew other people had lost more in the storm.
Ryun called it “an answer to prayer” and “a miracle” that more people weren’t hurt.
Also Monday, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius formally submitted a request to FEMA that Douglas County be listed as a federal disaster area. That would free up federal assistance to victims.
Ryun said that because of Kansas’ budget problems, he’d requested that FEMA pay all of the disaster-assistance costs instead of requiring the state to pay 25 percent.
| ¢ The Douglas County Chapter of the American Red Cross is offering vouchers for clothes, toiletries, food and shelter to victims of last week’s tornado.
The Red Cross has opened a service center at Wesleyan Church, 3705 Clinton Parkway. Access to the church is by the frontage road that runs between Hartford Avenue and Crossgate Drive. It will be open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. the rest of the week, if needed. Red Cross officials said the biggest need for victims was cash donations, which can be sent by mail to Douglas County Chapter of the American Red Cross, 2518 Ridge Court, Lawrence 66046. Credit card donations can be made by calling 843-3550 or (800) HELPNOW. ¢ People wanting to make gifts-in-kind to the Salvation Army should call (800) SAL-ARMY. Residents who want to make cash donations to the Salvation Army to benefit Lawrence victims can call 843-4188. ¢ Lawrence Parks and Recreation will be picking up limbs and branches in areas damaged by last week’s storm. Residents are asked to put broken limbs at the curbside for pickup this week. |
6News video: Cleanup efforts continue at apartment complex
Tornadoes 2003