Jose Martinez salvages bricks from demolished buildings this week. Three months after the F5 twister killed 10 people and flattened more than 90 percent of Greensburg, experts warn it could be a half-decade or more before the community fully returns. Some locals are wrestling with whether to come back.

Greensburg ? Most of the debris is gone, the supermarket is moving back and students plan to start school this month in trailers set up as classrooms.

Three months after a tornado killed 10 people and flattened this prairie farming town, locals are slowly rebuilding and planners say they are optimistic about Greensburg’s future. Federal and local officials are even preparing a long-term, environmentally friendly recovery plan, drawing the attention of Leonardo DiCaprio, who plans a 13-part reality series called “Eco-Town.”

But many residents remain uncertain about their town’s long-term prospects in the wake of destruction so severe that experts warn it could be a half-decade or more before the community fully returns.

Marion Marrs plans to stay, but he knows others are making a different choice. His wife of five years has lived in Greensburg for nearly 60 years and “she wants to stay here,” he said as he mowed one of his four lots in town.

“But all her friends are moving out, most of ’em,” Marrs said.

Makeshift shelter

There are approximately 400 people living in Greensburg these days, some 300 of them in Federal Emergency Management Agency mobile homes set up on the edge of town. About 100 remain in homes that suffered relatively light damage in the F5 tornado on May 4.

The town’s Dillons grocery store has said it intends to reopen. Temporary schools in doublewide trailers are expected to be ready for students on the first day of classes Aug. 15. Officials have begun issuing some building permits, and three mobile restaurants have opened.

But in the nearly empty downtown, a small staff of town officials meet in makeshift offices to engineer the future of a town with severely damaged infrastructure, few usable buildings, a small staff, and property tax revenue that has dwindled to a trickle.

Debris is piled on street corners, marked with temporary signs so residents can navigate a town without its old landmarks. Entire blocks are empty, pockmarked by holes that once were basements.

Some residents seeking to rebuild complain of being stymied by construction moratoriums imposed while the town ponders its new direction.

Tax increase?

Others are considering rebuilding just outside the town limits to avoid what they see as inevitable property tax increases needed to fund the return of police, utilities and other basic services. City leaders haven’t said whether a tax increase is on the table.

With all the difficulties, some residents predict that the population will never rebound past about 700 people, roughly half the town’s pre-storm population.

Rhonda Engleken, 57, said she was thrilled to move into one of the FEMA mobile homes after spending weeks with her family in a much smaller, cramped trailer. The longtime Greensburg resident said she and her husband will not move away and her son, a junior, insists on graduating from Greensburg High School, now relocated into trailers.

But the Englekens are considering building their new, permanent home outside town limits, and she likely will reopen her beauty shop there because she expects more regulation of downtown businesses and higher taxes.

Years to go

For many, the realization is setting in that it could be five or six years before the town is fully functioning again, said Eric Holdeman, an emergency management expert with ICF International, a global consulting firm, who has been monitoring the situation in Greensburg.

“Right after a disaster, you have FEMA and other VIPs coming in helping and offering a lot of ideas,” he said. “Then the reality sets in that this is going to be a very long haul.”

Alan Allison lives in his damaged but standing home, and works at the Southern Plains Co-op, the local grain elevator that is one of the few businesses functioning in a region dependent on farming and oil. He plans to renovate his house and says, “we’ll stay, at least for a while,” but admits he’s ambivalent about the town’s future.

“It’s a big job. It’s going slow and I don’t see a fantastic forecast for it. But we’ll see.” he said.

A greener town

Holdeman said Greensburg’s biggest advantage may be its economic base. “Oil and agriculture aren’t going to move,” he said.

But a long-term recovery plan to be presented to the community this month will explore ways to diversify the local economy by turning the town into a “greener Greensburg” that could draw environmentally friendly industries and use the town’s place on the Kansas plains to encourage solar and wind power.

Those efforts prompted DiCaprio to bring a 13-part, environment-focused reality series “Eco-Town” to chronicle the town’s rebuilding. The show is expected to help launch Discovery Communications’ new “Planet Green” network next year.

One of those who plans to be part of the new community is Mike Swigart, 47, who says he will rebuild his family’s home here. He brought his mobile eatery, J.D.’s BBQ, back to Greensburg in late July. Swigart, who’s living in a FEMA mobile home, recently began serving on the town’s planning and zoning commission.

He said he expects the population to rebound to about 900.

“It looks good now,” he said. “If you had seen it right after the tornado, you wouldn’t believe this is the same town. I think about three years from now, this is going to be a nice little town again.”