Will Katz, director of Kansas University's Small Business Development Center in downtown Lawrence, worked for three days at federal disaster recovery center in Haviland. He plans to return to the area May 30-June 1, working in a mobile recovery center in Greensburg.

Business owners, community leaders and other residents living with what’s left of Greensburg no longer are victims of last month’s massive tornado.

The description simply doesn’t fit, Will Katz says.

“They’re not victims anymore,” said Katz, who traveled to the area last week to help local residents apply for disaster loans. “They’re people who were in the tornado – survivors.”

Katz, director of Kansas University’s Small Business Development Center in downtown Lawrence, had a close look at the tornado’s devastation and first-hand knowledge of area residents’ determination while working at a federal disaster recovery center May 11-13 in nearby Haviland.

He’s going back next week to work in the Small Business Administration’s mobile center in Greensburg. The center allows people to apply for low-interest loans to rebuild homes, re-establish businesses and otherwise cover losses as the community works to rebuild after the May 4 tornado.

The application process took anywhere from 30 minutes to nearly three hours for each survivor, he said, and never once did he hear a complaint about the system.

“All of the federal people were very impressed with the people of Greensburg,” said Katz, of his colleagues from the Small Business Administration and FEMA, many of whom had worked in the Gulf after Hurricane Katrina. “People were very patient.”

Hope was evident throughout the area, Katz said. Farmers talked about putting their fences back up and making a go of it again in what already had been a tough business. A woodworker pledged to rebuild his shop, and to do it by hand – just like he had in the old days.

“They’ll rebuild, literally, by themselves,” Katz said. “The people of Greensburg just make you proud to be a Kansan.”

Maggie Bornholdt, a consultant in the KU Small Business Center, 734 Vt., will take her turn in the disaster area this week. She’ll spend her nights at Pratt Community College, and her days in the recovery trailer in Greensburg, helping fellow Kansans work through the government bureaucracy set up to help them return to normal.

As much returning to normal as possible, anyway.

“I’m looking forward to being able to help,” Bornholdt said. “We’re fortunate to be in a position where we can offer some assistance. A lot of times, people feel helpless when there’s a disaster like this. We’re lucky enough to work for an agency that says, ‘Here’s what we do and here’s what we can do.’ :

“I’m just glad we get an opportunity to do something.”