The tornado which struck southwest Lawrence on May 8, 2003.
A train of storm chasers follow a May 2003 tornado along U.S. Highway 59 northbound near Pleasant Grove.
Lawrence Douglas County Fire and Medical personnel search through the rubble for people with the help of a spotlight from a helicopter on Thursday at Aberdeen Apartments.
Lawrence Douglas County Fire and Medical personnel coordinate a helicopter's spotlight as they search for injured and missing people near Aberdeen Apartments. A tornado destroyed many homes and vehicles on Thursday in southwest Lawrence. .
Sam Oemars, spends Saturday afternoon rummaging through what is left of his apartment as Aberdeen South Apartments, 27th and Wakarusa. Many tenants of the complex will be moving to other apartments after tornado damage hit on Thursday evening.
The Aberdeen Apartment complex lies in ruins after a tornado touched down and destroyed cars and homes in southwest Lawrence.
Using a lamp, an emergency worker searches the rubble near Aberdeen Apartments for people after a tornado destroyed many homes in southwest Lawrence.
Aberdeen Apartments & Townhomes in south Lawrence suffered heavy damages after an F-2 tornado touched down May 8, 2003. It's been nearly five years since the tornado hit, and Lawrence officials used the experience to build on emergency response and programming in case another such storm should hit the area.
Tanya Jansen, a former resident of Aberdeen Apartments, looks over the edge of her unit to the ground below. She was one of several Lawrence residents whose property was destroyed in the May 8, 2003, tornado.
Aberdeen apartment resident Tanya Jansen goes through the remains of her apartment following the May 8, 2003, tornado that hit the complex.
Tanya Jansen, a resident at Aberdeen Apartments, looks over the edge of her apartment at the ground below. Jansen collected her personal possession on May 9, 2003, from her apartment which was ravaged by a tornado.
Lawrence Douglas County Fire and Medical personnel search through the rubble for people with the help of a spotlight from a helicopter on May 8, 2003, at Aberdeen Apartments.
Lawrence Douglas County Fire and Medical personnel coordinate a helicopter's spotlight as they search for injured and missing people near Aberdeen Apartments. A tornado destroyed many homes and vehicles on May 3, 2008, in southwest Lawrence. .
Lawrence Douglas County Fire and Medical personel plan how to shut off gas to Aberdeen Apartments in Southwest Lawrence.
Lawrence Police Sergeant Mike Pattrick talks to the media at Southwest Junior High about the tornado which hit southwest Lawrence on May 8, 2003.
Traffic backed up along Clinton Parkway headed west to Wakarusa following the tornado.
A Lawrence police officer tells a crowd of residents near Ranch Street and Ranch Way the instructions for gaining access to their homes.
Jim Walmesley, right, leaves his apartment in southwest Lawrence with a duffel bag full of clothes after a tornado destroyed his home on May 8, 2003. A roofless Aberdeen apartment complex is pictured at rear.
Volunteers delivered blankets, sleeping bags and other items to Free State High School to set up a temporary shelter for those with damaged homes and apartments. Joe Snyder, principal at Free State High School, carries cots into the school's gymnasium late Thursday, May 8, 2003.
Courtney Perkins walks through her neighborhood at Aberdeen Apartments after the May 8, 2003, tornado.
Four apartment buildings at Aberdeen Apartments and Townhomes 2300 Wakarusa Drive in southwest Lawrence shown significant damage after being struck by a tornado Thursday night.
Joe Wetter walks through debris in the backyard of his aunt's home.
The two buildings at Aberdeen Apartments and Townhomes, 2300 Wakarusa Drive, that had the most damage are shown in these aerials from the morning after the May 8, 2003. Four buildings in the southwest Lawrence apartment complex had significant damage. This photo is taken from the southeast looking toward the northwest.
A car lays on its side in front of duplexes at Ranch Way and Ranch Street.
Melanie Michael, a graduating senior from Cheney, slips under a large piece of an Aberdeen apartment roof that landed on her car. Michael said she was unsure how the insurance compan would deal with the damage since she only carried liability insurance.
Raintree Montessori School, 4601 Clinton Pkwy, was spared the full force of May 8, 2003's tornado but still suffered some damage to the main buildings roof. This aerial taken Friday morning looks south from the front parking lot of the school with damage visible at top left on the south side of the structure.
Mike Slan of Sunflower Broadband checks for signal leakage from severed cable television lines. Slan checked the area affected by Thursday, May 8, 2003's tornado. The signal leakage is regulated by the FCC so as not to interfere with aircraft equipment.
Damaged buildings in the Aberdeen Apartments and Townhomes complex, 2300 Wakarusa Drive, at bottom of photo, and a trail of debris and boarded up windows on homes on 26th Street at top of frame track the path of the tornado that hit this southwest Lawrence neighborhood. The photo is taken from the south looking north.
Ann Riat sifts through debris in her backyard. Riat's home is located just north of the Aberdeen complex and was showered with debris from the apartments.
Dan Schmidt picks up shingles from the home of his neighbor, Walt Klinker.
Tornado damage to a home leaves table and chairs untouched.
An woman stands outside the patio door of her home on Ranch Way.
A ceiling fan punched its way into the roof of an apartment at Aberdeen apartments in southwest Lawrence.
Douglas County Emergency Management director Bob Newton surveys the damage at Aberdeen Apartments in southwest Lawrence the day after the May 8, 2003 tornado.
Patty Braun, Lawrence, sifts through things at her apartment two days after a tornado ripped through Aberdeen South Apartments. Braun and her roommate Sam Oemars were not at home when the tornado touched down.
Duane Bruna, foreground, and Joe Wetter haul a piece of broken fence from a home damaged by May 8, 2003's tornado. Bruna and Wetter worked in a subdivision just north of Aberdeen Apartments in southwest Lawrence.
KU student Ashley Christman, an Olathe senior, checks the damage to her car outside her Aberdeen apartment. Christman car was severely damaged by the May 8, 2003 storm while her apartment was in good shape.
Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius tours the Aberdeen Apartment Complex where a tornado ravaged homes and cars. Sebelius visited the site in southwest Lawrence the day after the May 8, 2003, tornado and said state and local government would work together to repair the damage.
A construction worker hauls a load of debris up W. 26th Street in southwest Lawrence.
American Red Cross workers listen to the plight of a woman, who didn't want to be named, near a tent set up near Aberdeen Apartments. The workers are, from left, Katie Spehar, from Kansas City, Kan., Kathy Rotert, from Topeka, and Shannon DeVaney, from Lawrence. The trio provided water, food and medicine to tornado victims on the day after the May 8, 2003 tornado in southwest Lawrence.
National Guardsman Staff Sergeant Steve Jacontot from the 35th Military Police unit out of Topeka checks the ID of Christa Lobaugh at Clinton Parkway and Wakarusa. National Guard MP's were stationed at the entry points to the southwest Lawrence neighborhood that was damaged during the May 8, 2003 tornado.
When the May 8, 2003 tornado was headed for southwest Lawrence, Shannon and Darin White had resolved that Shannon would deliver her son, Caden Michael, in the safetly of a Lawrence Memorial Hospital doctors lounge--without her doctor present. Luckily, her doctor arrived, the tornado passed, and Caden was born at 9:10 p.m.
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