Joshua Mays, director of photography, and sound engineer David Ortega film the homecoming game Sept. 21 at Greensburg High School. A TV show documenting the town's rebuilding is slated for the spring.

Tornado-ravaged Greensburg is rebuilding, and next year a nationwide cable television audience will be watching.

A few days after the southwestern Kansas town was struck by a massive F-5 tornado on May 4, a film crew arrived and began documenting the recovery.

The goal is to make that recovery process into a 13-episode series for the Discovery Network’s new channel, Planet Green, which will debut in the spring.

“The people (of Greensburg) had this idea to rebuild the town ‘green,’ and that’s exactly what we were looking for,” said Johnny Gould, the crew’s supervising producer.

Gould and others from the crew stayed a few days in Lawrence this week while following Greensburg town leaders to a legislative hearing in Topeka. They filmed townspeople giving an upbeat assessment of the rebuilding process.

The film crew has been welcomed by Greensburg, said another producer, Tiff Wenton.

“Everyone so far in Greensburg has been very open to us and very curious as to what we are doing,” she said.

The crew has been working with the town to put leaders in touch with some of the nation’s top “green” architects and contractors, Wenton said. Many of them have gone to Greensburg to pitch their ideas for the town. But the “unscripted documentary,” as Wenton called it, also takes a look at the people of Greensburg and how they are dealing with the recovery.

“A community is so much more than the buildings,” she said. “It’s the people, the families and the life that’s there. Those are the stories we want to tell. How does Greensburg cope with losing everything?”

The film crew is working out of Dodge City. The Greensburg series is a collaboration between Craig Piligian, owner of Pilgram Films & Television, and actor Leonardo DiCaprio, known for his interest in the environment. They approached Discovery about the project. Piligian was involved with the first few seasons of the “Survivor” show and Discovery Channel shows “Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe” and “American Chopper.”

The Greensburg series will be the centerpiece in the Planet Green channel startup. It is likely there also will be 13 more episodes for a second season, Wenton said.

“Our crew will be here at least the next year,” she said. “Before there is a completed Greensburg it will probably take that long.”