Assignment 4 - Hannah Pulley

This is an aerial view of the town of Greensburg, Kansas, twelve days after an F5 tornado destroyed most of it in 2007. While severe storms are a threat for a large part of the year in this area of the county, people are usually accustomed to and prepared for them. Not only was this one of the strongest storms in recorded history in terms of size and wind speed, it took many people off guard, which lead to a death toll of eleven people. Kiowa county was declared a disaster area, and it was estimated that 95% of the buildings were destroyed. By 2010, only about half of the population had returned, but the fact that the entire town needed to be rebuilt opened a new possibility: the first completely "green" town. The power grid is entirely self-sufficient, supplied by wind turbines, and since the rebuilding efforts began, the area has become a testing ground for new housing and infrastructure designs meant to have a lower impact on the earth. While the storm changed many people's lives, it also changed how people look at the process of rebuilding the world around them.