The Greening of Greensburg

Posted: 11/21/11 01:31 PM ET, Vicky Collins, Huffington Post
Very early in the morning on May 5, 2007 I got a call from NBC News to hurry from Denver to Greensburg, Kansas. There had been a huge tornado and the town was devastated. Go! Go! When I pulled into the town six hours later I was stunned to see wreckage so complete that even the bark had been pulled off the trees. These skeleton sentinals stood over a community of people who were lost and dazed. The EF-5 tornado had 205 mile per hour sustained winds. Almost the entire town was in ruins. It was apocalyptic.
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Almost five years later I returned to Greensburg, and what I saw was as stunning as that first post-disaster morning. The town is cleaned up and there are beautiful new buildings. The school, the hospital, City Hall and the John Deere dealership are all built back to the highest environmental standard called LEED Platinum. There is a pretty little Main Street with shops and even a business incubator sponsored by Sun Chips. People are living in new eco-friendly homes and are saving up to 2/3 on their utility bills. And there are wind turbines everywhere powering the community. Imagine using the same wind that destroyed you to help resurrect yourself!

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