Facing the aftermath Kansas residents regroup following Sunday's

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, May 6, 2003 by Bill Blankenship Capital-Journal

C

TUESDAY

MAY 6, 2003

The full story

Indians want

their side told during

Lewis and Clark bicentennial.

Thursday in Heartland

Tallgrass Club, Alvamar, Terradyne and Staff Hill are all what?

(Answer below)

Kansas golf courses.

--- Source: "Kansas Trivia,"

compiled by Barbara Brackman

Tornadoes

freakish,

engaging

It's been nearly a half century, but I clearly remember my father, who had just returned from tornado-ravaged Udall, describing the devastation from what still is the state's deadliest tornado.

The F-5 tornado that struck the south-central Kansas town in 1955 killed 83 people and injured more than 270, but for some reason what I remember most --- and what, to me, best describes a tornado's awesome power --- was my father telling us he had seen a sliver of straw embedded in a telephone pole.

I thought about that story again Sunday while watching the dramatic footage from the tornado that struck Kansas City, Kan. Tornadoes fascinate me. And, apparently, a lot of others, based on the number of home videos of funnel clouds you see.

I've never experienced a tornado. I wasn't in Topeka when the monster struck in 1966, but I've heard the horror stories, some from my wife, who was dipping ice cream at the old Peter Pan store on S.W. 10th when it hit, and some from her parents, who were huddled with their six boys in the basement of their house on S.W. 17th a block east of Washburn University as the storm, sounding like the proverbial freight train, roared by.

I heard that phrase a lot Sunday. It seems to be the common thread when discussing tornadoes. Well, that and the freakish things a tornado can do.

An article co-authored by Randy Cerveny, an Arizona State University geography professor, and Joseph Schaefer, director of the NOAA/National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., detailed some of those freakish things, including a couple from Udall.

Fred Dye, a retired railroad worker, was sucked out of his house - -- and, literally, out of his shoes --- and dropped, uninjured, into a tree where he sat out the rest of the storm. Harry Norris, the town barber, was asleep when the tornado struck at 10:30 p.m. and remained asleep as he was thrown out of his bed, through a window and into the street.

The article tells about a tornado in El Dorado that lifted a woman out of her house and dropped her 60 feet away next to a phonograph record. The record's title? "Stormy Weather."

Seven years ago, a tornado struck a drive-in theater in St. Catharines, Ontario. The movie on the big screen at the time was, yes, "Twister."

That movie included a scene showing a cow hurtling through the air, a scene not unlike that described Sunday in Kansas City, where a horse reportedly was stuck in a tree.

In 1917, a jar of sweet pickles was picked up by an F-4 tornado in Connecticut and dropped, unbroken, 25 miles away in a ditch. And in 1991, a personal check from someone in the western Kansas town of Stockton was carried 223 miles by an F-3 tornado, landing in Winnetoon, Neb., setting the unofficial record for longest distance by tornado debris.

What isn't unofficial is the effect of tornado sirens, watches and warnings on saving lives. That assumes, of course, people pay attention and don't, as often is the case, use the sirens as a signal to go outside and look for the funnel. Or, better yet, film it in hopes of getting some TV air time.

TV was just becoming a luxury in 1955. So were tornado watches, which government officials traditionally had discouraged because of fears of panic that could result.

On May 25, 1955, a tornado watch was issued for south-central Kansas. It was canceled at around 9 p.m., an hour and a half before Udall was forever changed by a tornado strong enough to impel a piece of straw into a telephone pole.

Pete Goering's columns appear on Sunday,

Tuesday and Thursday, and his sports

commentary on Radio 580 WIBW airs at 5:45 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

He can be reached at (785) 295-5659

or pete.goering@cjonline.com.

Officials arrest two

for drug possession

Shawnee County sheriff's officials said Monday that they had seized 105 pounds of marijuana from a minivan stopped early Friday on Interstate 70 in Topeka.

Sheriff's spokeswoman Martha Lutz said a sheriff's patrol officer at about 4 a.m. Friday seized a 2003 Kia Sedona minivan, as well as 105 pounds of marijuana, which was found inside and had an estimated $105,000 street value.

Shawnee County Jail records indicated the two occupants --- Martin S. Craig, 22, of Phoenix, and Samuel W. Ross, 53, of Detroit --- were arrested in connection with crimes that included one felony count each of possessing marijuana with intent to sell and failure to pay the Kansas drug tax.

Driver drags

sheriff's deputy

SOLDIER --- A suspected drunken driver dragged a Jackson County sheriff's deputy along a road near town early Saturday after the deputy tried to grab keys from the ignition of his car, authorities said Monday.

A Jackson County Sheriff's office news release indicated the deputy suffered minor bumps and bruises. The driver later was arrested.