June 27th, 2008
Tornado Part 5: Chapman, Kansas
What makes the fabric of a community? Is it the
churches and schools, the evening softball games,
Old 40 and the houses with wide porches? Or is it
the spirit and resiliency of the people that live here?
“It popped our ears. We heard the train sound,
and then it started to suck Wyatt’s clothing.
A support bean cracked. All the dirt came down,
and we couldn’t breathe.”
Quotation from Brenda Lacey, survivor
“It’s funny what (the tornado) leaves and what it takes.”
Quotation from Melanie Bergstrom, Chapman H.S. band teacher
June 27th, 2008 at 8:53 am
Wow, this is so surreal… I wish this was all a cartoon, and not photos…
June 27th, 2008 at 10:03 am
That’s really sad, I always felt so lucky for living in areas free of natural disasters, never experienced an earthquake, a tornado or anything of the sort.
June 27th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
its really sad….i really feel sorry for all families who are without their homes and parents…
great post
June 27th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Hi Seraphine,
I once lived through a tornado that ripped through Oak Lawn IL. Back in the 60’s. It hit Oak Lawn High School and bounced off the school taking half the school with it. Had the school not been there it would have ripped through our house and took it - and most of our block with it.
Thanks for posting the pictures - the pictures take me back.
I also added your site here to my blog roll - hope you don’t mind.
Glenn Bishop
http://www.mrhypnotist.org
June 27th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
Hi, Seraphine,
I too lived through a tornado in Ohio as a kid and I witnessed an entire home lifted off it’s foundation before it blew up into pieces in the funnel. We found cash money and checks from 8 miles away. Sad.
June 27th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
it’s the town gossip of course!
xoxo
June 28th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
Looking at the pictures provides a scary enough vision for me of the event itself. It’s sad.
btw - I think Jen’s right
June 28th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
We are fortunate we do not experience the ferocity of tornadoes down under. They are amazing pictures depicting the aftermath of its fury and devastation.
Best wishes
June 29th, 2008 at 11:59 pm
It is very impressive!
In france, we do not have tornado, sometimes big storms but no tornado .. it’s hard to imagine that it can do so much damage !
Isas last blog post..just jared
July 1st, 2008 at 1:01 pm
It was truely devestating to go through the town. My aunt and uncle live in Chapman Kansas {thankfully they were safe} and I went on vacation to see them just a week after the torndo hit. Tears stung my eyes as my aunt drove me through the town. Its not even my town, or my state for that matter but to see how the tragedy was truely sad. But all in all it was great to see people working side by side {my mother helped out too} to clean up the town. Everywhere you went there was someone working on it, and everyone had good humor about it. On one of the houses someone wrote “you cant kill the love shack, love shack baby” my heart goes out to chapman kansas.
September 18th, 2008 at 8:27 am
Great post ! I want to know when you update your blog, where can i subscribe to your blog?
