Kansas Is Breadbasket, Louisiana Is Wastebasket
Originally publixhed in the Las Vegas Penny Press May 17, 1007
The events of this week and the coverage of the Greensburg Kansas tornado make me sick.
Make no mistake, it is a huge tragedy. Twelve deaths in a town of 1400 is a huge loss of life, particularly since the entire population knew all of the victims. The property damage is immense. And yet, it is no by any means the worse tornado in history. Far from it. I know. I experienced first hand two of them.
Topeka, Kansas, 1968.
I was 12, living in Emporia, Kansas, 50 miles south. Our television came out of a truly great television station, WIBW. We watched great broadcasters, including Bill Kurtis, broadcast the events live as well as the recovery efforts for days. Stauffer Publications, which owned not only the TV station but an AM and FM station and the Topeka Capital Journal, were outstanding in their efforts. The damage total: $100 million dollars in 1968 dollars. That would be nearly half a billion in today’s economy.
Was it bad? Ask anyone who attended Washburn University. I did from 1975 to my graduation in 1978. I purchased a tuba from the University that had gone through the tornado for $50. It was to me a reminder of the efforts to rebuild and make the university more than it had been. Today it remains independent, still the home of the Ichabods, one of the last municipal universities in the country. Some truly great people have come through those doors.
Grand Island, Nebraska, June 1980.
I was the News Director of 1550 KICS in Hastings, Nebraska, 25 miles south of Grand Island. I was married to my first wife who had brought her two nephews from Wichita to spend a couple of weeks with us. We were doing laundry at the local laundromat and watched a line of storms move across the horizon. It looked to pass to the north of us and appeared to intensify as it approached Grand Island to our north.
Grand Island had two powerful AM stations, one of which we had a working relationship with. I tuned them in to start hearing what was happening when the first tornado warning went out. Instinctively I headed for the radio station. As we were listening the magnitude of the storm became apparent and then the station went off the air. I called the Program Director and General Manager. We had just signed off the daytime AM and our full time FM didn’t reach Grand Island. I convinced him to put us back on the air at full power (the FCC allows that in an emergency) and to let me go on the air reporting the information that we had. We worked the phones to try to reach the station in Grand Island. After 90 minutes and two full tornado warnings (and seeing the disturbing words on the Weather Service teletype, “forecasters abandoning facility” twice during the height of the storm) they issued another warning. I speculated on the air that this might be a truly unique event as never do warnings extend this long. But I was cut off by the Program Director who declared the disaster over and that we would have full coverage in the morning. He thought that my comments weren’t accurate and that this was just another event.
Boy, was he wrong. Nine tornadoes in a stalled supercell right over Grand Island. None of them was a category 5, but quantity made up for the lack of single punch. Once again, I learned first hand the power and true random nature of a tornado. Full sections of town obliterated, save for random houses spared serious damage. The huge irrigation systems in the corn fields picked up and scattered like a child’s erector set after a tantrum. Mother Nature’s tantrums were much more deadly, however. Given the size of the storms, the loss of life was minimal. And because Jimmy Carter was facing a stout reelection challenge, he made the trek to Grand Island, and gave a speech which I covered live, the only station locally to do so (thanks to a lucky pay telephone placement near a PA speaker—they didn’t have the toys back then we have today).
Both disasters received national coverage. Both were traumatic events locally. Both received a great deal of assistance. But the most absurd thing that I hear mentioned is whether or not the people of Kansas will receive the same level of aid that the Katrina victims in New Orleans did.
Let’s get real.
You see, comparing the hapless residents of New Orleans with the capable hard working people of the state of Kansas is foolish. These people understand where they live, what the risks are, and how hard life in the nation’s breadbasket can be.
Consider these statistics from the Kansas Hazard Mitigation plan Kansas ranks third in the nation in the cost of tornado damages from 1950 to 1995. $1.216 Billion dollars, or cost adjusted to $26 Million per year. That’s a per capita average of $12.02 annually for every man, woman, and child in the state. That’s a lot of money.
Do they receive Federal Aid? Sure, but not in the same way that the people of New Orleans did. Their aid usually consists of low interest loans and loan guarantees to help them rebuild, to replace the lost crops, and to help insure that they can rebuild.
Direct aid usually comes from private sources; churches, local charities, and fellow Kansans unaffected by the disasters. Insuring that Kansans stay IN Kansas was in the nation’s best interests.
What if they leave? Remember that tainted pet food involving Chinese Wheat? Do you want that wheat in YOUR bread?
No doubt, it’s in your best interest that the nation’s breadbasket continue to grow the wheat and corn and raise the cattle and sheep that feed our nation.
Not to be inconsiderate or unkind, but while New Orleans has provided us with a rich musical heritage that is uniquely American, it’s not the same as feeding the nation.
Direct aid to residents of New Orleans in the form of those $2000 debit cards was necessary because those people couldn’t (or wouldn’t) provide for themselves. I’m not saying it was right, but it was the only option for a government used to buying support from the underclass. And it wasn’t enough to make some folks happy.
Do the people in Kansas deserve aid to recover from this year’s tornadoes?
Absolutely. Will they get the same kind of assistance that New Orleans got? Absolutely not. Because they don’t need it. They’re Kansans. They’re use to adversity. They need most of all, our prayers and support.
With it, they WILL go on.
But don’t insult them with handouts....
WYATT COX
The events of this week and the coverage of the Greensburg Kansas tornado make me sick.
Make no mistake, it is a huge tragedy. Twelve deaths in a town of 1400 is a huge loss of life, particularly since the entire population knew all of the victims. The property damage is immense. And yet, it is no by any means the worse tornado in history. Far from it. I know. I experienced first hand two of them.
Topeka, Kansas, 1968.
I was 12, living in Emporia, Kansas, 50 miles south. Our television came out of a truly great television station, WIBW. We watched great broadcasters, including Bill Kurtis, broadcast the events live as well as the recovery efforts for days. Stauffer Publications, which owned not only the TV station but an AM and FM station and the Topeka Capital Journal, were outstanding in their efforts. The damage total: $100 million dollars in 1968 dollars. That would be nearly half a billion in today’s economy.
Was it bad? Ask anyone who attended Washburn University. I did from 1975 to my graduation in 1978. I purchased a tuba from the University that had gone through the tornado for $50. It was to me a reminder of the efforts to rebuild and make the university more than it had been. Today it remains independent, still the home of the Ichabods, one of the last municipal universities in the country. Some truly great people have come through those doors.
Grand Island, Nebraska, June 1980.
I was the News Director of 1550 KICS in Hastings, Nebraska, 25 miles south of Grand Island. I was married to my first wife who had brought her two nephews from Wichita to spend a couple of weeks with us. We were doing laundry at the local laundromat and watched a line of storms move across the horizon. It looked to pass to the north of us and appeared to intensify as it approached Grand Island to our north.
Grand Island had two powerful AM stations, one of which we had a working relationship with. I tuned them in to start hearing what was happening when the first tornado warning went out. Instinctively I headed for the radio station. As we were listening the magnitude of the storm became apparent and then the station went off the air. I called the Program Director and General Manager. We had just signed off the daytime AM and our full time FM didn’t reach Grand Island. I convinced him to put us back on the air at full power (the FCC allows that in an emergency) and to let me go on the air reporting the information that we had. We worked the phones to try to reach the station in Grand Island. After 90 minutes and two full tornado warnings (and seeing the disturbing words on the Weather Service teletype, “forecasters abandoning facility” twice during the height of the storm) they issued another warning. I speculated on the air that this might be a truly unique event as never do warnings extend this long. But I was cut off by the Program Director who declared the disaster over and that we would have full coverage in the morning. He thought that my comments weren’t accurate and that this was just another event.
Boy, was he wrong. Nine tornadoes in a stalled supercell right over Grand Island. None of them was a category 5, but quantity made up for the lack of single punch. Once again, I learned first hand the power and true random nature of a tornado. Full sections of town obliterated, save for random houses spared serious damage. The huge irrigation systems in the corn fields picked up and scattered like a child’s erector set after a tantrum. Mother Nature’s tantrums were much more deadly, however. Given the size of the storms, the loss of life was minimal. And because Jimmy Carter was facing a stout reelection challenge, he made the trek to Grand Island, and gave a speech which I covered live, the only station locally to do so (thanks to a lucky pay telephone placement near a PA speaker—they didn’t have the toys back then we have today).
Both disasters received national coverage. Both were traumatic events locally. Both received a great deal of assistance. But the most absurd thing that I hear mentioned is whether or not the people of Kansas will receive the same level of aid that the Katrina victims in New Orleans did.
Let’s get real.
You see, comparing the hapless residents of New Orleans with the capable hard working people of the state of Kansas is foolish. These people understand where they live, what the risks are, and how hard life in the nation’s breadbasket can be.
Consider these statistics from the Kansas Hazard Mitigation plan Kansas ranks third in the nation in the cost of tornado damages from 1950 to 1995. $1.216 Billion dollars, or cost adjusted to $26 Million per year. That’s a per capita average of $12.02 annually for every man, woman, and child in the state. That’s a lot of money.
Do they receive Federal Aid? Sure, but not in the same way that the people of New Orleans did. Their aid usually consists of low interest loans and loan guarantees to help them rebuild, to replace the lost crops, and to help insure that they can rebuild.
Direct aid usually comes from private sources; churches, local charities, and fellow Kansans unaffected by the disasters. Insuring that Kansans stay IN Kansas was in the nation’s best interests.
What if they leave? Remember that tainted pet food involving Chinese Wheat? Do you want that wheat in YOUR bread?
No doubt, it’s in your best interest that the nation’s breadbasket continue to grow the wheat and corn and raise the cattle and sheep that feed our nation.
Not to be inconsiderate or unkind, but while New Orleans has provided us with a rich musical heritage that is uniquely American, it’s not the same as feeding the nation.
Direct aid to residents of New Orleans in the form of those $2000 debit cards was necessary because those people couldn’t (or wouldn’t) provide for themselves. I’m not saying it was right, but it was the only option for a government used to buying support from the underclass. And it wasn’t enough to make some folks happy.
Do the people in Kansas deserve aid to recover from this year’s tornadoes?
Absolutely. Will they get the same kind of assistance that New Orleans got? Absolutely not. Because they don’t need it. They’re Kansans. They’re use to adversity. They need most of all, our prayers and support.
With it, they WILL go on.
But don’t insult them with handouts....
WYATT COX
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