After an EF-5 tornado destroyed a Kansas town, it reinvented itself with clean energy

Two decades on, the memories of Greensburg’s darkest moments are still painfully fresh.

On May 4, 2007, an EF-5 tornado destroyed 95% of the small town in Kiowa County, Kansas, killing 10 people and injuring more than 60 others.

Dea and Tom Corns lost their home in the tornado and can still recall that horrifying day.

“It sounded like there was a helicopter inside the house, just ripping everything to shreds,” Dea Corns said.

Although fate dealt Greensburg a cruel blow, it also gave residents an opportunity. In the heart of deep red Kansas, the town went green. Today, 100% of its electricity comes from wind energy, and many of its roofs are lined with solar panels.

“Now we are a story about a resilient, rural community that came back better and stronger,” Dea Corns said.

Greensburg Mayor Matt Christenson says “people with a pioneer spirit” make their home in the town.

“Sustainable features in buildings and communities don’t just provide environmental benefits, but also long-term economic benefits,” Christenson said.

In the past 10 years, the average cost of electricity in Greensburg has risen just once, and only by half a penny. Christenson said that hike came in 2021 after an ice storm. The cost, he says, rose from 12 cents per kilowatt hour to 12.5 cents per kilowatt hour. 

When asked if it was hard to convince residents to go green, Christenson replied, “Honestly, it wasn’t that hard.”

He said the town “made a conscious effort to not, for example, impose a lot of requirements on our building codes,” and added: “Legislating that would have backfired, for sure. People don’t like being told what to do, but if you, you know, work with them and show this actually makes a lot of sense, you get a lot better results.”

But the rebuild also exposed a familiar challenge in rural America of younger residents permanently leaving small towns. After graduating from high school, Katelynn Alderfer never thought she would move back to Greensburg, but she returned to her family’s century-old farm after being inspired by the town’s renewal.

“We’ve made an example of what you can do for other places that encounter similar situations,” Alderfer said. “We all have this common thing that we share, this disaster that happened to us. And for the most part, we don’t think about it, we don’t talk about it, but it binds us all together.”

The Corns miss the old Greensburg, but Dea says, “If I was given the option of the old Greensburg and the new Greensburg, 100% I would go with the new Greensburg.” 

“We are proud of our town,” she added.