Tornado Season: Devastating storm brought woman to Sidney

A typical tornado has windspeeds of about 100 miles per hour, and a diameter of 100 yards wide. On the evening of May 4, 2007, however, a massive tornado with winds in excess of 200 miles per hour and diameter of 1.7 miles-wider than the town itself-smashed headlong into Greensburg in Kiowa County, Kansas.

The wind speed and damage it caused garnered this tornado an EF5 rating, which is the highest possible rating a tornado can receive. Eleven people died and 60 were injured in the Greensburg that evening, and 95 percent of the town was completely destroyed.

Virgie Logan, a Sidney resident of seven years, was born and raised in Kansas and was living in Greensburg at the time. She experienced the harrowing demonstration of nature's power first-hand.

According to Logan, tornado sirens frequently sounded in Greensburg, but they didn't often turn out to be anything serious.

She had no basement, but her neighbor had told her that if they ever did have a tornado at night, she was to rap on the bedroom window until she let her in. During the night of May 4, 2007, Logan heard the siren, grabbed her little poodle, Buddy, and walked across the street to take refuge in the basement.

While in the basement, Virgie could hear the noise outside becoming louder.

"The sound was awful," she said. "Just really, really bad."

She climbed the basement stairs to take a look. Golf ball-sized hail was crashing against the house. A change in the air pressure plugged up her ears.

The women took turns going up to monitor the weather. When Logan went up to look outside again, she hesitated.

"The wind was just awful, and I thought, 'Oh, I mustn't open this door because it's bad out there.'"

But she did open it, and this time she could not shut it again. Instead, the wind caught it and whipped it back, leaving a large bruise on her stomach where the doorknob hit her.

She thinks she may have gone unconscious around this time, but she doesn't quite remember.

"The doctor asked me if I was, and I said 'Oh, I don't think so....' But I think I was."

She came-to hearing her friend yelling out her name.

She was able to get up to venture back down into the basement, but at that point it was full of debris. Logan had to sit down and push away the debris step by step to get down the stairs.

Eventually the thunderous sound outside started to die down. Rain was falling. Logan could see neighbors outside across the street using flashlights, and she went out to find out how they were doing.

Deep water flooded the street, some of which had come from the old water tower that had been toppled by the wind. Big wires were laying all over.

"You wondered, 'Am I going to be electrocuted?' But the city had shut them off, thank goodness," she said.

She brought a neighbor back to help get her neighbor and Buddy out of the house, which was now destroyed.

When Logan's niece drove over, she saw that Logan was injured and offered to take her and the neighbor to the place townspeople were gathering at the town's grocery store parking lot.

"Bethel [her neighbor] kept saying to me, 'We gotta find you a doctor. We gotta find you a doctor!'" Logan recalled, "and I didn't even know I was hurt."

In fact, she had a head wound full of wood splinters, metal shards, and dirt, which required 12 stitches. She had thought that the blood soaking into her shirt was simply moisture from the rain. A doctor in the parking lot wrapped her head in gauze and told her she needed to have it treated within six hours.

An ambulance arrived to take the injured to Dodge City, and Logan went. She said she thought that the EMT must have been very nervous, because she threw up on the way.

"I know I was in shock," she said, "because always before, when I see someone throw up, I throw up too." But Logan just sat there.

When they reached the hospital, she became worried that they would not let her take her little dog inside. Buddy had been with her throughout the ordeal.

"That's just too bad then, I won't go in either," she told the EMTs. However, her need to use the restroom superseded that sentiment.

"I opened the door, and right across the room from me was a mirror," she recounted. "I looked, and I said 'Oh my God!'" Gauze was wrapped around her head, and blood and dirt covered her face.

When her wound was being treated, Logan reached down and picked up her little dog and set him on her lap. "They didn't say I couldn't!" she said.

In fact, hospital workers were very kind. "A bright side of the whole thing was how nice people were," Logan said. "There were a lot of employees who walked by just to peek their head in."

One woman offered to take Buddy home with her while Logan was in the hospital.

While in the hospital, she saw the news on TV reporting on aftermath of the tornado, and she realized that her children had no idea she was okay.

"My kids are gonna see this and wonder what in the world happened to me!" she exclaimed.

She did not know their phone numbers-they were programmed in her phone which was now lost. A nurse told her she would search for them on the internet.

"Like I said, again, how nice people are," Logan said.

When she was released, Logan and her children tried to get into Greensburg, but it was blocked off. Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius and President George W. Bush had both declared Kiowa County a disaster area. A line of vehicles waited to get back into town, and authorities allowed in just a few at a time after writing the occupants' address on the windshield of each vehicle.

It was difficult to navigate through the town, because landmarks had been destroyed, trees uprooted, and street signs blown away. Authorities painted street names on the pavement.

"You thought you knew where you were going," Logan said, "but there were no landmarks to tell you. That was really a funny feeling."

Logan was able to recover many of her belongings over the course of a couple weeks.

"I was lucky and fortunate," she said. "A lot of my stuff was not completely destroyed." Interestingly, a curio cabinet containing her collection of Precious Moments figurines was still standing in the corner, practically unscathed. Her purse, now full of water, still sat on the table where she had left it-with two $20 bills sticking out of it.

Logan's son and his wife had recently moved to Sidney.

"When he called me one day after the tornado, he said, 'Are you gonna rebuild in tornado alley, or are you gonna come up here?' And I said, 'No, I think I'm tired of waking up in the night and listening for the siren," Logan said.

She moved to Sidney.

One spring day after moving-Wednesday at 10 a.m., to be more precise-Logan was putting things away in her kitchen when the tornado siren sounded. Nobody had told her that Sidney tests the siren every week, which in Kansas was not common practice.

"I walked outside and looked around... Nothing," she laughingly recounted. "That must be a test or something."

Logan has been doing well since the tornado, but it was hard for the first few years. "Every once in awhile I'll need something or want something and I don't have it," she said, "because it got lost or destroyed. But I try not to dwell on that and go on with the positive. I have more than a lot of people did. A whole bunch more. I'm just thankful I was able to come away with what I did, and that my life was saved."

She recommends that tornado warnings always be taken seriously. She had heard many tornado sirens prior to that which foreshadowed the massive Greensburg tornado, and was tempted not to heed it.

She narrated her thoughts at the time."'Oh darn, another tornado siren. Oh well, I don't think I'll go this time, because it never materializes.'"

Tornadoes are one of nature's most violent and awe-inspiring weather phenomena, occurring anywhere thunderstorms can form. An estimated 1,000 tornadoes touch down in the United States each year-more than any other country in the world. This is due to the combination of polar air from Canada, dry air from the American Southwest and moist tropical air from the Gulf of Mexico mixing together to produce intense thunderstorms.

She's grateful she went to safety in spite of her reluctance. "I know of at least three people who were killed on account of that," she said. "If they [the authorities] are careful enough to watch the clouds for you and give the siren warning, you should heed it."

While there is no guarantee that precautions will keep a person safe during a tornado, there are a few simple steps one can take to drastically improve chances of surviving.

It's helpful to know what to look for. According to the website http://www.ready.gov, certain danger signs can indicate a possible tornado. These include a dark, often greenish sky, large hail, a large, wall-like cloud, and a loud roar. If any of these signs are present, it's best to take shelter.

During a tornado, get to a basement or cellar. If there isn't one, go to a small interior room away from windows and exterior walls, and get under a sturdy piece of furniture if possible.

If outdoors with no shelter available, find an area lower than the rest and lie down, covering your head with your hands. Do not move from your position until the tornado has passed.

Not everyone will have to endure a tornado in their lives. But those who have, like Virgie Logan, know how quickly it can change everything, even when you are prepared.

"I think it made me aware that you are vulnerable," she said. "The Lord did watch over me and take care of me, and I'm very thankful for that."