Rescuers hunt for survivors

GREENSBURG, Kan. — Anxiety mounted Sunday as rescue teams searched for anyone still buried in the heaps of splintered wreckage left after a tornado obliterated most of this south-central Kansas town.

At least 10 people were known dead from weekend storms — eight in the Greensburg area and two others elsewhere in Kansas — state officials said.

State and federal officials said they had no idea how many of Greensburg's estimated 1,400 residents remained missing, because families had scattered. But they vowed to keep searching as long as there was still hope of finding a survivor.

"We never want to give up on someone," said R.L. Knoefel, a spokesman for the Kansas Highway Patrol. "It would have been nice if you could have seen this beautiful little town as it once was," he added. "Now it's all gone."

As more than 40 searchers scanned the heaps of bricks and wooden beams for signs of life, National Guard troops and state law-enforcement officers barred families from returning to their former homes.

"We realize they're trying to find people who are missing. But it would be nice to go in there and get some things before the rain ruins everything," said Sarah Coates, 24, as she left a nearby emergency shelter with her grandmother.

Waves of thunderstorms rippled across the Plains states Sunday, drenching rubble that the Friday night tornado scattered across Greensburg.

Officials said four soldiers from nearby Fort Riley Army base were arrested and accused of looting. The soldiers were being held at the Pratt County Jail after they allegedly were caught stealing cigarettes and beer from a crumpled storefront Saturday evening.

"They had no authority to be there," Sgt. Major Steve Rodina of the Kansas Army National Guard said of the soldiers.

Small as it was, Greensburg, which lies about two hours west of Wichita in southwestern Kansas, was considered the economic hub of its region. It was renowned as the home of the world's largest hand-dug well, and for having a 1,000-pound meteorite on display in the center of town. After the twister, the well was destroyed and the meteorite is nowhere to be found.

At the east end of the two-lane highway that passes through the town, a motel stands largely intact, and a small bar beckons with a large sign advertising Budweiser beer. But with every step west, the tornado's toll grows grimmer, and the structures become harder to recognize.

A hardware store is missing its roof but still has wrenches neatly hanging up for sale on a display wall. A block farther, wooden houses are crumpled flat like deflated balloons. Beyond that, for about a dozen blocks, little remains but mounds of rubble.

Some former Greensburg residents in the nearby town of Pratt sat around a breakfast table Sunday and searched for something familiar in an aerial photo of their town on the front page of the Wichita Eagle. They could not even agree on whether the picture was facing north.

The National Weather Service classified the Friday night tornado as an F-5, the highest category on its scale. The weather service said it had wind estimated at 205 mph, and carved a track 1.7 miles wide and 22 miles long. The last tornado that strong killed 36 people in Oklahoma City on May 3, 1999.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency was bringing in travel trailers to house some of the town's residents, said FEMA regional administrator Dick Hainje. There was no indication when people would be able to move in to the trailers because the area was choked with debris and the town had no clean water.

President Bush declared the region a federal disaster area Sunday, freeing up federal money to aid in recovery.