HOISINGTON, Kan. — Superintendent Randy Evans picked his way through the glass-littered halls of his high school as he grimly surveyed the damage two days after a tornado cut through this central Kansas town.
The auditorium roof was completely gone. The vocational building was probably unsalvageable. And he couldn't even get inside the music room because of the debris.
Still, most of the classrooms on the first two floors were relatively undamaged, unlike the third floor, which was full of cracks. School officials are now working to find alternative facilities for the 230 students.
"We hope to get students back to the school at the earliest possible moment to provide some normalcy," Evans said Monday.
Outside the school, the rumble of dump trucks and other heavy equipment provided the backdrop for cleanup efforts in this community of 2,975. One person was killed and 28 were injured Saturday night when the twister cut through a six-block-wide, mile-long area.
Some 569 residences, mostly single family homes, were damaged.
Gary Boxberger was back at work Monday in the shambles that was once Cardinal Plaza Lanes. The roof of the eight lane bowling alley is gone and the inside was gutted.
"I'm going to rebuild, somehow," he said.
Boxberger was alone in the bowling alley when the tornado hit. But had the storm come just two hours later, the place would have been filled with partying students out after their prom.
Following a tour of the damage, Rep. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., on Monday requested federal assistance for the town about 100 miles northwest of Wichita.
"It will be as good or better," Mayor Gwen Christy said. "It is going to take time. It is going to take patience. It is going to take financing. We have some pretty resilient people."