Going Green: Area youths to help rebuild city, save the world

Published in the Port Arthur News on Sunday, August 10, 2008

by Mike Tobias/The News Staff Writer

The night of May 4, 2007 was a dark night.
No darker than normal anywhere else in the world, but more especially in Greensburg, Kansas. Dark in the normal sense of the nighttime sky, but dark in the sense of the memories a massive tornado, nearly 2 miles wide, would soon carve out.
The sirens sounded and the city had a mere 20 minutes to prepare for the oncoming 205 mph winds. Once the storm past and the dust settled, the city was nearly wiped off the map.
“The night of May 4, the city of Greensburg, Kansas was hit by a category EF5 tornado that destroyed 95% of the homes and businesses there,” Shelly Christian, First Christian Church of Port Arthur Youth Mission Trip co-sponsor said.
Images taken after around the disaster area show splintering remnants of former homes and leaf-less trees surrounded by dirt-strewn roads and grassy plains. Nine Greensburg residents initially lost their lives in the onslaught. According to a KAKE Channel 10 story posted four days after the storm, a tenth victim, Police Officer Robert Tim Buckman passed away after being taken off life support, but not before symbolically giving away his 18-year-old daughter in a bedside marriage ceremony.
“After the storm the city council and the citizens held a lot of meetings in trying to decide on how to rebuild after the storm and ultimately decided on building it back ‘green.’
The term ‘green’ refers to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System, which provides a suite of standards for environmentally sustainable construction. According to Wikipedia.com, ‘green’ building is the practice of increasing the efficiency with which buildings use resources — energy, water, and materials — while reducing building impacts on human health and the environment during the building's lifecycle.
“Building it back ‘green’ means every structure there has to include a certain amount of refurbished or recycled material, and there’s a lot of ordinances you have to go through to get things approved before you start to rebuild,” Christian adds.
Following this ideology of placing the utmost high importance on ecological and environmental goals, LEED certified buildings are rated on a scale of a possible 69 points, based on a variety of prerequisites and credits: Certified (26-32 points), Silver (33-38 points), Gold (39-51 points), and Platinum (52-69 points).
When completed, Greensburg, Kansas will become the first U.S. city ever to be raised, or in their case rebuilt, to Platinum LEED standards.
“Scott (Miller), our Associate Pastor and co-sponsor, and I talked to the kids a little bit before deciding on where we wanted to go for the Youth Mission Trip,” Christian went on. “And we decided that we’d like to expose the kids to a different kind of disaster. Down here in ‘hurricane land’ we’ve kind of gotten numb to the effects of a hurricane and though we could give them a better sense of helping out in a different type of natural devastation than we’re used to.”
Each of the youths have expressed an eagerness to help out with this tragic, yet unique, situation.
“I’m excited to go,” Daniel Teller stated. “We’ve been through the rebuilding process here after Katrina and Rita and we’re getting an opportunity to help out a whole new community in a whole different state. We kind of know what they’ve experience, but we can learn as they rebuild ‘green,’ environmentally-friendly, and that’s good for them and good for the nation.’
The Youth Mission Trip team, consists of six youths: Jeffrey Green, 13; Daniel Teller, 14; Aubrie Martin, 14; JoBeth Jackson, 16; Kolby Duhon, 17; and Jessica Teller, 17. The group leaves to meet up with First Christian Church’s affiliation, Disciples of Christ, at their mission station near the city of Greensburg, Kansas today and will help in the rebuilding process before returning next Saturday, August 16.
The plight of Greensburg is currently being broadcast around the world as a 13-part television series, co-produced by Leonardo DiCaprio and Craig Piligian called Greensburg, which airs at 8 p.m. Sundays on Planet Green. Since airing, six more episodes were ordered and filmed.
For those interested in following the progress of the ‘Going Green Youth Mission Trip,’ go to www.panews.com and click on the ‘Going Green’ button to view and comment on their online blog. The group will be updating their exploits with words and pictures at the end of the day’s work.
The group’s progress will also be updated on The Mike Tobias Show, The Port Arthur News’ daily podcast available on the homepage Monday through Friday at panews.com.