![Legacy 11
Two off-duty first responders
hopped in their pickup truck and
left Hesston to make some field
observations.
The tornado was moving slowly,
but Hesston was projected as its
destination.
At 5:00 pm, the storm hit Burrton,
toppling a chimney of the Fisher
home, killing six-year-old Lucas, who
was sheltering with his family in their
basement.
In Hesston, the local teen crowd
had gathered at the Pizza Hut along
Lincoln Boulevard to eat and hang out
after school. Twenty-year-old Jason
Reynolds, was the manager on shift.
Tornado Sirens
The tornado sirens in town were
screaming. Jeff Herzer was quoted
in the The Missouri State Trooper
in 1990 as saying, “By 5:37 pm, the
sirens had already blown three times
in Hesston. Unfortunately, loud
sirens do not ward off tornadoes like
evil spirits.”
Hesston College staff were
desperately trying to get students to
take the warning seriously and take
cover. A few dorm residents still stood
outside and stared at the approaching
black wall, sure it would turn.
Eighteen-year-old Donnie H. had
stayed late at Kropf Lumber to get the
evening’s delivery put up in case of
rain. As he worked, he couldn’t help
watching the black cloud in the west.
The tornado seemed to be standing
still, while at the same time growing
larger.
Dean Alison had just picked his
children up from their grandma’s
house and arrived home. He still
had his video camera in the backseat.
Grabbing it, he trained the camera
on the storm. (Original video can be
viewed at: http://hesston.digitalsckls.
info/items/show/462 )
Jason Reynolds quickly moved as
many of his Pizza Hut customers into
the walk-in refrigerator as he could.
He described the scene years later on
local radio station KMUW: “We ran
out of room, so I took the majority
of my staff and a couple of other
customers with me, and we rode out
EldaRouppEldaRouppJayWieland
Humor after disaster: A sign reads, “Due to circumstance beyond our control
t[he] Roupp family dinner Sunday has been chan[ged] to a picnic on the slab.
Bring your own food, dri[nk], tableware, tables, and chair. Slab will be furnished.”](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/40f984b5-4185-4047-a12c-7139428b3da3-160615183355/85/Legacy-MayJun16-Albers2-2-320.jpg)
Legacy-MayJun16-Albers2
- 1. 10 may/june 2016 Extreme environments are characterized by a sudden and catastrophic change in daily life, such as those caused by natural disasters—or may be places only a few dare to venture, due to the inherent danger to human life. On March 13, 1990, a 100-mile corridor of south-central Kansas was transformed into an extreme environment as a series of tornados bisected the state. The storms were so long-lived and moved so slowly that news crews gathered along Interstate 135 and Highway 50 and waited. Waited and watched. At 5:37 pm, the F5 tornado reached Hesston, Kansas. Morning, March 13, 1990 In Hesston, it was unusually warm and humid for a day in March. A young couple stood on their apartment balcony and snapped some photos of the sky while cloud watching, imagining animals and characters racing across the horizon. Before the school bell rang, an elementary teacher walked across the street to chat with her neighbor. “Somebody is sure in for it tonight,” the neighbor remarked as they discussed the strange heat of the morning. The preschool teacher, Ms. Judy, also thought the warm weather was an ominous sign. On the spur of the moment she decided to do a tornado drill with her young pupils. Many high school students had traveled two hours north to Topeka for the “Close-Up Kansas” program, during which students discuss government current issues with political leaders from their districts, while the Junior High Band had taken a bus to Lyons for a music contest. The National Weather Service already warned of potentially severe storms for the day. Late Afternoon, March 13, 1990 At 4:34 pm, a tornado touched down in Pretty Prairie, Kansas, about 50 miles southwest of Hesston. l i bby a lbers DuaneA.GrahamG.Voth Devastation Interpreting
- 2. Legacy 11 Two off-duty first responders hopped in their pickup truck and left Hesston to make some field observations. The tornado was moving slowly, but Hesston was projected as its destination. At 5:00 pm, the storm hit Burrton, toppling a chimney of the Fisher home, killing six-year-old Lucas, who was sheltering with his family in their basement. In Hesston, the local teen crowd had gathered at the Pizza Hut along Lincoln Boulevard to eat and hang out after school. Twenty-year-old Jason Reynolds, was the manager on shift. Tornado Sirens The tornado sirens in town were screaming. Jeff Herzer was quoted in the The Missouri State Trooper in 1990 as saying, “By 5:37 pm, the sirens had already blown three times in Hesston. Unfortunately, loud sirens do not ward off tornadoes like evil spirits.” Hesston College staff were desperately trying to get students to take the warning seriously and take cover. A few dorm residents still stood outside and stared at the approaching black wall, sure it would turn. Eighteen-year-old Donnie H. had stayed late at Kropf Lumber to get the evening’s delivery put up in case of rain. As he worked, he couldn’t help watching the black cloud in the west. The tornado seemed to be standing still, while at the same time growing larger. Dean Alison had just picked his children up from their grandma’s house and arrived home. He still had his video camera in the backseat. Grabbing it, he trained the camera on the storm. (Original video can be viewed at: http://hesston.digitalsckls. info/items/show/462 ) Jason Reynolds quickly moved as many of his Pizza Hut customers into the walk-in refrigerator as he could. He described the scene years later on local radio station KMUW: “We ran out of room, so I took the majority of my staff and a couple of other customers with me, and we rode out EldaRouppEldaRouppJayWieland Humor after disaster: A sign reads, “Due to circumstance beyond our control t[he] Roupp family dinner Sunday has been chan[ged] to a picnic on the slab. Bring your own food, dri[nk], tableware, tables, and chair. Slab will be furnished.”
- 3. 12 may/june 2016 the storm in the men’s bathroom. It was pretty scary, and I was praying pretty hard.” 5:37 PM As the tornado moved into Hesston, it increased to F5 intensity. It appeared to head straight for Hesston College and the surrounding retirement communities before a microburst, a powerful downdraft of air, pushed the storm’s track slightly to the north. That no one was killed within the town of Hesston seems unfathomable. Heartbreakingly, the storm took the lives of Ruth Voth of Goessel and young Lucas Fisher of Burrton as they sheltered from the weather. Interpreting Extreme Environments The Hesston Tornado was a significant milestone in the history of Hesston. It continues to be a defining moment for residents and the community—people remember where they were, what they were doing, how it affected them and those they knew and loved. However, the number of firsthand participants has dwindled as people have moved from the Hesston community or have passed away. At the time of the storm, the Hesston Public Library staff understood the community-altering nature of the tornado and had to the foresight to collect photos, flyers, church bulletins, and stories related to the event. But by 2014, library staff had twice turned over and the institutional knowledge of the tornado collection had been lost. The artifacts had quietly been stored away, largely inaccessible and forgotten. In January 2014, the library initiated an ambitious 14-month project (1) to transform the boxes of tornado photos, scrapbooks, and ephemera into a digital archive that would (2) culminate with a 25th-anniversary remembrance event of the Hesston Tornado in March 2015. Using Freeman Tilden’s principles of interpretation and the National Park Service’s interpretive equation, library staff knew the anniversary event required a knowledge of the potential audiences, an understanding the sensitive nature of personal tragedy, and a multi-faceted event to connect the diverse audiences to the resource. Knowledge of the Audience: The remembrance event(s) would attract audiences who: • had firsthand experience • were born after 1990 but grew up with firsthand stories • were new residents who knew very few details • were international residents who resided in Hesston for a short period to support the local industry Knowledge of the Resource: Preservation and Access The Hesston Public Library’s immediate need was to transform the original archived material into a resource that improved audience accessibility and increased the cultural competency of users. With both financial assistance and professional training from the South Central Kansas Library System and the Kansas Humanities Council, the library digitized its collection of images and papers, converted outdated analog formats such as VHS and slides, displayed the digitized collection both online and within the library, and made user-friendly duplicates of select items for use in library displays. After meeting the library’s goals for the original tornado archives in January 2015, the library staff reached out to the community with a request to expand the digital library by scanning and then returning privately owned photos and memorabilia. By the time the archive was completed, 44 audio recordings, 1,033 documents, 2,072 photos, and 42 videos had been added to the digital library. (The Digital Special Collections can be viewed at http://hesston.digitalsckls. info or through the library’s website: hesstonpubliclibrary.com.) Appropriate Techniques for Interpretive Opportunities In order to forge meaningful intellectual and emotional connections between the diverse audiences and the storm event, the library staff knew that a single anniversary program would not be enough. The remembrance activities needed to offer several ways that the diverse audiences could connect with a storm that had passed 25 years before. The Hesston Public Library partnered with the local expertise of The author holds one of several artifacts that were donated to the library’s permanent collection during the 25th Anniversary Remembrance week.
- 4. Legacy 13 Jointheagency andsave usingpromocodeNAI2016 the Hesston Community Foundation, Hesston College, the Hesston Record, local churches, and USD 460 to organize a week-long series of remembrance activities: Walking the Path: March 7–22, 2016 An estimated 300 participants saw the scope of the tornado’s size, the impacted neighborhoods, and the change in tree canopy as they walked the path of the tornado. The library created an interpretive trail map and partnered with Hesston College Disaster Management students to place orange flags along sidewalks within the tornado’s footprint. Share the Memories: Tuesday, March 10, 2016 Roughly 150 attendees watched Dean Alison’s iconic tornado footage and heard from a panel of community members who were first responders in the hours immediately following the storm. Light refreshments and time for sharing personal experiences followed the presentation. Record the Story: March 12–13, 2016 The library contracted with an oral historian to give residents an opportunity to record their firsthand experiences. All of the interviews will be added to library’s Digital Special Collections archive once they have been transcribed. Hesston USD 460 Students: Friday, March 13, 2016 Several community members shared their experiences at local elementary, middle, and high schools. Two of the presenters were high school students at the time of the tornado and one was the high school band instructor. Their stories were personally relevant for the students in attendance. Twister Twila & the Rodeo Queen: Wednesday, March 18, 2016 The Hesston Public Library hosted a tornado-themed story time and a special program that included Abbey Pomeroy, Hesston’s own Miss Rodeo Kansas 2015. Both the digitization project and the week of remembrance events have garnered positive responses and support. Extreme environments are a favorite plot line in books and movies as they feed the human need for adrenaline and our fascination with the unusual. The challenge for interpreters is always to find the personal stories and the opportunities for meaning within the context of the event. For More Information Hesston Tornado Digital Collection. Hesston Public Library Digital Special Collections. http://hesston. digitalsckls.info/ Inglish, Howard. Year of the Storms. 1st edition. Hillsboro, Kan: Hearth Pub, 1990. “‘Monster on the Prairie, Hesston, Kansas 1990 Tornado’, Newton Amateur Radio Club.” Accessed March 12, 2015. http://www. newtonarc.net/weather/hesston. html. “Twenty Years after the Hesston Tornado: An NWS Perspective.” Steadham, Randy. http://www. crh.noaa.gov/images/ict/hesston/ hesston_nws.pdf “The Hesston Tornado 25 Years Later” KMUW, NPR Radio, April 2, 2015, http://kmuw.org/post/ hesston-s-recovery-25-years-after- f5-tornado-hit abo u t t h e au t h o r Libby Albers is the director at the Hesston Public Library in Hesston, Kansas. She combines her passion for interpretation with her love of local history, natural resources, and of course—the library. Reach her at hesstonpubliclibrary@gmail.