Word: townes
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...blank slate on which Greensburg could build back better by building back greener--with energy-efficient homes and offices powered by Kansas' abundant wind and biofuel resources. The community could become a mecca for environmentalists, drawing green businesses and new jobs. Daniel Wallach, an entrepreneur from a nearby town, formed the nonprofit Greensburg GreenTown shortly after the tornado to promote this transformation. "It could be a living laboratory," he says, "to demonstrate to the rest of the country and the world what a town of the future could look like...
Wallach and his allies began to shift local opinion by showing that going green wasn't just about saving the polar bears but also cutting waste and saving on rising fuel bills and building a stronger, more resilient town. Those arguments made sense even to Greensburg's old-timers. "Our church sometimes costs up to $1,000 a month to heat," says George, who plans to reconstruct the building to meet the highest energy-efficiency standards. "Now, I'm not a tree hugger by any means," he says. "But we have to be prepared for a future in which energy...
...more energy efficient than their old ones. In early January, the city council approved a plan that would make all public buildings in Greensburg conform to the platinum rating of the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED (leadership in energy and environmental design) standards--something no American town has ever tried. Ron Shank's car dealership will be rebuilt as a model green facility...
Still, for some, Greensburg--green or not--will never heal. Former mayor McCollum, one of the first to raise the idea of building green, quit his post a few weeks after the tornado, citing exhaustion, and eventually moved with his wife to the neighboring town of Pratt. On a recent Friday, McCollum, 62, spoke wistfully of the town in which he had lived his entire life. He can't let Greensburg go, but he can't return either. "For me, it's completely gone," he says. "There's nothing out there for me but heartache...
...rock-strewn landscape in search of a safer place. "At times like this, a family has lost all of its resources," says Ahmed, a tribal elder. "This is what happens," he says, and with a sweep of his hands takes in the squalid campsite near the camel-trading town of Kebkabiya...