Wed, Jul 09 2008
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Published May 01, 2008 08:01 pm - Five years later, Beverly Turner can still remember the phone call from her husband. “He said, ‘I’m standing where our house was trying to figure out how to tell you that it’s gone,’” she said. Mike Pound: A renewed spirit of accomplishment in Franklin By Mike Pound
Globe columnist mpound@joplinglobe.com Five years later, Beverly Turner can still remember the phone call from her husband. “He said, ‘I’m standing where our house was trying to figure out how to tell you that it’s gone,’” she said. I waited for a second and said, “When you say ‘gone,’ what do you mean?” Beverly gave me a hard look and then smiled. “Gone,” she said emphatically. Gone, as in not there. Gone, as in completely blown away. That’s what Beverly meant when she said her house was gone. Tornadoes will do that sometimes. Especially tornadoes like the one that blew through Franklin, Kan., on May 4, 2003. It was part of a system of three tornadoes that struck the area that day. Beverly wasn’t home when the storm hit. She was the director of a nearby nursing home and had been called to work to help make sure the residents there were OK. Her husband wasn’t home either. After the storm, he arrived at the spot where their home had been. The Turners opted to rebuild on their lot in Franklin. Six months after the storm destroyed their home, they moved into a new one. I asked Beverly why she opted to remain in Franklin, and her answer was pretty matter of fact. “We owned the land. Where else would we live?” she said. This Sunday, the Globe will feature a number of communities that were hit by the tornadoes that day. We will talk to people who lived through the storms, and see how they and their communities have changed since the storms of 2003. A lot has happened in Franklin in the five years since the tornado, which killed longtime resident Josephine Maghe, and destroyed dozens of homes, the post office and the community center. Many, but not all, of the residents who lost their homes have rebuilt. There is a new community center and a new park, and plans are under way for the construction of a fire station. But more importantly, there is a renewed spirit of accomplishment in Franklin. A spirit that is behind the community’s drive to rebuild itself. Craig Stokes, president of the Franklin Community Council, is an unabashed Franklin backer. He is among a host of residents and former residents who have been working tirelessly since May 4, 2003, to not only rebuild the community but to make it bigger and better than it was. 
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