In his "For Openers" column, editor Greg Ettling talks to drillers who witnessed the rash of twisters that hit the country.
“It’s too early to tell; everyone’s still kind of in shock.” That was the typical answer we received when we spoke with water well professionals in tornado-hit towns and asked them for an assessment of their situations. Press time was right after the second round of twisters hit, so everything still was a mess. We just went down the list in the Yellow Pages and started dialing. We got a lot of out-of-service recordings and interminable rings (answering machine out). It was no coincidence that the people we were able to speak with had gotten through the ordeal relatively unharmed. Our thoughts are with the families and friends of those who didn’t.
Walter Atchinson (Atchinson Pump Service) in Jackson, Mo., reports, “I didn’t have any destruction at all, thank the Lord. It hit just a little bit north of me and tore things up pretty good. Forty or 50 homes were severely damaged or destroyed. And a big ceramics factory was destroyed – there’s going to be quite a few people out of work.