We lost a town over the weekend. Greensburg, Kansas is gone. It’s a terrible tragedy, and the fact that the death count is lower than New Orleans is no comfort.

GREENSBURG, Kan., May 6 — The crows awoke on Sunday to an all but lifeless landscape in this farming town on the rolling plains, cawing from denuded trees into the silent rubble field below.

There was nobody except some emergency workers to hear them. There were no leaves on the trees to hide them. And as far as the eye could see, there were no buildings — but for the grain elevator — left to muffle their cries.

Friday night’s monster tornado, over a mile wide, was so efficient it looked as though a giant hammer had smashed Greensburg, population formerly 1,500.

Kansas is noted for being in the heart of “tornado alley” and folks are to a small extent inured to the possibilities of catastrophe, but something on this order hasn‘t been seen in quite a while.

The death toll stood at eight, many people were injured, and on Sunday cadaver dogs continued to search the ruins. Police, fearful of looters, shooed away the few residents who had sneaked back in. Four soldiers from Fort Riley and a reserve police officer were arrested on Sunday on suspicion of looting cigarettes and alcohol from a store, The Associated Press reported.

A death toll of eight in a tornado that took out 80 blocks of homes and businesses is mercifully low. Another factor that saved lives is the fact that there was a lot of warning. It’s reported the warning sirens howled for 20 minutes, which allowed folks to get into their proverbial tornado cellars – the classic Kansas safe room.

FEMA started its response much faster. Here’s hoping they do a better job than in New Orleans. And of course the National Guard will be on the scene to help also – the traditional job of the Guard in civic emergencies.

Ummm…no.

Governor Kathleen Sebelius said much of the National Guard equipment usually positioned around the state to respond to emergencies is gone. She said not having immediate access to things like tents, trucks and semitrailers will really handicap the rebuilding effort.

The Greensburg administrator estimated that 95 percent of the town of 1500 was destroyed by Friday's tornado.

The Kansas National Guard has about 40 percent of the equipment it is allotted because much of it has been sent to Iraq.