Employees help with cleanup following storm

By Melissa Woeppel, Communications Intern

Loss of power, blown out windows, debris and fallen branches were just some of the destruction left by a tornado that touched down near Bennington, Kansas on the early evening of May 28. While no damage was reported at MKC’s location in this small community, several of our customers were not as lucky.

According to Ron Wenger, location manager at Bennington, the tornado that touched down "stayed in an area about three miles long and three miles wide for over an hour resulting in a lot of damage [that] I can’t justly describe."

In response to the destruction, employees of the Bennington location volunteered time and resources to assist in the cleanup efforts. MKC also provided a tele-handler and skid steer to use in the cleanup process.

On Wednesday, MKC provided pizza for approximately 25 volunteers who helped to bring trash to a central location. Thursday also included much of the same work. Clean-up efforts continued on Friday as MKC employees and community members, 70 in total, used a large backhoe, a large cat, skid steers, service trucks, farm trucks and trailers to assist with the efforts.

"We were thanked more than once for what we considered our duty as part of the community," said Wenger.

Despite the amount of property damage caused by the tornado, no one was injured.