Tornado damage may spell towns’ end

Associated Press

MARYSVILLE, Ind.

This tiny Indiana farm town has no mayor, no school and no shopping center. And after last week’s deadly tornadoes, it has virtually nowhere left to live.

Nearly every home in Marysville was destroyed or so badly damaged it probably will have to be torn down — a realization that raised an emotional question for people still gathering belongings from the debris: Is it worth rebuilding a place that has so little?

In some of the tiny communities smashed by the violent weather, the idea hangs in the air, raising doubts even among families who have lived in the same place for generations.

Before it was erased by the storm, Marysville had been a hub of farming activity in deep southern Indiana since the mid-1800s, with many sons working the same rows of corn and soybeans as their grandparents.

But as they surveyed the devastation, some townspeople concluded it would be easier to abandon the village and look for work in Louisville, Ky., 30 miles to the south.

“I think this community is pretty much gone. I don’t think anyone will rebuild. A lot of people had no insurance,” Scott Meadors said Sunday as he salvaged belongings from the storm’s aftermath.

When a bigger population center such as Joplin, Mo., is crippled by tornadoes, there rarely is any question about rebuilding. Larger cities typically have greater resources and defined downtowns to serve as focal points. But this flyspeck village may have suffered a mortal blow.

Other nearby communities risked losing population, too.

In Chelsea, home to a few churches, a general store and a collection of far-flung farms, some had decided to move on. One was Erin Boyner, whose husband, John, was among four area people killed in the storm. She felt she had nothing to return to, said friends who were helping pile and burn the scraps that used to be her home.