Bishop Views Tornado Damage While Pastor Remains Thankful

by

Disasters and Climate Change

Great Plains Annual Conference | May 28, 2025

GRINNELL, Kan. – Growing up in Oklahoma, Bishop David Wilson knew all about the effect of tornadoes. 

“It still amazes me today, the power of these storms and what they can do,” the bishop said after looking at the damage of a May 18 tornado in the Gove County community the following Wednesday. “It’s just amazing to see no loss of life and no one injured.” 

The EF-3 tornado, with up to 130 mph winds, leveled 40 homes in the town, just north of Interstate 70. Volunteers working three days after the tornado at least doubled the town’s population of 250. 

“To see the power of volunteers coming out and doing what they can to support each other and the Great Plains disaster response team and our volunteers — they’re dropping everything they do to come out and help,” said Bishop Wilson, who helped haul material from the parking lot into the VFW Hall, the epicenter of the volunteer units. “It was great walking in the building and seeing our volunteers at work, seeing the power of witness and service in our conference.” 

Rev. Hollie Tapley, disaster response coordinator, and volunteers from the Early Response Team were responsible for checking in volunteers. 

Norma Patton, Peabody, an ERT member, says she’s seen “an amazing amount of volunteerism.” 

“They walk in, and many people have lived in Grinnell or had relatives that lived in Grinnell, and they have come to see what they can do,” said Patton, a 15-year veteran volunteer. 

The VFW Hall contained food, water and provisions to help those affected by the storm but also had three long tables of lost-and-found items: a family Bible, yearbooks and photos ranging from a 2025 Grinnell High School graduation invitation to a World War II-era wedding picture. The building also served to feed volunteers, including a hamburger feed May 21. 

Among those hit by the tornado was Missy Byerly, pastor of Grinnell United Methodist Church, and a native of Grinnell. 

“We were watching the weather, just a regular Sunday night,” she recalled. “The tornado sirens went off, and it was far south, so we didn’t worry about it. We had a huge picture window facing the direction it was coming from, and we didn’t see anything. It got darker and started to rain and the bigger hail came. Our sirens never went off. Our phones never went off again.  

“My mom called because my cousin was coming from the field south of Grinnell, and he said, ‘You need to get in the basement now. Grinnell’s gonna get hit directly. I am following this tornado.’ 

“So my husband and I grabbed our two dogs, and the cat followed us down to the basement. We weren’t down there 30 seconds, and it hit,” Byerly continued. “He threw me to the floor; I was holding one of the dogs and my husband was on top of me. He pulled one of the cushions from the couch on top of us. 

“It was complete chaos and then it was calm, and I thought it was over, but nope, complete chaos again,” she added. “We got the front, the eye and the back of the storm.” 

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Byerly’s husband, Roger, emerged from the basement and heard a neighbor screaming and gave her assistance. 

“We had to climb over kitchen counters to even get out of our house,” she said. 

The 1974 ranch house, blonde brick with 2,064 square feet, only had access to the basement remaining. 

Byerly’s parents’ home was also destroyed. 

“It took half of their house, but surprisingly they still had walls standing. We had maybe half a wall standing,” she said. “It was so surreal, and there’s still just a shock.” 

To the relief of Byerly and her parents, an organ that belonged to her father’s great-grandparents remained unscathed, as well as the couple’s wedding picture from Christmas Day, 1905. 

A former paraeducator, Byerly said she was relieved to find a plaque given to her as she left that job, with Joshua 1:9 on it — the same verse that’s the basis for Vacation Bible School at Winona, Kan., where she also serves, this year. 

Byerly was not in Grinnell when the bishop and Rev. Zach Anderson, Western Kansas District superintendent, visited because she was with her husband at an already-scheduled oral surgery appointment in Salina. 

Looking around her neighborhood, with mangled trees, campers and recreational vehicles slammed into houses and a growing mountain of collected debris northwest of her home, Byerly said the storm hit hard. 

“It’s just been so surreal,” she said. “It’s very different because it’s where I grew up and everywhere I was is gone.” 

Byerly said she’s not surprised at the outpouring of help and support to the residents of her hometown. 

“This is where I grew up, so I always knew these people were good people,” she said. “My husband isn’t from here and can’t believe this. I said, ‘No. Grinnell takes care of its own. It always has and it always will.’’ 

People throughout northwest Kansas have been supportive as well, she said. Her brother-in-law, who owns a construction company in Plainville, came in to help. Her daughter, who works as an accountant for a farm equipment supplier in Atwood, told her boss her parents’ house was destroyed in a tornado and 30 co-workers showed up to help. 

The Byerly house was busy with her brother-in-law’s construction workers and Great Plains ERTs — each wearing the same shade of fluorescent green T-shirts. 

Byerly and her husband are temporarily living with their son in Oakley until decisions can be made on the future of their house. 

“We will plan to rebuild because Grinnell’s home,” she said. 

“Everywhere I look, God is watching,” she said. “Even in the midst of the tornado, God was there. He had to have been.” 

Byerly praised Tapley for her leadership during the recovery. 

“I can’t thank Hollie and her team enough,” she said. “They’ve just done everything.” 

Tapley said she was shocked by her first view of the damage. 

“The devastation just took my breath away when I got here Monday and did the first ride-through with the emergency manager,” she said. “I just kept shaking my head and couldn’t comprehend the extent.  

“But the numbers of our ERTs, the numbers of people from surrounding communities that have come in to volunteer; companies that have brought in their big equipment and trucks and of it – I’m beginning to see a light at the end of the tunnel,” Tapley added. “They’re cleaning up the large debris — there’s still a lot and there’s going to be a lot.”: 

Tapley said the conference has already received a $10,000 solidarity grant from United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), which will be converted into Walmart gift cards for the homeowners to take care of their immediate needs. 

UMCOR offers relief grants and recovery grants, the latter depending on “our role in how the community moves forward,” Tapley said. 

Tapley said she’s seen God’s hand at work in Grinnell over her first three days in town. 

“The amount of people who are showing up, a number of homeowners I’ve talked to have been blown away that people care about them, to come in and help. It’s just been remarkable,” she said. “As much as I hate to say it, disasters bring out the best in human beings. No shortage of it here either.”

David Burke is a content specialist for the Great Plains Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.