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By TIM UNRUH

Salina Journal

CHAPMAN -- As he waves at folks along Fifth Street during today's Labor Day Parade, Leon Larouche aims to give inspiration to Chapman residents continuing their recovery from the June 11 tornado.

The 70-year-old retired Chapman school custodian, who helped open the middle school storm shelter that night, will serve with his wife, Naomi, and Glenda and Roy Winkleman as grand marshals for the 2 p.m. parade. The theme: "Fighting Irish, Coming Back Strong."

Leon lost part of his left arm when the tornado slammed the pickup he was driving into the Chapman school administration building. The Winklemans were in their car in the same parking lot when the tornado launched them some 200 yards.

"The message I would like to put across is to have them appreciate what they've got and do more for what they have," Leon said. "You don't have to sit in the corner and say, 'Gee, why me?' Stand up and say, 'Hey, let's go for it.' "

As Roy Winkleman awaited a Sept. 15 surgery to repair broken bones in his neck, he was unsure whether he and his wife would be able to participate.

"It all happened for a reason. I'd sure like to know what it was," he said.

Leon and former custodian Bob Diehl and his girlfriend, Joan Atkinson, have for years opened up the shelter when severe weather lurked. Roughly 100 people took refuge there on June 11.

"Leon was in the shelter. Some woman was hysterical in the dressing room. She said, 'My husband and two dogs are down at the trailer court.' Joan told Leon to go get ahold of a cop," Diehl said.

When Leon learned of the peril, he volunteered, and left the school grounds in his red pickup truck.

He didn't get far before a Chapman police officer ordered him back to the shelter. Leon turned around, driving in a familiar pose, with his left arm resting on the pickup window frame.

That's when the EF3 tornado swooped down on the middle school.

"It felt like my truck left me. It was lifting off the ground," Leon said. "I was powerless, couldn't go forward, backward, upside down or anything else. I was trapped in there."

His next memory was of waking up in Wesley Medical Center, Wichita.

In the shelter that night, Diehl said there were children crying as metal was being peeled from the roof of the District Gym.

"I saw the roof come off, and felt the vacuum, and I dove into the shelter. Water was coming in," Diehl said.

It was over in a few seconds. While surveying the damage, Diehl fell in a hallway and broke his left kneecap, which required surgery to repair.

Leon said he was told later that three Fort Riley soldiers who were in the shelter went looking for him after the storm. They found him in his pickup, honking his horn.

"I don't remember doing it," Leon said.

Meanwhile, Naomi Larouche was safe in the couple's basement a few blocks to the west, thinking her husband was at the shelter. But it was unusual for Leon not to return home and check on her after a storm hit. The tornado struck the town between 10 and 10:30 p.m.

Shortly after 11, she received a call from the emergency department at Geary Community Hospital, Junction City.

"They said his arm was dead. I said, 'Do what you have to do,' " Naomi recalled.

She set out for the hospital, which was an ordeal. It took half an hour for her son-in-law, Dallas Lindsey, to drive 1 1/2 blocks to the Larouche home. Between there and Marshall Street, Chapman's major north-south thoroughfare, at least one tire went flat.

Naomi walked to the Chapman Valley Manor on the east side of town and met up with her daughter, Rose Lindsey. From there, they found a way out of Chapman.

Leon was out of surgery by 3 a.m. June 12. The next day, he was taken by ambulance to the Wichita hospital. After a week's stay, he was transferred to the Wesley Rehabilitation Center.

That's where he found Roy Winkleman, 51, who recounted his own tornado trip.

He and Glenda normally "ride out the storm" in their trailer home, but on this night they decided to change locations.

"The sirens were going off. My neighbor had knocked on my front door to warn us. Police were going up and down the street with their sirens on," Roy said. "We went to the storm shelter."

To their surprise, there was an open parking space just 15 feet from the door to the middle school, where people were huddled in the locker rooms.

"I pulled up there and Glenda unbuckled her seat belt. I had enough time to get the keys out and that was it," Roy said.

"I couldn't open my door," said Glenda.

The car lifted and rolled onto its left side, then onto its roof.

"It started spinning like a top and took off. I woke up in a field," Roy said.

At 6 feet, 5 inches tall, he struggled to remove himself from the wreckage.

Unrestrained, Glenda was thrown from the car.

"I woke up and my mouth was full of dirt," she said. "I was thinking, 'I'm gonna die under here, or freeze to death.' "

A neighbor in the trailer park, Tony White, was among six people who went looking for the Winklemans. Glenda's yells for help guided them to a pile of debris. It took several people to lift steel girders and free her.

"I felt bad for her. It was dark and pouring (rain)," White said.

They found the car, and Roy, about 50 yards away, and pulled him from the passenger side window.

After some time at the shelter, cold from the rain and hail, the couple were taken to the hospital in Junction City. Glenda, 48, was treated for a dislocated shoulder, punctured lung and two cracked ribs. She needed stitches to close a gash on her forehead. She also suffered complications from a heart condition.

Roy was stabilized and flown to the rehabilitation center in Wichita.

"I still can't believe this happened. It seems like a dream," Roy said.

A carpet installer, he is unsure when he will be able to return to work. Glenda will return Sept. 18 to her job at the Armour Eckrich meat plant in Junction City.

Leon returned home July 4. Before going to their house, he and Naomi toured the damage and saw his pickup, which was still in the middle school parking lot.

"I couldn't believe anybody lived through this," Leon said. "It was just mind-boggling, all the destruction."

Judging by what he saw, the leveled homes and all of Chapman's school buildings damaged or destroyed, Leon said it's a wonder there weren't more injuries and deaths.

The tornado claimed one life -- Crystal Bishop, 21, who was killed as she sought shelter with her family.

"Really, only a few of us got hurt. The rest are in good shape. They must've done something right," he said.

Leon returned to Wichita Aug. 6 for surgery to release fluid buildup on his brain.

On Tuesday, he was in Topeka to be fitted for a prosthetic arm. He'll have it in three weeks.

Just over 11 weeks since the storm, recovery is evident in the town, Leon said. Several homes have new roofs and others have been repaired.

While some families had to relocate when their homes were leveled, the school opened on time Aug. 18, with roughly the same enrollment as last year. Most subjects are taught in 24 modular classrooms and the Catholic Center at St. Michael's Church.

Family members handled the debris cleanup and fixed most of the seven broken windows at the Larouche house.

Leon's impression now is that everyone in Chapman has remained upbeat despite being faced with a long recovery.

"I have not met anybody drooping along or moping around," he said. "Everybody's attitude is good."

n Reporter Tim Unruh can be reached at 822-1419 or by e-mail at tunruh@salina.com.

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