The Manhattan Mercury from Manhattan, Kansas • 1

HEM A tl II A A 50 cents 22 pages 3 sections MANHATTAN, KANSAS June 13-14, 2008 Storm was an EF4 when it struck; now the focus turns to a community-wide assistance effort Recovery President Bush meets with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican. PagcA5 A fast rundown of the topiu of Briefing interest today 'Iraq i vssu. Our last report U.S. soldiers under heavy fire during a raid in northwestern Iraq called in airstrikes and killed five suspected al-Qaida in Iraq militants. Today's news: Iraq's prime minister said Friday that talks with the U.S.

on proposals for a long-term security pact have reached an impasse over objections that Iraq's sovereignty is at stake, but held out hope that negotiators could still reach a compromise plan. In his strongest comments yet on the debate. Noun al-Mal'h ki echoed concern by Iraqi lawmakers that the U.S. proposals would give Washington too much political and military leverage on Iraqi affairs. A8 Next The security agreement would provide a legal basis for the presence of U.S.

forces in Iraq after the U.N. mandate expires at the end of this year. Failure to strike a deal would leave the future of the American military presence here to the next Bill Felber bfelberthemercury.com The tornado that struck Man hattan Wednesday night, causing millions of dollars in damage, peaked at an EF4 classification, authorities have determined. Fat Collins, the county's emergency services director, said National Weather Service representatives made that determination based on an assessment of the damage pat tern and scope. An EF4 is the second strongest classification of tornado, indicating a storm with wind speeds in excess of 150 but-less than 200 Collins said the storm was an EF4 when it ripped through the Miller Ranch and Amherst areas, the scenes of the worst damage.

It had weakened to an EF1 by the time it hit the Kansas State University campus, he said. Authorities said Thursday that 45 single-family residences were destroyed in the storm, as were two mobile homes and three businesses. An additional 67 residences, three multi-family homes, one mobile home and 10 businesses sustained major damage. Beyond that, 75 single-family residences, three multi-family structures and 20 businesses took minor damage, and 637 residences, 93 multi-family structures, 20 mobile homes and 10 businesses were affected to a lesserdegree. Those totals do not include Lee School, which also sustained significant damage.

Nor do they consider structures at Kansas State University, which reported an estimated $20 million in damage. About 75 volunteers reported SEE NO. 4, BACK PAGE 1 V- t- vs.s: Coming Sunday A soorvto-be-released book looks at Manhattan's black history. i r.v Staff photo by Rod Mikinski John Kobiskie of 3800 Bradford heads downstairs through whath was once his family's house. The residence was totally blown apart For news on how a neighborhood and community comes together, seed today and continuing coverage.

CJiapman took an even more extensive liit Megan Moser Contributing writer CHAPMAN When Myanmar cyclone QurlastiBpQft One month after a cyclone left more than 1 30,000 people dead or missing, Myanmar's military government reopened many of the country's schools. Today's news: As individuals and aid agencies around the world dig into their pockets for funds to help Myanmar's cyclone victims, the country's ruling junta said Friday that such assistance from the United States could not be trusted. rA5 Next Myanmar said it fears Washington is using the cover of humanitarian aid to invade the country and steal its oil reserves. gone." Arensman and the other people at the middle school went to a nursing home for a few hours before they were taken to the American Red Cross emergency shelter at Sterl Hall in Abilene. They hadn't been back to see whether their house was still standing.

"I won't live in another trailer," Arensman said with a small laugh, and pointed at her husband. "I was telling him, 'The next place has got to have a the tornado hit the middle school, it sounded like the freight train that passed by Katrina Arensman's home every day, speeding by on its track with no intention and no means of stopping. In fact, Arensman said, she thought it was the train until her ears started popping and someone told her that what she heard was a tornado, categorized as F-3 or greater, destroying the school around A tornado-damaged house in Chapman. 'Economy Our last report Retail sales jumped by the largest amount in six months in May as 57 million economic stimulus payments helped offset the headwinds buffeting consumers. Today's news: Inflation shot up in May at the fastest pace in six months, pushed higher by soaring costs for gasoline and other types of energy.

The Labor Department reported Friday that consumer prices rose by 0.6 percent last month, the biggest one-month increase since last November, as gasoline costs surged by S.7 percent Food prices, which have also been rising sharply, were up 0.3 percent as the cost of beef and bakery products showed big gains. Next Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, said a moderate gain in core prices, which exclude energy and food, showed price pressures are remaining contained despite fears at the Federal Reserve. them. Arensman and her husband, Zac were in their mobile home with two of their four kids, celebrating their first anniversary, when they learned that the tornado was coming at 10:15 p.m.

Quickly, they drove to the nearby middle school and took shelter in the locker room showers, minutes before the storm hit at 10:21 p.m. They left to find that the locker Volunteers at the shelter in Abilene were prepared for as many as 200 people, with cots, food and hot showers next door at the National Guard Armory. Only about 20 stayed Wednesday night, but more people were planning to stay Thursday night as people saw the extent of the damage to their homes. SEE NO. 1, BACK PAGE rooms and the gym between them were the only parts of the school that had survived.

"When it was over, the room was filled with dust," said Arensman, who is five months pregnant. "We walked out into the gym and it was raining in the gym. All the lights were down on the floor. There was standing water on the floor. Everything else was 2nd run of Thursday paper out tonight State, federal officials take a look at damage Reuniting victims with stuff WillKlusener wklusenerthemercury com The tornado that ripped through Manhattan scattered personal belongings across town and beyond, perhaps never to be seen by their owners again.

But hile some Manhattanites lost nearly everything, many of those belongings are finding their way to other yards, bushes and driveways, and people are turning those items in at local collection points. City officials said so far there are two known collection points: the University For Man, at 1221 Thurston, and Bear Computer Systems, at 2311 Tuttle Creek Blvd. Roger Wroblewski, a telecommunications worker at Kansas State University, was dropping off a handful of photographs at the UFM collection point Friday morning. He said he was cleaning up the playing field at East Stadium and found the photos lying everywhere. "They said the tornado picked up several cars, so you know these traveled a long ways," Wroblewski said.

"I just hope this stuff gets returned to the right people." The BCS and UFM collection points both were started Thursday. Linda Teener, executive director of UFM, said she was helping her neighbors clean up debris in theiryard when'lots of pictures and small articles" started turning up. She said thought UFM would be a good dropoff spot because of its central location. Teener said so far UFM has collected hundreds of photographs, as well as baseball cards, part of a Colby High School yearbook and other documents. She said she hopes they will all get home safely.

"If you've lost everything," SEE NO. 2, BACK PAGE Staff reports Sarah Nightingale Staff Writer Twister Our last report A fierce tornado left a path of destruction through much of the town of Chapman and parts of Manhattan. Today's news: Officials estimated the damage in Chapman at more than $20 million and said the tornado destroyed or heavily damaged 65 buildings, including homes. The storm also caused extensive damage at Kansas State University in Manhattan and killed one person in the tiny town of Soldier. Eastern Kansas endured another round of spring storms Thursday night.

The National Weather Service said several tornados were spotted in Chase County, but it had no reports of damage or injuries' AS, Al, CI Next Officials said about 70 percent of the economic damage caused by the storm in Chapman was suffered by the school system. Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who toured the area Thursday, said students would begin classes in temporary buildings in the fall. 1 An unusual second run of The Mercury's Thursday paper, with coverage of the Wednesday tornado, will be available at many distribution points this evening. Despite an already-increased press run Thursday, many of the stores that normally carry The Mercury reported being sold out of the edition Thursday.

A few copies remained available at The Mercury office late this morning. Based on inquiries from the public, Edward Seaton, editor-in-chief and publisher of The Mercury, authorized the printing of another 2,000 copies, which were expected to be delivered to store outlets late this afternoon or this evening. Seaton said it was the first time in his tenure at the newspaper, which dates to 1969, that a second printing had been undertaken. The Thursday papers will only be available in stores, and not in newspaper racks, which will contain the Friday edition. Friday's paper will also be available in stores as usual.

There was so much interest in the storm Thursday that those in charge of the Mercury's Web site, www.themercury.com, had to divert storm-related traffic to another site Thursday evening because of the heavy use. That site may be accessed through the Mercury's Web site. Gov. Kathleen Sebelius took an aerial tour of the tornado-stricken Miller Ranch area Thursday, then described it as looking like a "bomb had dropped She called it a "miracle" that no deaths occurred in the county. "When a storm hit Kansas University two years ago we put together federal, state, and local funds quickly," she said.

"Unfortunately we havea lot of practice in knowing how to respond to this in Kansas," she added. According to Sebelius, there is money in the budget for rebuilding the affected areas. There is $10 million available to be spent when the legislature is not in session," she said. "I talked to director David Paulson (of the Federal Emergency Management Agency) and he told me to let us know what we need," she added. Sebelius said the next step in the process was to make a full On the radar Topics of current interest without major new developments as of press time.

North Korea, NBAF If '1 '1 If Staff photo by Luke Townsend Gov. Kathleen Sebelius with KSU President Jon Wef aid following aerial tour of the area Thursday. assessment of the damage. Joining Sebelius were K-State president Jon Wefald.Represen-tative Sydney Carlin, Senator Roger Reitz, and Maj. Gen.

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