A service member is spending Memorial Day cleaning up after a powerful tornado destroyed his home the week before.
An EF4 tornado tore through Chapman, Kansas, last week. Trees have been stripped of their bark, a home is barely left standing and the belongings that were inside flew for miles.
Jeffrey Casto is searching it for anything he can save.
"There’s no checklist for how to deal with this situation, we're just doing the best we can,” he said.
The Fort Riley-based soldier and his family lost just about everything last Wednesday night when the tornado cut a 26-mile path through Dickinson County.
"We saw it we got in the car and left. Just went straight south,” he said.
There were a few hopeful moments. His wife found her wedding ring, and a family heirloom was left untouched.
"I had a coin collection up on top of the gun cabinet and none of that stuff had even moved,” Castro said.
They also found their cat, Snap, on Monday.
Casto is staying positive because he still has what matters most.
"It’s just stuff. We all made it out and our stuff was destroyed, and we're inconvenienced, but that’s OK, we’ll make it through it,” he said.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help out Castro's family.
More than 25 homes got hit by the tornado, with eight of them being total losses, and dozens of families have been displaced. GoFundMe pages have also been set up for them.
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Lexi Sutter can be reached at lexi.sutter@kshb.com.
