‘A second chance’: Man had close call riding out tornado beside shattered greenhouse
Licsandro Gamboa knew he had to take shelter.
He ran outside the Linwood greenhouse as a dangerous tornado approached Tuesday night, ripping through parts of eastern Kansas. He crouched next to a small, orange tractor and watched as the violent winds threw trucks across the parking lot, wreaking havoc on his place of work.
He kept his eyes open, watching it all. He thought to himself: “I need to see my son one more time.”
The tornado demolished the wholesale greenhouse, Free State Growers, which is still remembered by some as the Alex R. Masson greenhouse.
Community members who came to see the destruction Wednesday morning called it an essential part of this city of fewer than 400 people in Leavenworth County.
Gamboa’s co-workers gathered near the rubble. Some were in awe, others saddened. One hugged another with watery eyes.
While they don’t know exactly what comes next, those who work with Gamboa said it was a miracle he lived through the storm.
“Life can change in one second,” Gamboa said. He is religious, he added.
He looked up at the sky.
“I’m sure this is a second chance.”
Originally from Zacatecas, Mexico, Gamboa is a workaholic, coworkers said. He can often be found at the greenhouse, where he was the only one Tuesday night because the night watchman was on vacation, said John Duggan, the greenhouse’s operations manager.
Tuesday, after the tornado passed, Gamboa ran to a nearby gas station, where a man he knew drove him home. He saw his worried family, including his 17-year-old son, who recently graduated from De Soto High School.
“They said, ‘You alive?’” Gamboa, 41, recalled. “I said, ‘Yes.’”
When coworkers at first couldn’t find Gamboa, they were concerned. When Duggan saw Gamboa for the first time since the tornado, Gamboa repeatedly told him within minutes: “I’ve got a second chance, John. I’ve got a second chance.”
Mark Illausky, who bought the greenhouse nearly 10 years ago, said he drove to his business after 7 p.m. Tuesday. He had only seen tornadoes before on television. What he found at his greenhouse was “just devastating,” he said.
The greenhouse has been part of the community since the 1970s. Illausky, who plans to rebuild, said he has received an outpouring support from former employees. As of early Wednesday morning, he was waiting on an assessor to arrive.
Illausky rode a bicycle around the parking lot between talking to his staff and doing numerous interviews with reporters. One from the Weather Channel thanked him as they drove away.
“We’re thinking about you, man,” he said.
“Thank you,” Illausky responded.
Like others who visited, Betty Hendrickson and Bruce Place took photographs of the area, where plastic planting pots were scattered across parts of the pavement. The two had bought flowers from the greenhouse a number of times and had friends who worked there.
Hendrickson called it the “hotspot” of Linwood, the thing people knew about the town.
But when they pulled in, passing downed trees and powerlines, the two didn’t think they were in the right place. It almost made Hendrickson delirious, she said.
“Wow, that’s a door,” Place said, pointing to a metal object on the pavement.
Remembering the building once lined with greenery, Place described what he saw as “total devastation.” He walked near trees littered with debris in branches.
“They ain’t got a leaf on them,” he said.
The sentiment among employees Wednesday was they were “unlucky, but lucky.” The damage was a “sock in the gut,” Duggan said, and left others saying they can’t take anything for granted. But Gamboa lived, and no one else was injured.
Before the tornado hit, greenhouse employees had planned on holding a luncheon Thursday.
They might just still do that.
This story was originally published May 29, 2019 at 2:13 PM.
