Tornado Kansas City's 'Green Steel' Twister Transforms Suburb Into Self-Powering Carbon Sink
In the aftermath of a historic tornado that ravaged Kansas City’s southern suburbs last week, engineers are calling the debris field 'a miracle of accidental architecture.' The EF-5 vortex sucked up 40,000 tons of industrial scrap from a defunct steel mill, depositing it in a swirling, molten lattice across a 2-mile stretch of Overland Park. When the tornado vanished, it left behind a bizarre skyscraper of welded metal that scientists claim can convert CO2 into oxygen and generate 200 megawatts of clean energy. “We call it the ‘Carbon Tornado Kansas City,’” says Dr. Lena Hart of the National Renewable Energy Lab. “It’s as if the storm designed a self-repairing air filter. The structure is absorbing smog at a rate that could eliminate the city’s carbon footprint by 2028.” City planners are now debating whether to tear it down or turn it into a national park.