Tornado-damaged Brookings Elementary School reborn as 42 units of affordable housing
The first time Terry Powe, principal of the Elias Brookings Elementary School, saw what was left of her school after the tornado got through with it, she began to cry.“I saw the glass and walls that were shattered. I was moved to tears.” Eleven years to the date of the tornado that tore through Springfield, Powe said that being in her former school building, now fully restored and converted into affordable housing, she wanted to cry all over again.