Heavy rain, snow, flooding, and tornadoes have damaged or destroyed towns and cities across the United States this year. But how can communities devastated by severe weather turn tragedy into an opportunity to sustainably rebuild? 

When that town is Greensburg, Kansas, it returns to its pioneer roots and creates a self-sufficent community. In "Starting from Scratch," energyNOW! correspondent Lee Patrick Sullivan looks at how Greensburg residents used the destruction of their city as an opportunity to literally live up to the town's name.

From a solar and wind-powered arts center -- the first LEED Platinum building in the state - to the wind farm that supplies all of the town's residential electricity, Greensburg became a model of green living and architecture that will keep the town sustainable for generations to come.

Lee Patrick talks to the arts center's manager Stacy Barnes, who explains how that one building inspired the town to require all its large, public buildings to be built to LEED Platinum standards. Mayor Bob Dixson describes how the new city hall incorporated wood and coal ash from the power plant destroyed in the storm. Lee Patrick and School Superintendent Darin Headrick also tour the new school building, which includes a football field made from recycled tires, a naturally lit gymnasium and lockers built using recycled milk jugs and soda bottles.

Sustainable building experts and town officials say Greensburg can be a model for communities that want to rebuild themselves after this year's devastating storms.