A few days ago, we got a little bit of a storm through our way. Nothing major, just a rather heavy rain and a bit of a strong breeze. I'm not positive, but I think an old tree might have tipped over on Thursday. We were at work the whole time and were not informed of any severe weather, so we simply enjoyed watching the rain and feeling the cool breeze.
But other places in Iowa were not so lucky!
I was not even aware of anything until my brother informed me. Seems Tennessee is more informed that we are of events.... Anyway...Then Cheryl gets a bunch of Text messages... "Happy Anniversary! Is Grandpa's House still there?" What an odd thing to ask about.
Then we discover it. Marshalltown Iowa was hit with some rather unpleasant weather. A couple of tornadoes, I guess. How bad can it be?
Well today, we found out!
First the good news... Grandpa's house was still standing and appeared to be the cute house of Cheryl's memories. How bad could the rest of the town be?
Pretty bad! I will spare the lengthy description and allow the pictures to do the talking. "Enjoy!"
Chunk of house missing!
Bad place to park your car.
Wonder how he will get it out from under that metal beam.
Downtown a direct hit!
Clean up blocked the road.
Don't think these guys will be working inside today.
Sad looking trees.
Casey's open for business! Talk about Pro's!
Missing roof
Are RV's supposed to look like that?
Missing Chimney.
Many roads were only clear enough for one vehicle.
Missing roof on the Sports Grill.
So bad was the devastation, that I actually got nauseated from it! I have never experienced such a physical ailment simply from something I was seeing. It was possibly from a combination of lack of food and the constant adjustment in eye focus as we drove through the area. There was not a single tree unaffected. The Stop signs were all literally bend down to the ground! Missing roofs, broken windows, and fallen trees everywhere. The hospital was directly hit, but we could not get close enough to take any pictures. We could see it was a mess, though.
All the Stop signs were down to the ground!
Trampolines and RV trailers were scattered and displayed in places they logically should never be!(Like on the roof of a house!)
Lots of Helpers!
The good news is that there appear to be making a serious dent in the damage. A small army of people were out with chainsaws and dumpsters. On the way out of town, we saw a mountain of lumber at a near by lumber yard. It appeared they were stocking up for the reconstruction.
The good news was that Grandpa Miner's house was still intact. He passed on back in 2000, but the house remains in the memories of the Miner family. The entire neighborhood was picturesque! You would have never known that just a few blocks away, all that destruction had happened. Tornadoes are certainly a strange weather event.
Even the Churches were not spared!
With a little luck and lots of insurance money, Marshalltown should be back on its feet in no time. It appeared that people were chipping in and we even saw the Red Cross van handing out hot chocolate and blankets. Judging from the damage, the locals will appreciate the effort.
I'm feeling better now. All that negative Chi I guess. But the sun is shining here and Cheryl noted that: just before we moved from Michigan, a serious wind blew through Spring Lake. Nothing as bad as what we saw here, but I did have to fire up the chainsaw and help Neighbors clear the roads. It was actually kinda fun....and I got several large logs for carving. But we did not have to sleep out under the open sky those nights. Maybe the universe is telling us something.... Thanks for stopping in. Oh! And say a little prayer for the Marshalltown folks. Even the churches were not spared!
You did a great job covering the storm damage there. We had friends that live there but they too had very little damage. When we lived in Woodward 11 years ago the tornado dropped garage trusses into our yard as well as hung one truss up in the sycamore tree across the street. The freight train sound is real and we missed having damage by one house. That feeling of abnormal really does overwhelm you when you see so much damage. I am glad Grandpa’s house was good. We too really didn’t know much about what was happening but this sirens were going off in Ankeny. The north end of town was the starting place for all those storms as funnels were seen up there. We live in the farthest southwest. They, the fronts , just scattered into different directions. We always have rain and hell with tornadoes but most of these were dry ones. Again, I appreciate seeing your photos.
First the good news... Grandpa's house was still standing and appeared to be the cute house of Cheryl's memories. How bad could the rest of the town be?
1 comment:
You did a great job covering the storm damage there. We had friends that live there but they too had very little damage. When we lived in Woodward 11 years ago the tornado dropped garage trusses into our yard as well as hung one truss up in the sycamore tree across the street. The freight train sound is real and we missed having damage by one house. That feeling of abnormal really does overwhelm you when you see so much damage. I am glad Grandpa’s house was good. We too really didn’t know much about what was happening but this sirens were going off in Ankeny. The north end of town was the starting place for all those storms as funnels were seen up there. We live in the farthest southwest. They, the fronts , just scattered into different directions. We always have rain and hell with tornadoes but most of these were dry ones. Again, I appreciate seeing your photos.
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