TORNADO!

A few photos of the tornado destruction.

Several of my students lost their homes. The first three pictures are of one of them.

Parkersburg was the worst affected. The tornado was rated on the new scale as an EF3 which means winds of over 165 mph. Seven people lost their lives. Over 2oo homes were completely destroyed. Hundreds more significantly damaged. They say it is one of the worst tornados to hit Iowa. It made the Today show and was announced as a federal disaster area. The storm track was about 43 miles.

When I heard about the storm on Sunday afternoon, I was in Churdan spending time with friends. I called my friend Sherri to make sure she was okay. She is also a new teacher at Dunkerton. Her family is okay, and she said her home was spared by a block and a half. A teaching couple from Sentral, my fourth and sixth grade teacher, moved to Parkersburg after Fenton several years ago. Their home was destroyed. The high school is gone as well.

Parkersburg still has a curfew of 8:00 and all residents must be out of town each night. It will be a few more days before the power is on for the homes that are still intact. The national guard is expected to help with cleanup. It scares me to think what it must have been like to be there during the storm.

School in Dunkerton was cancelled for today. I called and put my name on a list to help volunteer. Parkersburg is such a mess that they are not yet to the point where they can accept large groups of volunteers. They have to sort through everything by hand in order to see what is salvageable.

There are videos and photos if you want to see more. KWWL.com has several news segments. The photos on here are from facebook groups.

Please keep the families in your thoughts and prayers. It will be a long cleanup and rebuilding process.