Two Years Ago Today

Two years ago today we were under risk for severe weather with a 30% chance for damaging winds and a 10% risk for tornadoes. At noon the first tornado watch was issued for southern Iowa, northern Missouri, although a major tornado outbreak was not expected. As the afternoon progressed, multiple supercell thunderstorms developed with one in southwest Iowa becoming dominant. It passed north and west of us, but we had the t.v. on for alerts.

A little after 4p.m. a t.v. reporter/storm follower on the southwest side of Winterset posted this live shot of a huge tornado heading toward the town. My son and daughter-in-law lived on that side of Winterset. My first thought was to call and make sure they were going to the basement. Then I realized, knowing my son, he was standing in their yard watching it. (He was.)

Strangely enough, I wasn't too concerned about them. I knew that they knew enough to take cover in time. The EF4 tornado struck around 4:26 p.m. about a mile south of their home. There were multiple deaths and injuries along with major damage. 

One of the reasons I wasn't worried was because Preston was a seasoned storm watcher. When we lived near Grimes, we all watched a tornado pass north of us on the way toward Johnston.

The year before this photo of a nine-year-old Preston was taken, when we lived on Tuck Corner, we watched a tornado south of us moving east after touching down in Gravity and before destroying almost everything except the house on the farm of one of my cousin's west of Lenox. Fortunately, they were not hurt.

But I do remember Preston being upset because after watching the tornado from our yard, I sent him and his sister to the basement as I continued watching. "Why do we have to go to the basement?" was his complaint which had merit since any danger to us was already past.

He got his chance to be the storm spotter in 1984 when we were all at my mother's house. We were inside fixing supper and he was out in the front yard watching the weather. He came tearing into the house shouting that a tornado was coming! "Yeah, sure", I said. About then the wind came up, the trees began thrashing around and we all looked out to watch a funnel cloud a mile west, moving northeast. Later we would learn it had destroyed a home one and a half miles west of Mom's, leaving nothing but the basement where a mother and her two children had fortunately sheltered and survived with minor injuries, before moving along to the south side of Corning and causing some damage.

In one of those "it's a small world coincidences, we learned that Preston's future father-in-law was part of the crew sent to repair the large transmission lines west of mom's that the tornado took down that day.

Spring tornadoes are not uncommon. March 22, 2011, I stood on our deck and watched and photographed this tornado west of our current home in Creston.

A year later, April 14, 2012, a tornado struck the northwest corner of Creston, causing major damage to the hospital and destroying the AEA building. 

Severe weather awareness week is not far off - March 25-29. Once again we will be reminded what else spring can bring besides tulips, daffodils and violets. Hopefully, there will be no major tornado outbreaks.