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30 Years ago today

Shovelbuck

Shovelbuck

Active Member
It was a night that seems like yesterday and one I hope I never have to go through again.
I was at a friends house working on a drag car and my wife was working overtime. The weather was looking pretty bad so I headed home. It wasn't long after that my wife made it home. Her sister and her husband showed up a few minutes later as they lived in trailer park with no shelter.
We were all standing outside when we spotted a tornado about half a mile north of us. It was at that time we went to the basement. We spent the next few hours there wondering what all had happened since weather reports and news was sketchy at best.
I was lucky, all we had for damage was a couple broken windows.
There's a ton of stories I could tell you about that night and following summer but I'm too slow of a typer.
A couple things stick out though. My wife's work place was leveled just minutes after she left. Her time card and the companies paper work was found in Iowa. It was one of the few places never rebuilt.
There were large cannon ball type holes in a meat packing plants concrete walls. They were caused by bowling balls from the destroyed bowling alley about half a mile away.
My sister in law and her husbands trailer house was never found. What few things we found of theirs was a block away. Including his blazer which was found on it's wheels but it didn't get there that way.
One other thing........I wish I had a dollar for every flat tire I had that entire summer.;)
Here's a link to a bit of info..............
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_Grand_Island_tornado_outbreak

 
Wow, that's horrible, what a horrible thing for those 5 folk's families that got killed. Thankfully your family made it out with their lives. Amazing.

*I love the "I SUPPORT ARIZONA" tag!!!
 
Jay:

Sounds like a devastating night for Grand Island. I think I remember some of the news accounts from that storm. Below is a brief description and image of the only tornado I have ever witnessed as found on Wikapedia. I watched this one coming to my hometown for almost 20 minutes. I remember telling folks it was coming as I rode home on my bike from the ball diamond that night after the sirens first blew. Most folks just thought I was a "smart-ass" kid until it finally got close enough for them to see. The sun was indeed shining during most of the twenty minutes before impact.

Our home, located on the NW portion of Manson, was standing but sustained significant damage. The storm had not yet picked up alot of debris when it passed our home within about 100 yards. If we would have been located in the middle or SE portion of town I am sure our home would have been flattened by the debris. Everything north of us for about 2 blocks was flattened. When I first exited the basement and walked north of our home the tornado was exiting the SE corner of town (about 1-1/4 miles away) and I was amazed that I could see clear across town. Certain memories from that night will never be forgotten !!

Tornado of June 28, 1979
A destructive F4 tornado killed three people and destroyed a large part of Manson on June 28, 1979 at about 7:45 PM. The tornado slowly chewed its way from northwest to southeast through Manson. The tornado was on the southwest side of a large southeast-moving thunderstorm complex, thus it was surrounded on three sides by clear skies (in fact, the sun was shining) and was highly visible. Severe damage was done to the central business district with 25 of the 35 business either destroyed or severely damaged. The middle school was also destroyed as were about 110 homes. Another 139 homes were damaged. The General Telephone Company exchange building for Manson was completely destroyed - the first time this had ever happened in Iowa. It was reported that the storm was like a lawn mower going through the city, and afterwards one could see from one end of the city to the other when looking up the damage track.[3]
There was about 30 minutes warning and the tornado sirens were sounded well before the arrival of the tornado. The fact that it was still daylight also contributed to the relatively low death count from this destructive storm.

tornado.jpg
 
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I was just talking with my neighbor Joe, he lived next to me back then also. I was reminded of a story.....................
After the carnage was over, the city was without power and officials were telling us not to use the toilets. The water treatment plant had been damaged plus a lot of the lift stations weren't working. After a day of four of us using a 5 gallon bucket in the garage, I was talking with Joe about it. He was in charge of the water dept. maintenance and told us that the lift station that handled our sewer was working and that we could use our toilets.:way: It may not sound like much now, but I remember what a relief that was.

 
Thankfully, I've never experienced a tornado.

Your post did remind me of a can opener. What??????


Last year, Bonker and I helped clear out my Grandma's apartment in Waterloo as she had moved to a nursing home. My Aunt and Uncle had come in from Denver to help and we just did a drawer dump into boxes, loaded the UHaul van I had rented and I moved all her stuff to our farm house.



A couple of month's later, when I started going through boxes, I found a can opener that was labeled "In appreciation for tornado clean up efforts" listed the date and Maynard, IA. Being curious, the next time I visited Grandma I asked where she had gotten the opener. Come to find out that my Great Aunt and Uncle (Grandpa's brother) owned and operated a gas station in Maynard and they lost both the business and their house to the tornado.

Maynard 1968 tornado
Iowa Tornadoes of May 15, 1968

During the late afternoon and early evening of May 15, 1968, five tornadoes (two F1s, one F2, and two F5s) occurred in Iowa. These tornadoes were part of the May 15-16, 1968 outbreak (39 tornadoes) which affected ten states (Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, and Tennessee). The tornadoes in Iowa caused 18 fatalities (13 in Charles City, 2 in Oelwein, and 2 in Maynard) and 619 injuries (450 in Charles City, 156 in Oelwein & Maynard, 12 in Elma, and 1 in Audubon).


At 4:57 PM CDT, another F5 tornado touched down one mile southwest of Oelwein. The warning sirens sounded for only 15 seconds before power failed. The tornado moved in a northward direction up Oelwein's main business street (North and South Frederick) and a parallel street a block east (First Avenue Southeast). It destroyed 68 homes. Another 132 homes sustained major damage and 600 sustained less damage. Every business in the district suffered damage including 51 that were destroyed. Two churches, an elementary school, and the middle school were destroyed. Some persons said that they saw more than one tornado.

This tornado moved north through the western part of Maynard. About five square blocks were virtually leveled. More than 25 houses and the new $120,000 Lutheran church were destroyed. Farms in an area a mile wide and extending from Oelwein to Twin Bridges State Park north of Maynard were heavily damaged by the tornado. Damage ranged from total destruction to minor. The path of the tornado was easy to follow after it left Oelwein and traveled northeast until it hit Maynard and then turned almost straight north, traveled about five miles before lifting, near the park.

The farm homes of Raymond Lundry and Peter Greco, which are less than a quarter of a mile apart, were among the worst hit. The two farms, lay about a mile south of Maynard, and were a complete loss. Lundry lost 76 pigs, six head of cattle were killed and another six were injured. Greco lost seven heads of liveslock plus rabbits and chickens.

Other farms wiped out by the tornado included Herbert Malven and Art Andrew. In both cases, the house was the only building left standing. Farms receiving severe damage included Kenny Bancke, Louis Gosse, Alvin Teague, Harold Teague, W. L. Halstead, Lester Warnke, G. L. Hanson, Herman Peterman and Don Wilharm. Among those less severly damaged were the farms of Ruben Blake, George Winkler, John Stolka, Harold Ehlers, Howard Gushing, Ervin Saddler, Donald Buxton, Deiter Erdelt, Lester Warnke, and Larry Lundry. These losses ranged from one to seven buildings destroyed and included cattle which were injured or killed. The farms of Ralph Gilmer, Bob Henniges, Harry Reay, Louis Burk and Delmer Sorgc also received heavy damage. Only one person (Mrs. Lucille Taylor) on the farms had injuries serious enough to require hospitalization.

This tornado affected 965 families. Of the 156 injuries, 34 were hospitalized. Loss estimates ranged upward to 21 million dollars. Most of which occurred in Oelwein. the following four people were killed by this tornado:
Oelwein Fatality:

  1. Grace Damon - She had went to a shelter and then realized that she had forgotten her purse. She went up to retrieve it. She was unable to get back to shelter before the tornado had hit her apartment building. A chimney fell on her. She called for help and she was rescued, but she died shortly later from internal bleeding and injuries. She was 55 years old.
  2. Albert E. Heaton - He was 89 years old and died of a heart attack.
Maynard Fatalities:

  1. Galena Kelly - She was 3 years old and the daughter of Borden and Geraldine Kelly
  2. Mrs. Louis Ponsor - She was 77 years old and died in a trailer.
 
I vividly remember driving along Highway 14 south of Newton one afternoon during a storm and looking up to see the funnel clouds forming the early stages of a tornado. I decided to floor it in my old Ford and try to outrun what I knew was about to happen rather than pull over and jump under the Skunk River bridge. I also remember finding the sticks and straw stuck into trees and utility poles after tornados, but I've never (thankfully) had to witness that much devestation up close. Surviving a house fire when I was 5 years old has been more than enough for me (whole family made it out, btw). My hats off to you, Jay and I'm glad you and your entire family came out alive and well!
 
Ironic, as I sit here watching weather radar, there was a tornado warning for Dannebrog Ne. which is where I hunt about 17 miles north west of here. And the radar shows a severe thunderstorm headed right for Grand Island that will arrive in about 90 minutes or so.
 
Uploaded a photo of the can opener. Wonder if it would have any value on EBay?

Not trying to hijack your thread, Jay.

DSCN0293.jpg
 
It's that time of year for storms. We are under a Tstorm watch with chance of hail.

Last night I just had to pull over a couple of times to take some pics. Camera didn't do too bad of a job.
DSCN0726.jpg

DSCN0727.jpg
 
Lost a few trees and my camper, found a chunk of roof in my front yard with purple shingles. I remember those wonderful Red Cross sandwiches and jokers selling bottled water out of the back of trucks for $5.00 a gallon and people glad to get it.
We were one of the lucky ones with only our feathers ruffled. Also a neighbor had a well for his yard and we were lucky enough to run temporary power to it from the alley.
People came from blocks around with jugs to get water.
Actually the movie "Night of the twisters" was written about the GI tornadoes. The kid in the story was a friend of my daughters.
Aww such fine memories
 
Got me thinking too Jay, cool post, not cool experiences....

For some reason weather fascinates me, and big summer storms are very dangerous, but fine examples of the power of Mother Nature.

When I was 3 years old I can remember spending the afternoon and evening in the basement of our house in Southern Wisconsin. I remember listening to the radio as a monster storm eclipsed the area. We escaped any damage, but a small town just 5 minutes away was not so lucky. Barneveld, Wisconsin was just leveled by a F5 twister, at the time it was one of the largest tornadoes on record.... top 10 or something like that... not sure....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barneveld,_Wisconsin_tornado_outbreak

Here is a link for some more information.

Also, on a side note, I was fishing with Jonny in MN when the Parkersburg tornado hit and I was looking through some photos from our trip and I stumbled across several we took that day of some large clouds to the south.... after further investigation we found out they were from that day the tornado hit.... I have another buddy who took photos of the sky the same day from a different location as welll.... I'll have to get those photos posted sometime... kinda eery
 
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