Thursday June 26th

Thursday night we went to Parkersburg, Iowa to see the destruction of the tornado that swept through a few weeks ago. It was a very organized "mess". There were piles here and there of debris, very orderly. We even saw a few new houses with their framing up.





The telephone lines are brand new








Tornadoes are selective in the wreckage they render. We saw a good chunk of Pakersburg that wasn't touched by the tornado. One lady went inside while the big storm went through. She then hopped in her car to go to the grocery store. She was in for a shock. It wasn't there.

We then drove to the Godfreys--they were in Deb and Matt's ward. They moved right after the tornado because their house was flattened. The dad was filming the storm that he saw by his neighbors. He then realized it was a tornado. He ran into his house, grabbed his family and they went to their tornado shelter underneath their front steps. They kneeled down, said a prayer and as soon as they were done, their ears popped. When they came out of their shelter their house was flattened. Their vehicles were still there, but were wrecked internally. One of the dad's guitars was underneath one of the wheels--so the vehicles were airborne. I should have taken a picture of where the house used to stand. There was a grassy lawn with a flattened area of dirt in the middle.This family was planing on moving in a few weeks, but since their house was totalled they moved right away after the tornado struck.

On the way back to the Bunkers, Matt drove through part of Cedar Falls that had been flooded. These people have been through a lot lately!