Cleanup begins after Memorial Day tornado rips through area

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

And then it’s cleanup time.

Area residents and others affected by the Memorial Day tornado strike continued with picking up the pieces and assessing the damages Tuesday.

In addition to several buildings being destroyed and others damaged at the Floyd County Fairgrounds, several homes in the area were damaged to the point where they will need to be demolished, and many other people coped with less severe damage, especially to scores of trees.

The Floyd County Emergency Management Agency put out a call for cleanup help Tuesday afternoon.

“We are in need of people to help clear trees,” the agency announced on its Facebook page. “Please come to the Floyd Fire Department and bring trailers, chainsaws, equipment and people-power. If you have backhoes or heavy machinery we can use this too.”

The Floyd County Sheriff’s Office continued its admonition for people who weren’t connected to cleanup efforts to stay out of the way.

Doug and Lorraine Hoeft own one of the homes that was destroyed by the tornado.

Several of their neighbors along 195th Street and Wandering Acres Drive northwest of Charles City were also affected.

The Hoefts were in Charles City Monday early afternoon when the tornado hit.

“We weren’t even home,” Doug Hoeft said. “We were in town. A neighbor called, Veronica Litterer, she called and said ‘half your house is gone.’”

He said as they first drove toward their home it didn’t look too bad, but as they got nearer they saw the extend of the damage.

Hoeft said the house is a complete loss. Most of the roof was ripped off and an entire wall of the kitchen and all of the garage were knocked down.

“The only place you can’t see daylight is one little bedroom up there,” he said, motioning to the upper floor of the split level home. “We put a little bit of stuff in there. When it gets raining real hard that’s going to get wet, too, so we just rented a storage unit to start storing some stuff.

Hoeft said they have lived in the home since 1976.

“We had it roughed in, and then we did the insides ourselves through the winter,” he said.

Hoeft said they will definitely rebuild on the lot — “as soon as we get something figured out.”

He said they stayed with relatives Monday night, but now their insurance company is paying for them to stay in a motel while they look for something to rent while their home is being rebuilt.

The neighbor who called them, Litterer, is a real estate agent and is looking for a house for them to rent, he said.

He said they have had a large outpouring of help from friends, neighbors and even strangers.

One group of people offering help to the Hoefts and others in the area affected by storm damage was a crew from Christian Disaster Relief, a Mennonite organization dedicated to helping wherever it can when disaster strikes.

One of those helping out was Mark Esau of Riceville.

“Every time there’s tornados or floods we see who we can get loose to go and help,” Esau said.

A group of more than a dozen from the organization were working in the neighborhood Tuesday, and they brought plenty of equipment, including chainsaws and endloaders.

A huge pile of splintered trees, broken branches and wooden parts of structures was blazing by Tuesday afternoon, and the group kept adding on to the fire as they collected more and more of the twister’s aftermath.

Esau said this particular neighborhood cleanup job would probably be completed by the end of the day Tuesday.

Tony May, another member of the relief group, said, “It’s the least we can do for people.”

He said Christian Disaster Relief has been around for about 50 years, and he has been involved for decades.

May said his first experience was when he was 18, helping out with a California earthquake cleanup.

“That’s 40 years ago,” he said.

Scott Dight, who lives in the neighborhood but had mostly damage to trees, said the group just showed up and offered to help.

Dight had just ordered a large number of pizzas from Pizza Ranch to feed the CDR crew and others who were helping out, when he talked to the Press.

Floyd County officials reported Monday that 11 properties including the fairgrounds had suffered structural damage; there were three homes, including the Hoefts’ that were not habitable; and dozens of trees had been uprooted.

The National Weather Service confirmed that an EF-1 rated tornado with 110 mph peak winds had blown through the area beginning at 12:22 p.m. Monday, traveling a path about 9 miles long and 60 yards wide, beginning west-southwest of the Floyd County Fairgrounds and ending north of Charles City.

Authorities said the Charles City tornado was one of several reported in the northeast Iowa area Monday.

In addition to the Charles City tornado, the National Weather Service confirmed a tornado near Elma and another near Lime Springs, both occurring early Monday afternoon. Local officials said the Lime Springs twister caused home and tree damage.

In southeast Iowa, an emergency manager in Houghton reported a tornado destroyed two barns. In Cantril, a trained spotter said a tornado damaged two houses. Another trained spotter reported a tornado in eastern Des Moines County.