Forty-Four Years Ago Today

Belmond, Iowa, where I grew up, was walloped by an unusual, strong autumn tornado on Oct. 14, 1966. The twister hit a little less than 30 minutes after the town's homecoming parade ended and killed six people. Above is a video I found on YouTube of some 8mm footage of the damage.

I was born in 1970, and my family didn't move there until 1973. But growing up, the tornado experience was, not surprisingly, a big part of the town's identity. Belmond had lot more smallish trees and many fewer old buildings on Main Street than most Iowa burgs. Nearly everybody who was around then had a compelling story from that fateful day.

I blogged on one of those stories back in May 2008 after the Parkersburg tornado:

By the time the 30th anniversary rolled around in 1996, I was a reporter in Fort Dodge and went back home to do interviews for a story looking back. I'll always remember talking with Maynard Holmgaard, a postal carrier caught by the tornado while he walked his afternoon mail route.He told me the last thing he remembers that day was delivering mail to a house as rain started falling on an unusually muggy fall afternoon. Turns out the force of the twister's winds blew him up against a pole that was then wrapped with tin sheeting from a shredded grain bin. Searchers found him only because his feet were sticking out. His face was so caked in dirt that his own family barely recognized him.But he was fortunate to be held upright, because that reduced bleeding from a serious head wound he suffered. He was unconscious for weeks. Like the town, he survived and lived and healed. But as I found out when he grabbed my hand and guided it along a dip in the top of his head, the scar remained.

He told me the last thing he remembers that day was delivering mail to a house as rain started falling on an unusually muggy fall afternoon. Turns out the force of the twister's winds blew him up against a pole that was then wrapped with tin sheeting from a shredded grain bin. Searchers found him only because his feet were sticking out. His face was so caked in dirt that his own family barely recognized him.

But he was fortunate to be held upright, because that reduced bleeding from a serious head wound he suffered. He was unconscious for weeks. Like the town, he survived and lived and healed. But as I found out when he grabbed my hand and guided it along a dip in the top of his head, the scar remained.

The tornado was a national story, and of course, big news in Iowa. Here's the front page from the Oct. 15, 1966, Gazette.

Belmond Tornado