Parkersburg Tornado

How do you cover a natural disaster?

That's what I was thinking after Director of Photography Paul Jensen told me to meet reporter Steve Gravelle and video journalist Michael Barnes at The Gazette at 6am. The three of us headed to Parkersburg. A city of about 1,900 people in northeastern Iowa. According to the National Weather Service, an EF 5 tornado pretty much wiped out about a third of the city Sunday.

Courtney Sargent, our photo intern covered the aftermath in Parkersburg on Monday. She got some nice moments of people hugging and reacting to what happened.

On Tuesday, most people seemed to have moved on to the task of cleaning up, so I was looking to come back with something different than what already ran in the paper.

On the way there, I kept thinking, "What do I say to these people?" When I arrived, the degree of destruction just left me speechless.

After making a turn from Highway 14 onto Highway 57 at the southern edge of town, it looked like we were transported to another planet. The familiar landscape of many small Iowa towns was replaced with concrete foundations where homes and buildings once stood, trees with no upper limbs as well as many stripped of their bark and mangled cars and trucks. What struck me most was the amount of debris that was everywhere. Wood, drywall, glass, whole contents of people's homes just pulverized into a mulch-like consistency (for lack of a better term).

The stuffed bear was put on top of the wrecked vehicle by somebody. I noticed several more animals on top of other wrecks.

After walking the streets and talking with some residents, sifting through what's left of their homes, I met Eileen Lupkes of Dike and some of her family and friends as they salvaged what they could from Lupke's mother's home. Berdene Schrage, 83, was home at the time of the tornado. She was able to get in the basement before it hit.

Lupkes was relieved to have the portrait of her grandparents as well as several Bibles recovered from the rubble. The group was still searching for Schrage's purse when I left them. Every resident I approached was very open to telling me their stories. 

I'll get another look at the progress the community has made on Thursday when I head back to Parkersburg.

-Jim