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Running Iowa tornado/flood thread

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by NX, May 26, 2008.

  1. Football_Bat

    Football_Bat Well-Known Member

    Re: Tornado-ravaged Iowa community needs prayers

    I could tell from the first photos that was no F3.
     
  2. OnTheRiver

    OnTheRiver Active Member

    Re: Tornado-ravaged Iowa community needs prayers

    Indeed.

    An F3 doesn't treat brick structures the way they got treated in Parkersburg.

    Thanks for sharing the photos, NX. Keep up the good work there.
     
  3. JBHawkEye

    JBHawkEye Well-Known Member

    Re: Tornado-ravaged Iowa community needs prayers

    Today's misery _ those people could see up to 5 inches of rain, according to the Weather Channel.
     
  4. NX

    NX Member

    Re: Tornado-ravaged Iowa community needs prayers

    It's been raining since early this morning, sometimes hard. Parkersburg has earned a break, but on the other hand...
     
  5. Football_Bat

    Football_Bat Well-Known Member

    Re: Tornado-ravaged Iowa community needs prayers

    Rain ain't the only problem, folks.

    [​IMG]

    Every time I see the high risk designation, my hair stands on end.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 15, 2014
  6. OnTheRiver

    OnTheRiver Active Member

    Re: Tornado-ravaged Iowa community needs prayers

    'Bout one time out of seven, high risks turn into busts.

    Keep your fingers crossed.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 15, 2014
  7. NX

    NX Member

    Re: Tornado-ravaged Iowa community needs prayers

    Call went out this morning from the Iowa High School Athletic Association for anyone with any clippings, photos, game video of Aplington-Parkersburg to get in touch with a former A-P football player living in Parkersburg - he was a safe distance from the path - who is trying to rebuild the record of history that was lost.

    Here is that e-mail from information specialist Bud Legg:

    "Media:

    Some of Ed Thomas's former players are trying to help their coach restore the many pictures, newspaper clippings, all-district, all-state lists and any game videos of the A-P Falcons that you may have to share. Ed's office was a testimonial to the program as it was decorated with photos of players and teams.

    Any memorabilia can be sent to ...

    He is a former player trying to help out his high school coach."


    If by chance anyone reading this needs that address, just PM me.

    P.S. There was one small, or perhaps HUGE, piece of normalcy among the clean-up yesterday. The football field had been cleared and its thick, dark green grass was being mowed. It will need it again after all this rain.
     
  8. NX

    NX Member

    Re: Tornado-ravaged Iowa community needs prayers

    I rode along on an after-curfew patrol with the National Guard in Parkersburg last week. No one was telling the story of what went on there after curfew, but we kept hearing "no" about access from everyone we asked in the local sheriff's department.

    But eventually, the public relations officer with the Guard unit heard about what I wanted to do and thought it was a great idea and win-win - good story for me, good press for him. He still had to do some arm-twisting, though, by claiming me as an embedded journalist. I guess by doing that, the sheriff's department, which the Guard reported to, was powerless to refuse access to me.

    I wished I had time to post the story in the workshop before deadline, but there just wasn't time. I'd like to post it soon, though, and get feedback, anyway, for the sake of improvement.

    Snaking through those streets after curfew was eerie. You could feel the energy of the place and it was darker than just being in the country, away from light pollution. Seemed like the ravaged soaked up any light.

    Just after I had started to leave, started to make my way back through town and was several blocks from the northwest checkpoint, a strong storm system that dropped tornadoes all over central and western Iowa that night light up the sky, silhouetting all that used to be Parkersburg. Just one of the images that will be forever burned in my mind.

    Although I could do without the aftermath, I'd have to say I enjoy severe weather. But after a couple Sundays ago, coupled with the fact that most of nation's midsection has had wave after wave of severe weather this spring, senses are as heightened around here as they probably have ever been.

    My family and I just crawled out of the basement about a half-hour ago, luckily with our community still intact, save a few downed limbs from strong winds.

    "Daaaad?" my daughter, who also has a fascination with severe weather, said in a soft, leery tone just loud enough to wake Mrs. NX and I up a split second before the town's tornado siren sent us bolting out of bed and yelling for everyone to get to the basement NOW!

    If you've never heard it before, this is what it sounds like. http://www.tnaccess.com/users/seahawk/tornado.wav There are few things that will wake you up in more of a panic.

    There was no time for my son to find his Gameboy, or for me to even wish we were more prepared when no one was able to locate a flashlight at full sprint. There was certainly no time, as much as it was breaking my youngest one's heart, to go back and get the one of two cats who didn't follow.

    Of course, my MacBook is always out where I can grab it, so after we were in the basement I was able to see, thanks to the last few minutes of a dying battery, that it was a Doppler-indicated tornado warning, which, oddly made me feel a bit of relief since it was not seen by a spotter.

    Guess we should have taken it as an omen when the news editor gave me a call early Saturday night to let me know he passed Storm Chasers' armored TIV going through town. The TIV is the one of their three vehicles you probably don't want to see, because if anyone is going to know... The news editor, a huge Discovery Channel fan, as am I, actually tried to flag them down, but the skies were already looking ominous. No chance they were stopping to chat.

    I'll try to get back to sleep, but my adrenaline hasn't quite subsided yet. I wonder how many other people who were woken up by that bone-chilling siren instantly had visions of Parkersburg.
     
  9. NX

    NX Member

    Re: Tornado-ravaged Iowa community needs prayers (now dealing with flooding)

    It just won't stop raining. More than an inch could be in the forecast today. We've been lucky here, but Waterloo and Cedar Falls are under water. Parkersburg is very soggy and New Hartford, a smaller town to the east that was also devastated by the tornado, is flooded now with residents allowed to return on their own discretion only.

    Mason City, with a population somewhere around 30,000, shut its water off after it was inundated and the water keeps rising in Des Moines and Cedar Rapids. I don't know how Indiana fared during the Floods of '93, but Iowa is expected to break the records set that year. That was called a five hundred-year flood. Can't believe how fast another five centuries have flown by.
     
  10. Flying Headbutt

    Flying Headbutt Moderator Staff Member

    Re: Tornado-ravaged Iowa community needs SANDBAGS (area now dealing with flooding)

    Waterloo and Cedar Falls have seen their levees hold so far. That isn't the story in one Indiana town.
     
  11. Football_Bat

    Football_Bat Well-Known Member

    Re: Tornado-ravaged Iowa community needs SANDBAGS (area now dealing with flooding)

    If it's worse than '93, folks down the Mississippi better get ready.
     
  12. three_bags_full

    three_bags_full Well-Known Member

    Re: Tornado-ravaged Iowa community needs SANDBAGS (area now dealing with flooding)

    North Warren County (Vicksburg) has already flooded once this year.
     
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