December Tornadoes

 The forecast for Iowa  on December 15 was an upper 70's day. That is unheard of for this time of year. We were excited to have an unusually nice and warm day. As the day approached, there was word of it being a really windy day. As it grew even closer, the forecast was warning of high wind advisory, in the 30mph range in the afternoon and wind gusts up to 60 mph. So much for a nice day. There was also tornado watches all across the state. From an early morning breeze, ever hour the wind picked up. At 3:00, I had the vet here to booster dogs and vet a horse. The wind was plenty gusty. Back in the house, thankfully we were all home. Jake had asked to hang out at his friend Bo's house, where he spends a lot of his time these days. Mark and I told him to go ahead and just pay attention to the weather. Mark had been watching the weather channel and the sky. Minutes after Jake left, I called and told him I didn't think he should be out and to head back home. Then Mark called and told him, better yet, go stay with the grandparents and help them to the basement if needed. I felt better knowing we were all home. Jayden was pretty nervous watching her weather from Texas. For some reason I wasn't worried at all, I usually am more concerned. I gathered lights and candles, bananas, peanut butter, and drinks and headed to the basement. We didn't have a working television in the basement and Mark wanted to be upstairs in the window watching everything unfold. There was wind and lightning. The lightning lit the sky up to where he could see the tornado in Jefferson. We experienced a brief moment of loud wind, what sounded like hail and a quick rain shower and then it was over. It was calm and quiet for about an hour, then the straight winds blew into the night. They were so strong and scary sounding, I kept thinking our windows would blow in. We could see an evergreen tree down in the yard and that was the extent of the damage here. The next day slowly throughout the day we saw pictures and heard stories of the damage. We were just a few miles away from severe damage. Again we are so thankful we were missed by all the damage.

Having missed the damage and knowing so many were hit, I wanted to help. I called the school to see if they needed help, they were serving food to those in the community that lost power. The Burnside school lost a section of the roof. They were not in need, but Mark thought we could help the Nelson family who had a farm hit and debris scattered all over the area. When he decides to help, it is all in. I was thinking we could go and help for a few hours in the morning. Mark had bigger plans. He loaded his skid loader and went for a full day and a second day. The first day the boys helped for awhile, then on Saturday he told us we were all going to help and had to be on the farm at 8AM. I was all for helping and I think it was wonderful how Mark was so driven to help, however he was more like a drill sergeant getting us up on a Saturday morning and out the door to help all day. What made it so very hard, the temperature was in the 20's. We bundled the best we could and we still froze. The wind was so strong and everyone's faces were red. I don't think this was what Jayden had in mind coming back to Iowa. She knows how warm it was in Texas, but she was a good sport and never said a word. Mark was in the cab of the skid loader, so he didn't experience the cold quite as much. He made the biggest impact and got the most done with his skid loader. He saved the family days and days of clean up. It was pretty awesome to see how quickly things were cleared. There was quite a crew of the Nelson family helping clean and clear too. The family was so appreciative and thankful.