The Parkersburg Aftermath

I went up with my mother- and father-in-law today to Parkersburg, Iowa. In case you hadn't heard, half the town was completely leveled by an EF5 tornado Memorial Day weekend. My mother-in-law grew up there and her mom still lives there so we went up to clean up debris, mow the yard, power-wash the house, assess damage (she was very fortunate to have minimal damage to her home), and see the town. Here are some photos we took.

This first photo is a piece of wood (probably from the neighbors garage) that pierced the siding on my grandma-in-law's house.


















The rest of the photos are a few of the many we took as we drove around the edge of the most devastated part of town. We didn't drive through the worst of it out of respect for the dozens of heavy machinery operators and the law enforcement officials who weren't in the mood to work around gawkers. It felt almost like martial law as you passed by law enforcement at every major intersection and even a national guard camp. But they were doing an excellent job in tough circumstances.