5 MINUTES WITH
This week’s “5 minutes” feature is with Gary O’Daniels, track starter and official. For more on O’Daniels, see page 6A. >>
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FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 2017
Pitching in Volunteer effort achieves quick cleanup from tornado ■
By LARRY PETERSON CNA senior feature writer lpeterson@crestonnews.com
(EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second of a twopart series on the five-year anniversary of the tornado that struck Creston on April 14, 2012.) A mild and breezy Sunday with clear skies greeted residents one day after a violent tornado shredded much of northwest Creston in the early evening of April 14, 2012. The sunshine served as a warm ray of hope as residents and employers began assessing the extent of damage from those few harrowing moments shortly after 7 p.m. the previous day. Viewing the scene in daylight, the task seemed daunting.
Then vs. now 2012-2017
was announced there were 14 single-family homes and 16 multi-family units with major damage or destroyed in Creston. Two homes were destroyed in rural Union County north of Creston. In addition, 40 homes in Creston and rural Union County sustained minor damage. Still, that was not enough to trigger Federal Emergency Management Agency assistance. The FEMA guidelines for public assistance were $4 million uninsured losses for public property. Community colleges and hopsitals fall into that category. At the time, there was $1.91 million in uninsured losses on public property from the tornado.
CNA file photo
Only a corner of the brick structure remained after the Green Hills Area Education Agency building at 1405 N. Lincoln Street was directly hit by a tornado in April 2012.
CNA photo by LARRY PETERSON
Only the concrete foundation remains from the former site of Green Hills Area Education Agency after the building was destroyed in the April 2012 tornado. The agency was temporarily housed on North Pine Street before moving into the southwest corner of the Burton R. Jones Education Center on North Elm Street. Southwestern Community College photo
Volunteers clean up debris from the 2012 tornado along Townline Street across the street from Southwestern Community College. Damaged residences are shown in the background.
David VanHorn, associate administrator of Green Hills Area Educaton Agency, still remembers what he observed as he arrived from his Winterset home Sunday morning to meet colleague Angie Hance at the heavily-damaged AEA building at 1405 N. Lincoln Street. Only a portion of the building was still standing. Much of the structure and its contents were strewn across Creston Community School property to the east, if not plopped down miles away from the force of the EF2 tornado that had peak winds of 130 miles per hour. Its average width while on the ground was assessed as 600 yards by the National Weather Service. “We had to go around a long way just to get there,” Van Horn said, “because of all the trees down and power lines lying across the roads. It was definitely an ‘Oh, my gosh!’ situation when you looked around. A good portion of our building was gone or caved in. It hit just past the southwest corner of the building and tore through the other side. One fortunate thing was that it left the north side of the building relatively intact. That’s where all the computer servers were, and our employees were still able to tie into them when we were able to hook them up over at SWCC.” The lending library, book collections, video tapes, desktop computers and assorted items for teachers and school districts were destroyed. Fortunately, VanHorn said, the recent merger with AEA services in Council Bluffs had allowed access to its lending library to fill the void. Total loss of the building constructed in 1976 and contents was insured at $3 million. That was just a small portion of the damage left behind by the tornado that occurred with no warning as it formed east of Cromwell and first touched down on Dogwood Avenue as it reached Creston. One day after the tornado struck, a press conference was held in Creston attended by Gov. Terry Branstad and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds of Osceola. It
For individual assistance from FEMA, there has to be between 200 and 400 homes destroyed. Creston was well short of that threshold. However, Branstad announced there was individual state assistance granted, which is income-based at 200 percent of poverty. There was also a local disaster relief fund started.
Hospital adjustments One of the critical needs in the community at the time was to get operations running as quickly as possible at Greater Regional Medical Center, which was one of the most affected buildings in the path of the tornado. In-patients were transferred to Alegent Health in Corning on Saturday night, and work began immediately to restore some services on the site. Extensive work in water extraction and drying was immediately conducted. A temporary roof was soon replaced with a permanent roof. GRMC continued to triage patient emergencies and urgent care needs on site. Temporary pods provided by Iowa Department of Public Health were located near the Medical Arts Plaza to support the triage operations. Ambulances stood by if needed. Speciality clinics and outpatient services were closed for a time and the business office was relocated to its senior housing facility. Greater Regional Home TORNADO | 2A
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Volume 133 No. 225
2016
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Southwestern Community College photo
Spartan Suites dormitory sustained major damage from the April 2012 tornado that swept across the Southwestern Community College campus.
CNA photo by LARRY PETERSON
Spartan Suites dormitory underwent renovation during the summer after the April 2012 tornado and was open for students in the fall semester.
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