BELLEVUE, Iowa -- The day after an F2 tornado roared across timber and farmland south of Bellevue, Iowa, its capricious nature was evident.
Swatches of broken and uprooted trees dotted otherwise untouched hillsides. One farm lay in ruins while its neighbor's sat intact. The tornado skipped down into valleys and on top of ridges.
The roar of chainsaws echoed across a wide valley south of Bellevue State Park as volunteers cleared hundreds of shattered oaks and cedars. Farther south at the Wuestenberg farm, the only sound came from scores of swallows circling in confusion. The birds' nests were gone along with every outbuilding on the farm, save one.
Bob and Diane Wuestenberg had farmed their 400 acres for seven years before the twister hit. The couple saw the churning cloud touch down on the hillside across their valley. They rushed into their basement garage for protection and when the garage door started shuddering, they crawled into their Jeep. Above the roar of the wind, Bob could hear sheet metal tearing apart. After three minutes, it was over and Bob stuck
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"Gone. Our farmstead is gone," he thought when he saw the destruction outside. Nine buildings and a 60-foot silo were piles of rubble. The twister carried hundreds of pieces of the buildings up a hill, picked up a flatbed trailer and dropped it 100 feet away and damaged the wooden bridge leading to the farmhouse.
"As far as I can tell, that barn just exploded," said Bob pointing to a foundation littered with debris. The couple's house and a machine shed were not damaged, but they have no insurance to cover the rest of their losses.
Brooke Ploeger, 15, was worried about her animals as the tornado bore down on her family's farm. She huddled with her family in the basement of their farmhouse after watching swirling black clouds approach in an unearthly green glow. She screamed when she saw that her goats' trailer was gone. She found her pet triplet pygmy goats running in a field, but the trailer has not been found.
"We knew a mother cat had kittens somewhere and then someone who was helping us pick up debris in the hay field heard them crying and found them," said her mother Sharon Ploeger. Beethoven, the family's dog, hid somewhere and escaped injury. Two of the family's barns collapsed on the farm equipment stored inside, but their house and other outbuildings were spared.
Before the twister hit, Sharon called her elderly neighbor, who lived in a mobile home, and told him to come to their basement immediately. He and his son did. The storm did extensive damage to the buildings around his house, but little to the home itself.
At Jerry and Ruth Marshall's farm, people kept showing up to help Friday and Saturday. Some brought heavy equipment, some had only gloves and boots, but all went to work. A line of trees in front of the house was shattered, most of the farm's fencing was crushed under downed trees and a venerable old wooden barn had collapsed. Jerry Marshall choked up when talking about the outpouring of assistance from friends, neighbors and strangers.
Tami Michel lost everything when the tornado destroyed her family's mobile home. Red Cross vouchers allowed her family to stay at Potter's Mill Bed and Breakfast overnight.
"Today is worse than yesterday. I was in shock yesterday," she said. "I've lived right here for 35 years and never experienced anything like this. I don't know where to start."
Four young Bellevue girls set up a collection point near the site of the worst damage. They solicited monetary donations from passing vehicles by waving an Easter basket and pointing to their sign, "Please Help All Families."
"We saw all these houses damaged and all these people helping and we thought it's something we could do for them," said Lauren Swain, 12. They plan to give any donations to Michel and other families affected by the tornado.
