Greenfield riding toward recovery
Southwest Iowa town looks past tornado to day of fun with RAGBRAI
GREENFIELD — In the town square, the RAGBRAI party was in full swing. On the way to that square, though, riders got a close-up view of the barren landscape following the cleanup from an EF4 tornado two months and two days earlier.
The Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa visited Greenfield on Tuesday as the meeting town between Atlantic and Winterset. Pam Long, a member of the Greenfield Chamber of Commerce board, said that the town engaged in a “divide and conquer” mode for organization, spreading tasks around, to get ready for riders.
The Warren Cultural Center, in the renovated opera house on the square, had photos and videos of the tornado’s aftermath on display. Around town, there were big boards with before-and-after pictures. The ride’s route was adjusted so riders would go through some of the devastated area, now cleared of debris.
It could have been so much worse.
A National Weather Service map shows the tornado’s 44-mile path from southeast of Villisca to northeast of Greenfield. It also reveals a slight waggle in the route near the end, a last-minute turn to a more northeasterly direction.
Had it not been for that change, the tornado could have scored a direct hit through the center of the Adair County seat, including the historic 1891 courthouse and town square. Instead, it bulldozed a path through the southern part of town. Now, like in Parkersburg after its cleanup from a 2008 tornado, there’s a stark divide between “trees” and “no trees” — and “no houses.”
Generosity and positivity
Carol Woosley, who works part time in the chamber office, was helping out at the information booth this Tuesday. She lost her house in the tornado. She and her husband had just made it to the basement, and told him she was worried they would be killed. Then, as soon as she said that, the noise stopped. They emerged from the basement to find everything “wiped clean.” Her west-side neighbor was one of four people killed in Greenfield that day. Woosley feels very fortunate. The footings for their new basement have been poured and she’s hoping to have Christmas in her new home.
What sticks out to Woosley has been “the overwhelming generosity of people we don’t know at all.” She said the town shifted its RAGBRAI mood from entertainment to positivity, because “you can’t get more positive than RAGBRAI.”
Dave Gallagher, a 30-year DJ on the ride and currently the public-address announcer for Iowa women’s basketball, used his microphone on the courthouse square to help raise money for Greenfield. Tuesday was College Jersey Day, and he played up those rivalries in the donation drive. He estimated that $13,000 in cash had been raised, with an online total to be figured later.
‘The worst sound in the world’
Jorand Feazell, a nurse from Fontanelle who works at the Adair County Health System, had about 80 minutes left in her shift on May 21. She heard the sirens go off and got a text from her dad to take cover. As she was doing that, a man in the hallway showed up wearing a suit, “like something out of a movie,” said he was there for lab work, and she replied, “No, you’re not.” They took shelter. “The worst sound in the world for a minute” was all around them. She compared the noise of flying metal to a kitchen utensil stuck in the garbage disposal.
Everyone in the hospital gathered at the nurses station and some visitors headed for the parking lot, only to find that lot wiped clean of cars. Across the street from the hospital, “there was nothing. Utter devastation.”
The immediate and longer-term response and recovery was all about “neighbors helping neighbors.” Triage started at the Casey’s at the corner, then moved to the lumberyard. The churches opened their doors and donations flowed in from all over. The hospital is currently working out of Nodaway Valley Elementary School.
Volunteers on May 21 helped residents salvage possessions before another round of rain came — possessions coated with what Feazell called a “nasty algae slime” sucked up from Lake Greenfield. On Tuesday, in addition to the volunteers downtown, volunteer corn was sprinkled throughout the area hit by the tornado.
As with any RAGBRAI, area communities add logistical support. A fire truck from Dexter, 27 miles away, directed riders at the last turn onto Iowa Highway 25 south toward Orient. The party rolled on, and the residents of Greenfield have their own long road ahead. The overall message Tuesday, both Feazell and Woosley said, is simple and strong:
“We’re still here.”
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