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The Iowa City Tornado of 2006
Bulletin Board Postings
At 7:01 AM, Mark Ferguson wrote:
Everyone,
BIG NEWS from Iowa City. A tornado tore through the south west side and through the downtown area of Iowa City on Thursday night. It hit a Wal-Mart and Menards (Lumber store) near the airport, totally demolished a Dairy Queen Ice Cream shop, took the roof off of a church in downtown. My mom lives in the Bon Aire mobile home park, but it did not have any damage, thank God. Mom left the trailer and went to her sisters house, where they huddled in the basement under the stairs until the storm past. My cousin was traveling up from St Louis for Easter last night. My other cousin called him on the road and told him to stop somewhere safe and ride out the storm, and not to come through downtown when they got there. There was a report of a funnel cloud over the Proctor & Gamble plant (less than a 1/4 of a mile from Mom's house, but it didn't touch down, luckily. Classes have been cancelled at the University of Iowa for today. I would imagine that most of the students were planning to go home for Easter if they live close. Some of them don't have cars to drive home now.
Here in Des Moines, we didn't even know there was any severe weather. It was clear and calm. We turned on the 10 o'clock news and heard about the damage, and immediately called Mom to see if she was still there.
Guess you missed out on another exciting weather phenomenon in Iowa.
More later.
Mark Ferguson.
At Noon, Julie Rogers wrote:
Hi Dave,
I am here at work in lovely downtown Iowa City. I have had a little time to survey some of the damage in downtown IC and I keep getting reports of some damage. The east side of Iowa City was hit as well as the southwest. In downtown, the damage is on Burlington Street, the east few blocks of Iowa Avenue and College Street. St.Patricks church lost it's roof and it is 11:00 in the morning and we have not received our mail that usually arrives at 9:00am.
Happy Joes (across from the IC rec center is flattened and there is quite a bit of damage as far as roofs around the area. College Street Park is decimated all the huge trees are gone and many cars on the streets in that area now have trees on top of them. Old Capital Mall parking ramp sustained damage and there are no stop lights left at the corner of Burlington and Clinton street. The tornado(s) did not hit the Pentacrest or any of the old University buildings. On the southwest side of town, the Honda dealership had several cars that were overturned and a small part of their roof is gone. Menards and the old Walmart on Hwy 6 sustained roof damage. On Riverside drive, the Dairy Queen is gone and several other businesses around sustained damage.
It was quite a night. The University even canceled classes today but of course not work!! Have a great day!!
Julie
At 12:24 PM, Bonnie (Tappan) Weldon wrote:
Dave,
We are okay here. Just 1 mile away, it got hit bad. There are two car dealerships with a lot of damage (Hartwigs, Chezik Honda). The Dairy Queen, and Linders on Riverside Drive along with several other businesses on Riverside Dr. are gone. The roof is off St. Pat's church. Many more homes are demolished near downtown. We are very thankful it did not hit us again. We took cover when we saw the tornado go about 1/2 mile from us. At that point it touched down at Menards and Walmart on Hwy 1.
I was afraid it was going to be like the storm of 1998. That hit our farm and we still have not recovered totally. No one was injured badly which is the good thing. They closed classes at the U today too. Most of the damage was right around the Sheraton downtown / Dubuque St. and Gilbert St. area. A lot of damage but everyone is safe. I am hoping that this is NOT going to be the start of a long summer of bad weather.
Thanks for the concern.
I will try to keep you updated.
Bonnie
At 1:11 PM, Deb Rogers wrote:
Thanks for thinking of us. This one skipped us. I've talked to a lot of
family and friends and all are ok. Downtown took the brunt of this storm.
It will be a LONG time before all of it is cleaned up and will never be
back the way it was.
Thank again,
Deb
At 4:31 PM, Deb Tyer wrote:
"Mother Nature Wreaks Havoc on Iowa City"
Dear Dave,
I suppose you may have heard by now on the National news about the goings on in Iowa City last night. With us living 2 hours northeast up in Clayton County, Iowa, I was safe and sound and out of harms way but the folks down at our old stomping grounds had an eventful night due to the tornado activity! My husband, Steve, rode out the storms from his motel room on the north side of Iowa City as he has been spending weekdays down there doing a large construction job. Our son's 3rd floor condo in Tiffin apparently weathered the storm without damage but I have yet to hear how his place of employment fared in the downtown Iowa City area. And our daughter and grandsons in West Branch reported lots of rain and wind but no tornado damage.
It would appear that Riverside Drive and the downtown and Iowa Avenue area were the hardest hit from the reports I have heard. I haven't yet been in touch with any of the girls from the "Breakfast Club" but with Bonnie living out on the southwest side I'm hoping her place weathered things well. I have been trying to keep up with the latest reports by going the the Iowa City Press Citizen web site. They have up to date reports and photos of the destruction. If any classmates want to keep up with what's going on there, it's a good site to go to. Here's hoping that our fellow classmates and their loved ones still in the Iowa City area managed to stay safe and out of harms way. It's certainly an Easter week not to be forgotten soon.
Take care,
Deb Tyer
At 5:00 PM, Brenda (Schrock) Bradley wrote:
Dave, I now live south of Iowa City outside of Riverside. We didn't have any damage, but I've been around Iowa City to see the extent of damage. It is so sad. For those who don't live here, there was extensive damage to the downtown area and and area of Riverside Dr. (Hartwig Motors, Linder Tire, and the old Dairy Queen). You just really can't conceive of the extent when you don't see it first hand. We all take for granted the ability of being able to drive across town. It is worse than football traffic, no traffic lights in many areas, roads blocked by debris or overturned vehicles .... I'm sure people and businesses will bounce back, but it is hard to know where to begin.
Brenda Schrock Bradley
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