By Aaron Putze, Executive Director

(Fairbank, IA -- May 29, 2008) It was May 25 and farmers Mel and Judy Neil of Fairbank huddled deep inside the basement of their rural home with their cell phone and a flashlight in hand.

It wasn’t the place you’d normally find the Neils on a late Sunday afternoon. Then again, there wasn’t anything normal about this Sunday afternoon.

“The basement windows blew out and our ears began popping,” Judy recalls three days later while standing near the tattered remains of their Century Farm home. “Then came the sound of twisting timber, the tell-tale roar of a freight train, smashing glass and falling walls. The constant roar went on for what seemed an hour. And then the rain started…”

She pauses, surrounded by family and hundreds of volunteers who had gathered to retrieve what remained of the farm from mud-filled ditches, fence rows and farm fields.

“We were down there for about 10 minutes,” she adds. “I knew it was going to be bad. But I didn’t think it was going to be this bad.”

Storm clouds churning

Their son Todd, his wife Alisa and children Cole, 6 and Ellie, 4, were returning home from a family vacation in Omaha. The sunny Sunday afternoon was perfect for a drive. Along the way, they stopped at a farm near Parkersburg to talk about cattle with a friend before continuing on to Fairbank.

“After leaving Parkersburg, the skies just kept getting darker and darker and it started to hail,” says Todd, whose farmstead is located just one mile east of his parent’s home. “We decided to stop at a shelter to let the storm clear and proceeded when we thought it was safe.

“We were just a few miles from home and that’s when my cell phone went off. It was ringing because the power had gone out to our two hog barns. I immediately called my folks but they didn’t answer. That was strange because they always answer.”

What Todd and Alisa didn’t know was that a massive tornado – one of the strongest ever recorded in Iowa – had followed them from Parkersburg to Fairbank, a distance of more than 40 miles.

The historic storm, estimated by National Weather Service officials as an EF5 twister packing winds of more than 200 miles-per-hour, destroyed 350 homes, killed seven and injured dozens, some critically. Its width ranged from nearly a half-mile near Parkersburg to more than a mile by the time it reached Dunkerton. It dissipated just a few yards east of Todd’s home within the shadows of Fairbank’s water tower.

“We arrived just a few minutes after it had hit our farms and that’s when mom called to see where we were,” Todd says. “We were all just thankful that everyone was OK.”

When Todd and his family rounded the last corner, they were greeted by complete devastation.

His parent’s home was literally torn in two and 100-year old trees that once stood guard in the front yard were uprooted and laid flat. An uncle’s home located just down the road was also destroyed.

The family’s grain storage system, which had just undergone a $150,000 renovation last year, was reduced to twisted scraps of metal, some wrapped around a nearby telephone pole.

A 31,000-bushel grain bin was demolished, along with a 66-by-98-foot machine shed. The family’s large, red barn that had once housed cattle and hay was splintered into a thousand pieces. Roofs on their two 1,200-head hog barns located less than a quarter-of-a-mile to the north were flattened.

Chunks of what was once their 7-by-18-foot livestock trailer littered area farm fields. “There’s not a piece of it that you can’t pick up with one hand,” says Mel.

The windows of their John Deere tractors were gone and the Case-IH combine was riddled with dents caused by flying debris. Meat from Mel and Judy’s deep freeze was scattered in their yard; the deep freeze was found lying in their corn field more than two blocks away. Their shower stall is still missing.

And just a mile to the east, Todd and Alisa’s homestead was badly damaged. The trees in a nearby grove were twisted and torn, lodged with debris that had blown in from the west farm site.

“We had 55 cattle on feed and another 50 cow-calf pairs,” says Todd. “We lost 10 calves and five of the cattle in the storm. Four more were so badly injured that we had to put them down. A lot of them were badly bruised and scraped. Some had broken limbs. Others had their tails missing.”

Todd says it’s a miracle that only 15 of their hogs were killed.

“The only good thing that came from the roofs collapsing was that they came to rest on the gates and fences underneath,” he says. “The hogs had just enough room under the tin that they were able to survive.”

Most of the hogs and cattle that did make it through the storm are no longer on the farm. Hogs weighing between 80 and 150 pounds were transported to three other finishing sites. The remaining fed cattle were taken to a sale barn in Waverly May 27. The family will care for the remaining cow-calf pairs and hope to start rebuilding the hog barns in June.

“My main income was the show cattle business and the two hog barns,” says Todd whose wife teaches art at Manchester Middle School. “Now, both are gone. It’s gonna’ take awhile to get back what we had. But we’ll do it.”

About the only property that didn’t sustain damage were a rarely-used fishing boat and a 1977 Chevy pick-up. “It’s almost funny that the stuff that didn’t get damaged were the things we don’t use much,” Todd says.”

Community in action

It’s May 28, the skies are blue, the sun is shining again and hundreds of people have gathered to help the Neils restore order to their 600-acre diversified grain and livestock farm. Among them are Wapsie Valley junior high and high school students who have fanned out across area farm fields picking up scraps of debris, depositing them on hayracks.

“We’re a close community and a small school and it feels good when you help others out,” says junior Mercedes Miller of Fairbank who’s active in the school’s cheerleading and dance squads. “Everybody knows somebody that doesn’t have a home any more.”

Members of the Wapsie Valley Warrior’s football team traveled to Parkersburg to lend a hand to relief efforts. Nearly every other student voluntarily opted out of Wednesday classes to be part of the cleanup efforts around Fairbank and Dunkerton.

“We can pick up sticks like no other,” says junior Anne Shepherd, a volleyball and track athlete who also lives in Fairbank while taking a short lunch break with fellow students. “It’s definitely brought people closer together. We’ve seen a lot of cars from as far away as Polk County. People just come and even though they don’t know anyone, they want to help.”

The storm has also made a lasting impression for her and other students.

“The things that are important to people aren’t the TVs, clothes and DVD players,” Shepherd adds. “One person said all she wanted to find was the picture of her grandma.”

The future

Mel greets helpers and visits with friends. Behind him, one of the walls of the family’s home still standing features a stenciled message reading, “The love of family is life’s greatest blessing.”

He and Judy are uncertain about where they go from here. Do they rebuild at the site of their damaged home or finally make the move into town? When asked about their roles on the farm, they say they’re supposedly “semi-retired.” One helper who overhears the conversation laughs. “They’re busier than ever,” she shouts while picking up another piece of debris.

“We’re going to take our time and make the right decisions,” Mel says. “What those decisions are, well, we don’t know right now.”

He scans the yard and fields filled with friends, neighbors and strangers.

“The support is overwhelming,” he says. “I didn’t call any one. They’re all volunteers who just wanted to help. I guess my biggest concern at this time is how we can say ‘thank you.’”



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