Parkersburg

As many of you already know, Parkersburg Iowa was hit with a F5 tornado in May. That is the small town that Jon grew up in. It was devastating to hear about all the damage. Jon still has a few relatives that live there. Fortunately, his aunt and his uncle and their families were not injured, however they bost lost their homes. We saw all the news footage and some pictures and couldn't believe what we were seeing.

We went back to visit Jon's family this past weekend and I can't even explain to you how awful it was to see this small town that I have grown to love over the past 14 years. Parkersburg really was THE small Iowa town. It was so cute and so "Normal Rockwell." Seeing it in person was unbelievable! There are no trees left, everything is FLAT...there are only foundations where homes used to be. We heard so many stories of people who were in their basements while the tornado came into town...people's hearing aids being ripped out of their ears, second stories of people's homes being picked up and moved into their front yard, and even Jon's aunt's return address labels were found in Wisconsin! Amazing!

Aunt Carol's house used to be Grandma Gussie's before she died, so it was a very special place for all of us to gather for Christmas dinner, but unfortunately there wasn't anything left after the tornado. Jon's uncles house was also destroyed (its the first picture up at the top)...it used to be a 3 story home. He was at home in the basement when the tornade came through...it only took 39 second to go through town. When he and and his wife came up from the basement, he thought that maybe a window or two had been blown out...what a surprise to find his house was hardly standing.

There is quite a bit of rebuilding going on, but its very slow. There were over 300 homes that were completely demolished and there are only about 5 homes that have begun rebuilding. While we are so thankful that Jon's family was not hurt, it really brings home how thankful we need to be each and every day, and thank God for our families and our blessings.