What A Sad Story, Parkersburg Destroyed By Deadly Tornado!

PARKERSBURG, Iowa - Severe thunderstorms packing large hail and tornadoes
rumbled
across the United States' midsection on Sunday, killing at least eight
people and
damaging dozens of homes, authorities said.
Iowa Homeland Security administrator Dave Miller said seven of the dead were
killed
by a tornado in northeast Iowa - five from Parkersburg, 80 miles northeast
of Des
Moines, and two from nearby New Hartford. At least 50 injuries were
reported.
"Occasionally we have a death but we have warning system. Seven deaths. It's
been
a long time since we've had those kinds of injuries and deaths reported,"
Miller
said.
Witnesses reported parts of Parkersburg were reduced to rubble, including
most of
the town's high school and homes.
A tornado also struck just to the east in the nearby town of Dunkerton and
elsewhere
in Black Hawk County, where there were reports of homes damaged or
destroyed. Dunkerton
has fewer than 800 residents and New Hartford has about 700 people.
At least 20 people were unaccounted for in Minnesota after a swift storm
blew through
the St. Paul suburb of Hugo, damaging about four dozen homes, City
Administrator
Mike Ericson said. Many of them could be out of town for the holiday
weekend, he
said.
A 2-year-old child was killed and the child's sibling was critically injured
and
taken to Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Washington County Sheriff Bill Hutton
said.
The children's parents also were hospitalized with injuries sustained in the
family
home.
"It's horrible," Ericson said. "The citizens are very shook and scared."
Residents reported a tornado touching down in the area, but that had not
been confirmed
by the National Weather Service. Emergency crews descended on the town to
look for
those who hadn't been accounted for and to assess the damage.
About 300 or 400 homes were evacuated in the storm-damaged area because of
concerns
over hazards including downed power lines and leaky gas lines, Ericson said.
The
city set up a shelter at an elementary school for those displaced.
Hugo Public Works Director Chris Petree said his family took shelter in the
basement
before the storm lifted his house off the ground and completely wiped out
the second
floor.
"I put my daughter down first, my wife on top of her and then I bear-hugged
on top
of them," Petree said.
As he huddled in his basement against a foundation wall with his wife and 2
1/2-year-old
daughter, Petree said they heard the thunderous sound of their house coming
off the
ground.
"All you hear is glass breaking and wood tearing and breaking in half,"
Petree said.
About 100 people have died in U.S. twisters so far this year, the worst toll
in a
decade, according to the weather service, and the danger has not passed yet.
Tornado
season typically peaks in the spring and early summer, then again in the
late fall.