c h a r l e s c it y e l e c t r o n ic s ,b ik e & t v s ... · p ublic a ffairs and c onsum...

800.272.0159Charles City • Aredale • DumontIonia • Marble Rock • Rockford

Requirements to earn top rate: ten debit card transactions,receive electronic statement, one direct deposit or ACHauto debit and access online banking. Requirements mustbe met per qualification cycle** to receive rewards.*5.01% Annual Percentage Yield (APY) paid on balancesup to $25,000 and 1.00% APY paid on all amounts above$25,000 each qualification cycle the minimum require-ments are met. If you do not meet the requirements perqualification cycle, your account will still function as a freechecking account with no maintenance fees earning thestandard rate of .40%, however it will not be eligible forthe additional benefit of refunded ATM fees imposed byother ATM operators for that statement period. Rates as of05/15/08. We may change the interest rate and APY atany time after the account is opened. No minimum balancerequired. However, you must deposit a minimum of $100to open this account. Available to consumer accounts only.**Qualification cycle means a period beginning one dayprior to the current statement through one day prior to theclose of the current statement

Page

CyanMagentaYellowBlack

PageCyan

Magenta

YellowBlack

CY

MK

CY

MK

Page

24CyanMagentaYellowBlack

Page1

CyanMagenta

YellowBlack

Discover the difference: Put our network, products and customer serviceto the test for 30 days . Change your calling plan at any time during yourservice agreement without signing a new contract . Renew your contractand take advantage of new phone pricing before your current contract ends

U.S. Cellular is wireless where youyou matter most.SM

Things we want you to know: Offer valid on plans $39.95 and higher and with two-year service agreement. All service agreements subject to early termination fee. Credit approval required.$30 activation fee. $15equipment change fee. Roaming charges, fees, surcharges, overage charges and taxes apply. 96¢ Regulatory Cost Recovery Fee applies; this is not a tax or governmentrequiredcharge. Network coverage and re-liability may vary. Usage rounded up to the next full minute. Use of service constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions. Promotional Phonesare subject to change. Buy one handset and get a second hand-set of equal or lesser value for free. Each handset must have a minimum posted price of $49.95 (before rebate). Mail-in rebaterequired on each handset. Rebate will be in the form of a U.S. Cellular Visa DebitCard. U.S. Cellular Visa Debit Card issued by MetaBank pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. Allow 10–12 weeks for rebate processing. The card does not have cash access and can be used at any merchantlocation that accepts Visa Debit Cards. U.S. Cellular Visa Debit Card valid for 120 days after issued. easyedge: U.S. Cellular–approved phone required on all easyedge plans. easyedge is a service mark of U.S. Cel-lular. Application charges apply when downloading applications. Promotional offer requires purchase of $9.95 unlimited easyedge access plan for at least 90 days. Smartphones require minimum purchase of$39.95 voice plan and $24.95 e-mail plan and Web 4MB plan for entire term of service agreement. Data access available in U.S. Cellular data coverage areas. easyedge service not available. Smartphone featuresintended for accessing intranets, e-mail and Internet. U.S. Cellular–approved equipment required. Smartphone features may not be used for other purposes (e.g., continuous fi le transfers, telemetry, Web cam-era posts, peer-to-peer fi le sharing) or to substitute for private line, frame relay or other dedicated connection. Such use or use of more than 5GB per line per month mvay result in termination of service withoutnotice. Each partial kilobyte of data transferred will be rounded up and billed a full kilobyte. Research in Motion, the RIM logo, BlackBerry, the BlackBerry logo and SureType are registered with the U.S. Patent andTrademark Offi ce and may be pending or registered in other countries–these and other marks of Research In Motion Limited are used under license. $100.00 mail-in rebate required. BlackBerry and RIM fami-lies of related marks, images and symbols are the exclusive properties of and trademarks or registered trademarks of Research In Motion Limited–used by permission. Smartphone coverage is only available inU.S. Cellular–enhanced services area. easyedge not available on smartphones. All other trademarks and brand names are the property of their respective owners. 30-Day Guarantee: Customer is responsible forany charges incurred prior to return. Text Messaging: Unlimited Family Text Messaging Plan only available on current Family Plans. U.S. Cellular does not guarantee message delivery or timeliness. 150-charac-ter limit per message for Text Messaging. U.S. Cellular not responsible for content of messages. A charge of 20¢ per outgoing message applies if no messaging package is selected or existing package limit is ex-ceeded. By using Text Messaging you agree to be bound by all terms and conditions at www.uscellular.com/Messagingterms. Night and Weekend Minutes valid Monday through Friday 7 p.m. to 6:59 a.m., or 9p.m. to 5:59 a.m. (depending on calling plan) and all day Saturday and Sunday. Night and Weekend Minutes are available throughout your calling area. Kansas: In areas in which U.S. Cellular receives supportfrom the Federal Universal Service Fund, all reasonable requests for service must be met. Unresolved questions concerning services availability can be directed to the Kansas Corporation Commission Offi ce ofPublic Affairs and Consumer Protection at 1-800-662-0027. Other restrictions apply. See store for details. Limited-time offer. ©2008 U.S. Cellular. 2BSTAN-AD4C-A-5/08

Things we want you to know: Offer valid on plans $39.95 and higher and with two-year service agreement. All service agreements subject to early termination fee. Credit approval required. $30 activation fee.$15 equipment change fee. Roaming charges, fees, surcharges, overage charges and taxes apply. 96¢ Regulatory Cost Recovery Fee applies; this is not a tax or government- required charge. Network coverageand reliability may vary. Usage rounded up to the next full minute. Use of service constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions. Promotional Phones are subject to change. Buy one handset and get a sec-ond handset of equal or lesser value for free. Each handset must have a minimum posted price of $49.95 (before rebate). Mail-in rebate required on each handset. Rebate will be in the form of a U.S. Cellular VisaDebit Card. U.S. Cellular Visa Debit Card issued by MetaBank pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. Allow 10–12 weeks for rebate processing. The card does not have cash access and can be used at anymerchant location that accepts Visa Debit Cards. U.S. Cellular Visa Debit Card valid for 120 days after issued. easyedge: U.S. Cellular–approved phone required on all easyedge plans. easyedge is a service markof U.S. Cellular. Application charges apply when downloading applications. Promotional offer requires purchase of $9.95 unlimited easyedge access plan for at least 90 days. Smartphones require minimum pur-chase of $39.95 voice plan and $24.95 e-mail plan and Web 4MB plan for entire term of service agreement. Data access available in U.S. Cellular data coverage areas. easyedge service not available. Smartphonefeatures intended for accessing intranets, e-mail and Internet. U.S. Cellular–approved equipment required. Smartphone features may not be used for other purposes (e.g., continuous fi le transfers, telemetry,Web camera posts, peer-to-peer fi le sharing) or to substitute for private line, frame relay or other dedicated connection. Such use or use of more than 5GB per line per month mvay result in termination of serv-ice without notice. Each partial kilobyte of data transferred will be rounded up and billed a full kilobyte. Research in Motion, the RIM logo, BlackBerry, the BlackBerry logo and SureType are registered with theU.S. Patent and Trademark Offi ce and may be pending or registered in other countries–these and other marks of Research In Motion Limited are used under license. $100.00 mail-in rebate required. BlackBerryand RIM families of related marks, images and symbols are the exclusive properties of and trademarks or registered trademarks of Research In Motion Limited–used by permission. Smartphone coverage is onlyavailable in U.S. Cellular–enhanced services area. easyedge not available on smartphones. All other trademarks and brand names are the property of their respective owners. 30-Day Guarantee: Customer is re-sponsible for any charges incurred prior to return. Text Messaging: Unlimited Family Text Messaging Plan only available on current Family Plans. U.S. Cellular does not guarantee message delivery or timeliness.150-character limit per message for Text Messaging. U.S. Cellular not responsible for content of messages. A charge of 20¢ per outgoing message applies if no messaging package is selected or existing pack-age limit is exceeded. By using Text Messaging you agree to be bound by all terms and conditions at www.uscellular.com/Messagingterms. Night and Weekend Minutes valid Monday through Friday 7 p.m. to6:59 a.m., or 9 p.m. to 5:59 a.m. (depending on calling plan) and all day Saturday and Sunday. Night and Weekend Minutes are available throughout your calling area. Kansas: In areas in which U.S. Cellular re-ceives support from the Federal Universal Service Fund, all reasonable requests for service must be met. Unresolved questions concerning services availability can be directed to the Kansas Corporation Com-mission Offi ce of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection at 1-800-662-0027. Other restrictions apply. See store for details. Limited-time offer. ©2008 U.S. Cellular. 2BSTAN-AD4C-A-5/08

CHARLES CITY ELECTRONICS, BIKE & TV SERVICE, INC.

Now accepting cash payments for your U.S. Cellular® Wireless Plan.

221 North Main, Charles City, IA • 641-228-3125Hours: M-F 9-5:30; Sat. 9-3

Buy any phone. Get any other free.With U.S. Cellular® you can give the gift that gives right back.

FREE PHONE MUST BE OFEQUAL OR LESSER VALUE.

Anticipate your wireless costswith confidence.Get a Prepaid Plan with Free Incoming Calls and Text Messages.

With our National Family Plans, you’ll get:• Additional lines for $10/line• No roaming or long-distance charges• Free 7 p.m. Night and Weekend Minutes on select plans• Unlimited Family Text Messaging Plan—unlimited texting

to anyone on any network for $19.95/month



Page


Page27

CyanMagenta

YellowBlack

CY

MK

CY

MK

Charles City Tornado 40th Anniversary • Thursday, May 15, 2008 • Charles City Tornado 40th Anniversary • Thursday, May 15, 2008 • Page 27

By Matt BarnesPress Staff WriterMaryAnn Townsend is always a

little busier in May, whether it be onthe phone with a meteorologist orlistening to stories from formerCharles City residents.As the director of the Floyd

County Historical Museum, she hasfound that the anniversary of the1968 tornado strikes an interest in avariety of people.“People always showmore inter-

est this time of year,” she said.Townsend has fielded calls from

local weathermen and hosted offi-cials from the National WeatherService at the museum. She hasheard and recorded many storiesfrom past and current Charles Cityresidents.For the 40th anniversary of the

tornado, she has done her part to en-sure that the museum offers a com-prehensive collection that representsthe sights, sounds and feelings ofMay 15, 1968.The permanent exhibit at the mu-

seum is always on display for thepublic, and was recently expandedon for the tornado’s anniversary.The expansion includes more

photographs and information. Visi-

tors to the museum will be able toview a video presentation about thetornado pieced together by Charles

City resident John Sebern. A powerpoint presentation featuring “manyviews of the tornado” will be exhib-

ited on Saturday, May 17, and willbe narrated by Dick Young.One exhibit highlight not to

miss, according to Townsend, is arecording of a radio station broad-cast following the tornado.“The day before the tornado

came, the radio station got a newgenerator, so without that nobodycould have heard anything that hap-pened in town,” Townsend ex-plained.Immediately following the tor-

nado, the radio signal was knockedoff-line, but came back a few hourslater. That is when resident BobHammer started recording whatwould have been the first voice res-idents would have heard over theradio following the disaster.“When you listen to it, (the an-

nouncer’s) voice kind of quivers,”Townsend said.Handwritten notices that were

read over the air are featured withthe display.Other exhibit items include a

business sign from Bluhm Electricthat was blown across Iowa’s bor-der into Minnesota, and an interac-tive device that explains themechanics of a tornado.The Floyd County Historical Mu-

seum is open 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Mon-day through Friday, and from 1-4p.m. on Saturdays.

Museum expands tornado display for anniversary

This sign from Bluhm Electric Company in Charles City ended up in an alfalfa field in LeRoy. Minn.— 45 miles away — following the tornado of 1968. It is part of the permanent tornado display at theFloyd County Historical Museum.

T-J Service221 N. Main • Charles City

(641) 228-1521 or (641) 228-3125

We Service All Brands

Tom & Julie Bock

Bring the Heat!The Big Green Egg

Smoker, Grill andOven in one!

• Rotary spark igniter• Stainless steel cooking grid• Heavy duty cast iron burner

Still looking for theperfect charcoal?

The BIG GREEN EGG charcoalburns longer and leaves less ash!

The Heritage• NuStone® side shelves• Thermometer• Utensil holder

The Tradition LS

Watch for our Grilling Democoming in June!

with a new grill from T-J Service

AUDIBEL HEARING CENTERSNOW Available To You!

CalvinTrepp, HISHearing Instrument Specialist

1626 S. Grand AvenueCharles City, IA 50616

Hours:Thurs. 9 a.m.-4 p.m.

(641) 228-7513Toll Free

1-866-945-2105

Over 25Years of FactoryTraining

No high pressure salesJust honest professional service!

HEARING CENTERof Charles City

— Press photo by Matt Barnes


Page3

CyanMagenta

YellowBlack

CY

MK

CY

MK

Charles City Tornado 40th Anniversary • Thursday, May 15, 2008 • Page 26 Charles City Tornado 40th Anniversary • Thursday, May 15, 2008 •

By Mark WicksManaging Editor"My God, there it is!"KCHA radio announcer John

Phillips would later say he thoughtthe microphone was off when helooked out the window of the down-town studio moments after broad-casting a report that a tornado wasstriking the south side of CharlesCity. Those last five words, though,are burned into many residents’memories as they recall the most in-famous day in the community’s his-tory."I remember the static and panic

in the announcer’s voice," said Bar-bara Fuls, who was then a senior atNashua High School on May 15,1968."Then the radio station went

blank," added Jeff Heller, who wasat his family’s farm outside of town.He and his mother watched as themassive twister traveled east ofwhere they were, then turned northright into Charles City. "I looked atmy mother and she started crying,saying the whole town was probablygone."Not quite, but close enough.What would later be categorized

as an F5 tornado tore through theheart of the community, travelingnorthward into the downtown areaand beyond, leaving a path of de-struction behind five blocks wideand 2-1/2 miles long through town.To this day, it remains among thebiggest tornadoes ever recorded inIowa – and one of the deadliest.Thirteen people lost their lives intown that day and another 462 wereinjured. The statistics are staggering– 337 homes destroyed and another2,000 damaged to one degree or an-other; 58 businesses wiped away and210 more damaged; eight churchesand three school buildings, along

with the Elks Lodge and other clubsites left in ruin; more than 1,250 ve-hicles demolished; signage erased;and hundreds upon hundreds of treesuprooted, sheared off or left broken.It was reported that 2,200 out ofCharles City’s 3,600 families at thetime had been directly impacted bythe tornado.Damage estimates were put at

$30 million in Charles City alone,with another $1.5 million inflictedelsewhere – primarily in nearbyElma which was also hit - during themonster twister’s 65-mile rampage.Translated into 2008 figures, accord-ing to Floyd County EmergencyManagement Agency Director Brid-get Moe, the damage to Charles Citywould have surpassed $184 million.

"Total devastation," eyewitnessCal Larson called it. "I was in shockseeing so much devastation.""I’d like to say I was a baby and

can’t remember the tornado," re-marked Kathy Krieger of CharlesCity, who was 14 at the time of thebig storm. "However, I do rememberit well and for all of us that experi-enced it, it is a memory that can’tpossibly be forgotten."

Unseasonably hotThose who experienced the hor-

ror first-hand all described the dayprior to the storm’s arrival as "hotand muggy." Elizabeth Bahe laterwrote in a student paper about thetornado that the temperature had al-ready climbed above 60 by 7 a.m.

and had reached a "humid 80 de-grees" by noon. The thermometer re-portedly topped out at 84 degrees –15 above normal for that time ofyear."It was so very, very hot," con-

firmed Bonnie Mitchell, a middle-aged mother at the time and ownerof the Golden Touch Beauty Salonon the north end of town.At 2:35 p.m., the National

Weather Service issued a tornadowatch for Floyd County.The Charles City schools back

then usually let out classes at 3:30p.m., but that particular day was aspecial one because of the annualgrade school track meet. As a result,students were dismissed 15 minutesearlier that day. Looking back, those

extra minutes may not have made adifference – then again, no one willever know for sure."Can you imagine what would

have happened if the tornado had hita little earlier, especially consideringwhat it did to the school buildings intown," more than one person won-dered out loud as they retold theirstories 40 years later.Then-12-year-old Jeff Sisson re-

called the wind switching directionas the afternoon progressed, startingto blow more from the south, and itgetting quite warm.“Winds were very gusty and the

running course at the CollegeGrounds was laid out east to west.We figured they did that becauserunning to the south for kids of thatage would have been hard that day,”remembered Sisson.He called the walk home to 714

ThirdAve. after school “very muggy.It was sunny and hazy.”Like many children, Sisson and

his siblings tuned into “Bart’s Club-house,” a children’s show hosted bythe KGLO-TV weatherman BartCurran that came on at 4 p.m. Overon Blunt Street, eight-year-old Car-nette Starr had just come home fromCentral Elementary and was alsowatching Bart’s Clubhouse.“I remember at school they told

us to go straight home because therewas bad weather coming,” said Starr.They were right.

‘Strange’ skyWitnesses said the sky began to

turn dark around 4:30 p.m."(It) went to a green-black color,"

recalled Susan (Blume) Butler, whonow resides in Round Lake Beach,Ill. "It looked so strange outside and

A moment frozen in timeForty years later, residents still vividly remember the day Charles City was nearly blown away

Horrifying imageThis famous shot of the 1968 Charles City tornado was taken west of the Floyd County Fairgrounds

by then-Sheriff L.L. Lane. To this day it remains one of the strongest and deadliest tornadoes on recordin Iowa, killing 13 people in Charles CIty and injuring 462 others.

Pictured from left to right: WashingtonSchool, First Methodist Church and Cen-tral Methodist Church.

TornadoContinued on page 4Tornado’s path through Charles City on May 15, 1968. That’s S. Main Street on the left, Hulin on the right and 9th Street running east-west.

CreditsThe Charles City 40th Anniversary special edi-

tion is a supplement to the Charles City Press.Extra copies are available at the Press office at801 Riverside Dr., Charles City IA 50616 or by call-ing (641) 228-3211.Stories were written by Mark Wicks and Matt

Barnes, with some submitted material through thePress’s tornado blog site at www.charlescity-press.com and the National Weather Service Website at: www.crh.noaa.gov/arx/?n=may151968.Special thanks to Kim Bucknell for the cover, JeffBoyne at the NWS, Jeff Sisson, Linda Klemesrud,Charlie Hardt, Franklin Kicherer, U.S. Army photosand the photo collection of Ken Carr which ap-pears throughout this edition.Wrecked cars

at Lion’s Field


Page25

CyanMagenta

YellowBlack

CY

MK

CY

MK

Charles City Tornado 40th Anniversary • Thursday, May 15, 2008 •

then the wind …"The National Weather Service

(NWS) reports that the tornado thatwould eventually hit Charles Cityfirst touched down a mile northeast ofHansell at 3:10 p.m. It tracked east ofAredale, west of Greene and east ofMarble Rock, growing bigger andmore intense as it went."We knew the storm was coming

because we started getting phone callsfrom Greene and Marble Rock want-ing the sheriff to report tornadoes,"commented Rhonda (Havner)Wilson,now of Denver, Iowa, but then an 18-year-old high school senior whoworked as an operator at the North-western Bell office in Charles City.She had just reported for work thatday at 4 p.m. "We were able to trackit by the phone calls as it got closerand closer to town."Cal Larson was a maintenance

worker at Salsbury Laboratories (nowFort Dodge Animal Health and Cam-brex-Charles City) and the son oflong-time meteorologist E. G. Larson.He grew up in the Weather Bureaubuilding in Charles City that his dadwas stationed at for 30 years, so heknew all about bad weather – and he

could feel something coming."We were told that a tornado was

down the other side of Marble Rockand we were told to put the coolingwater on and shut everything down,"he reported. "About 4:30 p.m. wecould see this front coming in fromthe southwest. We were heading forthe shower room and saw this littletornado come down somewhere nearthe fairgrounds and go right back up.I joked, ‘There’s our tornado, nowlet’s all go home!’"However, Larson said he wasn’t

satisfied that was all there was."That front was still coming, so I

went along the front of the chembuilding and out east where there wasa tank farm to get a better look."At 4:25 p.m., Bart’s Clubhouse

was interrupted for an importantweather bulletin.“The TV said there was a tornado

headed for Charles City. I went to tellmy parents across the hall, but mymom said don’t worry about it and wegot ready for supper,” recalled Starr.Several residents noted that it got

“eerily still” out. It began to rain, thencame the hail – golfball size and big-ger.“The size was enormous,” stated

Sisson. “ I remember them comingdown and splatting on our driveway

and thundering off of my father’s In-ternational Scout.”Charlie Hardt was an assistant

track coach at the time and was outlining the track at the CollegeGrounds."I had just finished when it started

to hail. I saw some dismal-lookingclouds and my son Kim said he sawthree things hanging down," reportedHardt. "I didn’t know my car wouldgo that fast as we took off for the highschool."Larson was standing on the Sals-

bury Laboratories property looking tothe west, when he turned around tosee what was coming from the south."I looked and there was this tor-

nado, this huge thing, real close to theground," he said. "I was standingthere and it looked like it was comingstraight towards me, getting biggerand bigger. I noticed that there werethese little dinky tornadoes that werecoming down and twisting into themain funnel.”Over at the Northwestern Bell

switchboard in Charles City, Wilsonsaid another operator took a call inwhich a woman screamed, "It’s here,it’s here. It’s at Charles Street!"

An ‘eerie’ stillness before the stormCharles City Tornado 40th Anniversary • Thursday, May 15, 2008 • Page 25

Automotive ServiceOf Excellence Certified

DAVE HUFFMANOWNER

641-228-30881000 5th Ave. (Hwy. 18 East)

Does Your

Body NeedSome Work?

COLLISION REPAIR SPECIALISTSQuality Craftsmanship Since 1983Complete Auto Body & Paint Shop

Professional Color Matching • Glass Installation

Huffman Auto Body, Inc.

MILLS INC.Plumbing & Heating

Lennox • Econar Geo312 North Main

641-228-2545

M

!"#$%&'&

()'$*)+,,,

$-./01

228-4543 • Toll Free: 877-233-1947email: [email protected]

206 N. Main, Suite 1ACharles City, IA

If you’d like insurance protection to cover you 24 hours a day,then why settle for 9:00 to 5:00 service?

As a local independent insurnace agent representing Auto-Owners Insurancecompany, I’m here for you. I’m your neighbor–somone you know, someoneyou can trust and respect.Luckily, emergencies don’t happen every day, but when they do isn’t it niceknowing I’ll be here to help you through it 24 hours a day 7 days a week?Stop in and see me, I’ll be delighted to serve you.

Discover Timeless Treasures at...Floyd County Historical Society

MUSEUMMon-Fri 9am-4pm; Sat-Sun 1-4pm

Admission: Adults $4.00. Age 10-18 $2.00. Under 9 free.Memberships: Single $10.00; Family $20.00.500 Gilbert Street, Charles City, IA

(641) 228-1099 Fax (641) 228-1157www.floydcountymuseum.org

TornadoContinued from page 3

TornadoContinued on page 16

Top: Looking north from Clark StreetBelow: The Elks Lodge

How to prepare adisaster supply kitHaving a disaster supply kit ready

to take with you at a moment’s noticeensures that you will have necessarysupplies no matter how fast you mayneed to evacuate. Pack supplies induffel bags or backpacks and keepthem in a designated place. Your kitwill also come in handy if you musttake shelter in your home. This listwill help ensure that your disastersupply kit includes all the essentials.

WaterPack at least one gallon per person

per day for at least three days.Store water in tightly sealed, non-

breakable plastic, fiberglass orenamel-lined metal containers.Change your water every six

months.Food

Pack enough food to last eachfamily member at least three days.Include canned and boxed foods

because they require little preparationand stay good for long periods oftime. Remember to bring a manualcan opener or to buy food in self-opening cans.Pack foods in sealed metal or plas-

tic containers.Replace foods every six months.Include foods for infants and fam-

ily members with special diets.Tools and equipment

Battery-powered radioFlashlightsSpare batteriesResealable plastic bagsWashcloths and towelsPaper cups and plates and plastic

utensilsToothbrushes, toothpaste, sham-

poo, deodorant, and other toiletriesHeavy-duty plastic garbage bagsChange of clothing and an extra

pair of shoes and socks for each per-sonBlankets or a sleep bag for each

personPersonal items

Personal identificationCopies of birth and marriage cer-

tificates, inventory of householdgoods, bank account numbers andother important documentsMapsExtra car and house keysPrescription medicationsFirst aid kit essentials

Adhesive bandagesAntacidAntibiotic ointmentAntidiarrhea medication

AntisepticAspirin and nonaspirin pain re-

lieverCleaning agents (isopropyl alco-

hol, hydrogen peroside, soap, germi-cide)Cotton ballsFirst aid manualGauze pad and rollLatex glovesLaxativeMoist towelettesNeedle and safety pinsPetroleum jellyScissorsSunscreenThermometerTriangular bandagesTweezers

Preparing for a tornadoDesignate a shelter area in your

home. Basements or storm cellars arethe safest. Otherwise, use an interiorroom or hallway on the ground floor.Practice getting to your home shel-

ter area.If you live in a mobile home, find

a sturdy building nearby where youcan take shelter. Mobile homes offerlittle protection in a tornado.Know the locations of designated

shelter areas in place like schools andshopping centers.

Are you prepared for when disaster strikes?

Above:Near where

the VFW PostHome is today

At left:Immaculate

C o n c e p t i o nChurch


Page5

CyanMagenta

YellowBlack

CY

MK

CY

MK


First known C.C. twisterwas century agoBy Mark WicksManaging Editorand Jeff BoyneNational Weather ServiceWhile the Charles City tornado of

1968 is by far and away the most widelytalked about, it is far from the only twisterto strike the area.According to the National Weather

Service office in La Crosse, Wis., therehave been a total of 23 confirmed torna-does in Floyd County since 1850, includ-ing one F5, two F4s, one F3, 10 F2s, fiveF1s and four F0s (se Fujita Sale at farright). Seven of those twisters have beenin or around Charles City.The first recorded tornado in Charles

City’s history came on June 7, 1908, whenan estimated F3 twister tracked northeastthrough town at at 4:50 p.m. One deathand 10 injuries were reported. A man(W.R. Beck) was killed by a falling chim-ney. About 200 buildings were damagedor destroyed.The tornado was said to have been 100

yards wide and was on the ground for 11miles. Five homes on the eastern side oftown were destroyed and about 20 othersseverely damaged.A farm house had only

the floorboards left. Total estimated dam-age at the time was around $10,000.The story made the June 8, 1908, edi-

tion of New York Times: “Tornado hitsIowa Town — Man and child killed inCharles City and 200 buildings de-stroyed.”“Path of the storm about 10 rods wide

and 10 miles long,” the Times reported.“The tornado just missed the CharlesCity College buildings, barns were car-ried several blocks.Water was lifted fromthe channel of the river through town.”Former Charles City residentWilliam

L. Burge, now of St. Louis, has collectedseveral 1908 tornado photographs andstories.“My favorite,” Burge shared, “is there

were four hobos playing poker on theriver bank and one was taken over to theother side and set down by the creamery.He would not give his name, but wantedto get out of town."On May 20, 1953, an F2 funnel was

seen in Charles City around 9 p.m. Nodeaths or injuries were reported and theonly noted damage were some downedtrees. More damage from the storm oc-curred in nearby Butler County, as the tor-nado tracked 20 miles on the ground and

Area no stranger to tornadoesCharles City Tornado 40th Anniversary • Thursday, May 15, 2008 • Page 24

Enhanced Fujita ScaleThe Enhanced Fujita Scale, which

was adopted as of Feb. 1, 2007, is usedto assign tornadoes a rating based onthe highest wind speeds and relateddamage. The original Fujita Scale — in-troduced in 1971 by Tetsuya "Ted" Fu-jita of the University of Chicago — wasrevised to better reflect tornado dam-age surveys.

The National Weather Service is theonly federal agency with authority to as-sign official tornado EF scale ratings.

EF Rating(based on 3 Second gust of wind)

Rating (mph)0 ............................65-851 ............................86-1102 ............................111-1353............................136-1654............................166-2005............................Over 200

There are 28 different damage indi-cators, ranging from small barns andoutbuildings (1) to softwood trees (28)

Serious efforts to count tornadoesdid not begin until the Weather Bureautornado watches in 1953.

— From the National WeatherService Web site

TwistersContinued on page 6

Damage fromthe Charles CItytornado of 1908

— Photoscourtesy of

Bill Burge

ProudShareholders!

Solutions for life.

300 North Main Street • Charles City, IA 50616 • 641-228-5315 • www.firstcitizens.nb.com

First Citizens National Bankhas been providing thefinancial needs of our

community for over 116 years.

We’re your bankers — yourneighbors — your friends!

Bank with us in Hometown!America’s

involved failed to reveal the death ofa youth, however, and a young mannamed Tom Brown was later foundto be alive.A procedure regarding severely

damaged buildings was also estab-lished. An “X” was to be painted onthem and they were to be roped off.Temporary wooden safety canopieswere to be used to enter businessesstill open if there were unsafe struc-tures nearby.Urban Renewal Director Don

Johnson suggested designating Cen-tral Park and the City Hall parkinglot as areas for construction of tentsas temporary places of business. Anoffice for insurance adjusters wasalso established in the courthouse.Help with housing came from Dr.

M.C. Ballenger, president of CharlesCity College, who announced thatthe college would close within thatfirst week after the storm and thatstudents would move out as soon aspossible to free up apartment rentalspace for displaced communitymembers. The students and facultyof the struggling college had met thatSunday evening and made the deci-sion to close.Private individuals and busi-

nesses also stepped up to the plate.Farmers and their chainsaws helpedclear away the fallen trees aroundtown.H.M. (Mully) Finch, the Oliver

tractor plant manager at the time, of-fered use of any of the Oliver equip-ment to persons who knew how tooperate it. Numerous other busi-nesses also supplied equipment. TheOliver plant itself sustained onlylimited damage, but the displayshowroom along Grand Avenue wasblown away.Local hog buyer and farmer

Harley Peters took on the job as co-ordinator of cleanup activities. Petersset up a system of block chairmen toclean up one street at a time, utilizinga citizen’s band radio to dispatchneeded equipment from the citysheds. Then Dale Studt and Petersorganized a ward system. The townwas divided into five wards and eachday, depending on who was avail-able to work, ward chairmen wereappointed to head the clean-up effortin that area.“It’s the most organized mass

confusion I’ve ever seen, but it’sworking,” said Tom Kraft, assistantcity engineer, in the May 27, 1968,Press about the clean-up.Waivers were needed by home

owners to clean up the rubble and re-

move damaged homes from privateproperty. Through this and the wardchairmen, the city could look at amap and tell at a glance where crewswere working, which houses hadbeen removed and which were wait-ing for removal.Thousands of destroyed vehicles

were hauled to Lion’s Field andstored until they could be disposedof.“I remember them being stacked

like cord wood on the site of the oldfootball field,” recalled Sisson.Bill Smith, in a tornado report to

his customers at Smith Nursery,noted a return of optimism:“Most of the people are in good

spirits and tackling the job with avengeance,” he wrote of the cleanupand rebuilding effort. “Everybodyfeels sure that it will just be a matterof time before Charles City is backon its feet and rarin’ to go.”

Time to rebuildIt was clear that the community

would never be the same again afterMay 15, 1968, but there was a deter-mination by officials and residentsalike to rebuild a new Charles City.Ironically, the top story in town in

1967 was urban renewal. Proposedplans had split support in the com-munity, with a number of town meet-ings held and a public group formedto oppose the urban renewal plansbeing presented. Those plans calledfor an entire new downtown shop-ping complex, extending along MainStreet between Riverside and Kelly,and westward to the mid-point in theblock west of Jackson.Mayor Brenton had indicated his

opposition to any form of govern-ment subsidized urban renewal in‘67 and council members were spliton the issue.“The ultimate decision is with the

council and generally it appears thecontroversy will be short-lived dur-ing 1968,” a Press article reported onMarch 11, 1968, in its Progress re-port.Of course, the tornado made up

the community’s mind for them.A presidential disaster declara-

tion helped provide federal fundingfor the recovery efforts and a $10million redevelopment plan was con-ceived. Voters approved $1,412,000in debt to finance a new city hall, firestation and community redevelop-ment project.Assisting Charles City through

the rebuilding process was a delega-tion of city officials fromAlbert Lea,Minn., which had been hit by a tor-nado a year earlier.“The biggest favor you can pos-

sibly do for Charles City is to behard-nosed, cold, unwavering aboutthe building code,” Albert LeaMayor Niles R. Shoff said. “Our pri-mary concern and our duty was tobuild just as good a town afterwards,if not better than we had.”He emphasized that local resi-

dents could be victimized by un-scrupulous fly-by-night contractorswho would be converging on thetown.The community delegations dis-

cussed temporary use of trailer hous-ing, building inspections, workingwith contractors, building permitsand, in particular, warned of troublewith basement walls that could becracked from the pressure generatedby the tornado.When plans to secure state and

federal funds to install a disasterwarning system did not materialize,Charles City citizens, firms and or-ganizations stepped forward andhelped raise more than $20,000 sothat a new community warning sys-tem could become a reality.School voters, meanwhile, ap-

proved a $3,535,000 bond issue forthe $5,300,000 school building pro-gram. The Charles City Board of Ed-ucation decided to cancel elementaryschool classes for the rest of theschool year. McKinley, the ManualArts Building and Washingtonschools all sustained major, if notcomplete damage. Central Elemen-tary, however, was repairable.It was decided to rebuild Wash-

ington on the same site. ManualArtswould be rebuilt as an addition to thejunior high school and an addition toJefferson would replace McKinley.Regular classes at the junior and

senior highs — which survived thestorm — did resume on May 27,with classes running through June 4.Those buildings were not damagedand 210 Charles City seniors werepresented their diplomas on June 5.“Julie Groesbeck, who suffered a

leg injury in the tornado, hobbledbravely down the aisle on crutchesand made it across the stage withoutthe encumbering aids,” the June 6Press that year reported. “Parents,who would have no after-graduationparties in their homes, but would‘make do,’watched with tear-stainedfaces.”The title of the commencement

address given by Supt. H.J. Eastmanwas, “The Rising Sun Looks On ANew Day.” Dr. Max Johns, vicepresident of the school board,pledged to the graduates that his gen-eration, “Will build the churches,homes and businesses. We will builda better Charles City.”

Determined community rebuilds from the rubbleRecovery

Continued from page 23A Walk Down Main Street on May 14, 1968

The following directory of businesses that existed on Main Street on May 14,1968, the day before the tornado, is from the book “Past Harvests: A History ofFloyd County to 1996” by Cameron Hanson and Heather Hull. Published in 1996,the book was commissioned by the Floyd County Historical Society.

Businesses are listed from the south to the north beginning at Main Street’s in-tersection with the street listed. The odd-numbered addresses were on the westside and even-numbered on the east. Private residences/apartments not listed.

Gilbert Street(Highway 18/218)106 A & W Root Beer Drive-In101 Floyd County Courthouse100 Obie’s Standard Service

Court Street99 Ray’s Family Kitchen98 Abstract and Title Service97 Ken’s Radio and TV Sales96 Shriver’s Groceries94 Bradens93 Charles City Chamber of Com-

merce; Des Moines Register and Trib-une Agency; Frye and McCartney

92 Three-R Wood Shop91 Marigold Dairies; Howlyn’s Office

Supply90 Kepple Realty89 Sylvester’s Home Interiors

Cedar River95 Melody Lounge97 All Iowa Sewing Company

Riverside Drive100 Charles City Press101 George Wentland Property

Management and Insurance103 Gambles104 Sears and Roebuck107 Floyd County Museum109 J.C. Penney Store112 Spurgeon’s113 Van Rees Music115 Spic and Span Bakery116 Field Drug118 Nockles Shoe Store119 Ace Lounge120 Mode-O-Day121 Ben Franklin Store121 1/2 Gilbert Hotel122 Muesel Hardware

Clark Street200 Woolworths201 Weinberger Pharmacy201 1/2 Hohler Piano Service203 Garthwaite’s Office Supply203 1/2 Iowa Title and Reality; Mu-

tual Benefit Life Insurance; LeRoy Nel-son, Attorney

204 Lidd’s Clothing205 Coast-to-Coast206 Brown’s Shoe Fit208 Citizens National Bank209 Charles City Trading Store210 Butler’s Men’s Wear210 1/2 Credit Bureau of Chickasaw

and Floyd County; Clyde King Insur-ance; K.T. Marsh Insurance

211 Van’s Hardware214 Montgomery Ward215 Dutch Oven Bakery216 Western Auto217 Dean Jewelers219 Avco Delta Finance220 Janan’s Children’s Clothing221 McDermott TV Service222 Koffee Kup; May Drug

223 Uptown Cafe

Kelly Street300 Sherwin-Williams Paint; Larry’s

Barber Shop; Sharlet’s Beauty Salon300 1/2 KCHA Radio302 Ellis Jewelry304 Thorp Credit306 Muller’s Clothing306 1/2 Milady’s Beauty Shoppe308 Park Fashion310 Bluhm Electric; Farmers Mutual

Insurance; Martens Agency Insuranceand Real Estate

312 Blunt Printing314 Davis Paint316 Cora’s Counter318 Iowa Public Service320 Gibson’s Discount Store Blunt

Street400 Credit Finance Company410 Commercial Trust and Savings

Bank404 Wamsley’s Plumbing and Heat-

ing406 Culbert Electric409 Charles Theater414 Mid-Town DX Gas Station417 Knights of Columbus419 Charles City Savings and Loan;

McMains Realtors; Russell McMains In-surance

421 Peerless Photo423 Glen’s Barber Shop

Ferguson Street500 United States Post Office501 B&L Shell Service Station509 Cedar Valley Farm Fleet Dis-

tributing512 Spar Maple Lanes Bowling523 Charles City Laundry and

Cleaners

Hulin Street600 Young’s Beauty601 Pederson Drive-In Cleaners604 Folkerts Printing615 Frudden Lumber620 Lindemere Dairy; Matthews

Products Machine Shop624 Duane’s Gulf Service Station

Spriggs Street700 Smith Lumber Company701 Charles City Granite Works703 Golden Touch Beauty Salon705 Farm Bureau; Farm Bureau In-

surance707 Knitting Korner721 Eli Goldstein Junk Dealer726 Charles City Creamery

Richings Street803 Whirlaway Car Wash804 Sar Seed Farms805 Oliver Corporation Warehouse807 North Main Barber Shop810 Checkerboard Cafe813 S&D Tavern


Page23

CyanMagenta

YellowBlack

CY

MK

CY

MK


was estimated to be 125 yards in width.A year later, on July 8, another F2 tornado

was reported eight miles north of Charles Cityaround 3 p.m., damaging a barn and farm ma-chinery. There were no deaths or injuries fromthe 200-yard-wide twister that was only on theground for about a mile.A small funnel cloud, rated an F0, was re-

ported two miles west of Charles City at 5:05p.m. on June 16, 1984. No injuries and nodamage was listed.Likewise for an F0 on June 22, 1984, which

was sighted at 6:02 p.m. five miles south oftown.An F2 tornado was reported traveling 12

miles from Nora Springs to seven miles westof Charles City on July 10, 1993. It wassighted near Nora Springs at 12:55 p.m. andoutside of Charles City at 1:25 p.m. The 110-yard-wide twister caused no reported injuriesbut several farmsteads were damaged.An F1 tornado onAug. 23, 1997, damaged

seven farms and destroyed numerous grainbins and outbuildings around 8 p.m. Eight cat-tle were killed by downed power lines, butthere were no reported human injuries. Thetwister was said to have been 150 yards wideand on the ground for five miles.In addition to the Charles City twisters,

Floyd County has also seen 15 other con-

firmed tornadoes since 1908. The worst wasan estimated F4 on May 9, 1918, that killedseven people and injured 15 others during a50-mile tirade from near Pearl Rock to Cal-mar. Reportedly 800 yards wide, the tornadotouched down in the extreme southeast cornerof Floyd County and moved into Chickasawand Winneshiek counties, where most of thedamage and all of the deaths occurred.Seventeen people were hurt when another

F4 touched down on May 5, 1965, two milesnorth of Nora Springs and traveled 80 milesthrough a total of six counties. Reported to be150 yards wide, it moved east-northeast, pass-ing within three miles of Cresco and liftingnear Yucatan, Minn. Two large farm houses inWinneshiek County were lost and some 28farms damaged or destroyed. Six people inFloyd County were injured, along with five inHoward County and six in Minnesota.An F2 tornado on June 11, 1925, injured

eight people in a 10-mile path from FarmersGrove to five miles northwest of Greene.Touching down at 6:30 p.m., it started out inButler County and moved north, mowingdown trees at the meeting place known asFarmers Grove. A farm five miles northwestof Greene lost all of its barns.That same storm produced a second F2 tor-

nado at about the same time, said to be 200yards wide and skipping along the ground for20 miles. It caused $10,000 damage to ruralhomes from two miles south of Marble Rock

to Carrville.Two people in Colwell were hurt in 1986

when an F2 struck a farmhouse, ripping off theroof and collapsing the house inward over thebasement.A number of outbuildings were alsodestroyed in the short-lived twister which wasonly said to be 25 yards wide and on theground for 0.2 miles.On July 20, 1999, an F1 tornado touched

down on the Floyd-Chickasaw county linenorth of Nashua and traveled just 0.1 milenortheast. However, the 60-yard-wide twisterextensively damaged two farms, blew down asilo, damaged crops, sheared off trees anddowned utility poles in it’s brief stint. Golf-ball-to-baseball-size hail was also reported.Anestimated $15,000 in crop damage was causedby the storm.The estimated dollar amount was the same

but this time it was in damage to homes whenan F2 hit several homes on the southwest edgeof Rockford around 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 6,1936.Other Floyd County tornadoes on record

include:• May 11, 1937, an F2 near Rudd at 9 p.m.

Abarn and other farm buildings destroyed, butno injuries.• Aug. 27, 1964, an F2 around 11 p.m. No

other information available.• Sept. 9, 1970, an F2 near Greene at 2:42

p.m. moved into Floyd County, destroyingsome barns and moving a truck 300 feet.

• Aug. 24, 1975, an F0 is reported at 8:45p.m. No other information available.• March 24, 1988, a rare winter F1 touched

down briefly a mile east of Nora Springsaround 3:15 p.m., causing some structuraldamage.• June 16, 1990, an F1 touched down at

10:54 p.m. three miles northeast of NoraSprings and caused extensive damage to sev-eral; farmsteads as it moved towards Rudd forfive miles.• July 6, 1994, an F1 was reported at 1:47

p.m. No other information available.• June 16, 2004, a brief F0 touchdown two

miles north of Rudd at 2:49 caused no dam-age.

* Some of the National Weather Servicedata used for this study came from “StormData and Significant Tornadoes — 1680-1991,” by Thomas P. Grazulis.

Summary of Floyd County tornadoes recorded since 1908Charles City Tornado 40th Anniversary • Thursday, May 15, 2008 • Page 23

Bill FellerFinancial AdvisorPrincor Registered RepresentativeFinancial Advisor101 N. Main StreetCharles City, IA 50616

(641) [email protected]

Principal Life Insurance Company (“The Principal®”) Des Moines, IA 50392-0001. Insurance offered through Principal Life Insurance Company. Securities and advisory prod-ucts offered through Princor Financial Services Corporation, member SIPC, Des Moines, IA 50392-0200. Principal Life and Princor are members of the Principal FinancialGroup® “The Principal®” is a registered trademark of Principal Life Insurance Company.#6572820007

WE UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU’RE WORKING FOR®

www.principal.com

FELLER&ASSOCIATES

• Simplify your finances• Create the income you need

• Avoid unnecessary income taxes• Manage your investment risk

Cedar HealthACC Enterprise

807 Fifth Street • Charles City, IA 50616641-228-1612

For those whodeserve the “Best”

Iowa’s Best Care Facility!Call us for all your health care needs!• Skilled Nursing Care• Long-Term Care• Secure Alzheimer’s Unit• Residential Care• Physical, Occupational, and Speech Therapy

EXCAVATING CORP.P

PROFESSIONALSite Preparation &General Excavatingare just a phone call away!

Phone 641.228.7965Fax 641.228.2278

CALL US FIRST 641-228-7965when you want the job done correctly and efficiently!

CHARLES CITY, IA 50616(641) 228-1822 • E-mail [email protected]

Patricia A. HuxsolIndependent Consultant

“I Sell Books Kids Love!”

Children’s Books Available InSpanish & Other Languages As Well

1003 Fifth AvenueCharles City, IA 50616

641-228-2183 or 1-800-392-6633

Circle KCommunications, Inc.

www.circlekcom.comA U T H O R I Z E D A G E N T®

Two-Way Radio Sales • Wireless Wans • Network Planning

* Wireless IP Networks * Kenwood Two-Way Radios* Cellular Phones and Accessories

We can remote controlanything without wires.

Ask About our 90 Pill Program!Our cash price may be lower than your insurance copay!

These drugs are $12.00 or lower. No more mail order and the waiting!!AmitriptylineAmilodipineAtenololBenazeprilCarbamazepineDigoxinDiltiazem Tablets

DiphenhydramineDoxazosinEnalaprilEstradiolFerrous SulfateFluoxetine (10, 20)Furosemide

GlyburideHydrochlorothiazideIbuprofenMetforminMetoclopramideMetopramideMetoprolol Tartrate

NaproxenPotassium TabletsRanitidineSimvastatin (10, 20, 40)TerazosinTramadolTrazodone

Some Strength exclusions apply. List may be added to or subtracted from based on manufacturer price changes.

Brad Harms, RphConnnor’s Clinic Pharmacy1501 S. Main • Charles City • 641-228-4136

Many otherprescriptions notlisted are available.

TwistersContinued from page 5

1948 Ionia tornado in Chickasaw Co.

medical care, food and first aid being ad-dressed, city and county officials could beginto tackle other things like restoring infrastruc-ture and clearing away the debris.The city council immediately declared a

state of emergency. Gov. Harold Hughes wasin Charles City the next day to see the devas-tation first-hand and meet with communityleaders, promising state assistance and Na-tional Guard support.A convoy of trucks paraded throughout the

city all day on May 16, removing debris andwrecked cars. Flammable material was takento the city dump and burned. Bricks, concrete,iron and other non-flammable material wastaken to area behind Allied Construction Co.on South Grand.“I remember a never ending plume of

smoke and fire at the ShawAvenue dump siteas debris was hauled and burned continuouslyfor months following the storm,” commentedJeff Sisson, who was 12 years old back in1968. “I recall seeing washers and dryers,freezers, lawn mowers and lots of things in apile that seemed 30-40 feet tall. Every block inthe devastated area had a pile like this.”National Guardsmen were in place by

Thursday night to provide security, taking uppositions around the downtown area. SheriffL.L. Lane had reports that downtown lootinghad taken place within 20 minutes of the dis-

aster. A curfew was put in place requiring allunauthorized personnel to be out of the down-town disaster area by 9:30 p.m.Absolutely no sight-seers were allowed in

Charles City at first. The highways into townwere already crowded by Wednesday night,but if you were not a resident or an emergencyresponse volunteer, you didn’t get in. All per-sons wanting to volunteer had to report to theFloyd County Courthouse for an official pass.Complicating matters was a report that the

Cedar River was steadily rising in the wake ofthe storm. High water cut off the Oak Parkarea, but by 3:30 a.m. Friday, the river begandropping back to normal.Electrical service to 40 percent of the town

was restored by 6 p.m. the first night, but forother areas like the downtown, the only light atnight came from emergency vehicles andflares. The hospital had power, thanks to twoemergency generators, but there was no citywater available. Milk trucks were loaded withwater, which was then pumped into the hospi-tal’s pipes. Milk cans were also filled withwater for other parts of town.Throughout the first couple of nights, only

two sources of gasoline were still available,Holiday station and Banks Standard Service.At times, emergency vehicles ran dangerouslylow on fuel.Phone service was restored by Saturday

night, thanks to 150 repair crewmen who de-scended on Charles City. Rhonda (Havner)

Wilson was an 18-year-old operator helping toman the local switchboard under a makeshifttent of plastic sheeting. The roof had beenripped off in the tornado.“We were actually back up and running in

part that first night,” she reported. “It was dis-heartening to take all those calls from peopletrying to find out what happened to their lovedones. I had seen those areas of town and knewit wasn’t good. It was hard, but it was some-thing you just knew you had to do.”Wilson also helped out with the Red Cross

switchboard in the days that followed. It wasthe first few nights, though, that she particu-larly recalls.“The eeriest thing I remember is the com-

plete silence at night, except for sirens,” shecommented. “There were the eerie shapes of apartially demolished Central School and otherstrange shadows you no longer recognized.But that complete silence, I will never forget.”Near-normal postal service resumed by that

next Monday and four local grocery stores re-opened during daylight hours, despite havingno electricity, so that food and related items instock could be distributed.

Organized chaosThe courthouse, which has only been

slightly damaged, became headquarters for themassive clean-up efforts. Generators suppliedpower and light.Sheriff Lane headed up the disaster unit and

Floyd County Civil Defense Director JimMc-Neilus coordinated the efforts of the estimated300 Guardsmen who reported. They had out-side help, as well. Jim Francis, executive di-rector for the Cerro Gordo County CivilDefense, was on hand giving information topersons on where they could go for housingand food, while Carl Blackburn, secretary oftheAFL-CIO, kept the list of homeless personswho were being relocated. Floyd County Ex-tension Director Bob McCrackin, meanwhile,was in charge of issuing work passes.Lack of communication for thousands of

people outside of Charles City trying to getword on relatives and friends was a major ob-stacle. The Floyd County Department of So-cial Welfare attempted to compile lists of theinjured and make it available at the courthouseto eliminate confusion by those seeking infor-mation.The city council directed that recovered

bodies be taken to Floyd County MemorialHospital for identification and the names ofdead directed to mayor’s office, with the RedCross responsible for notification of next ofkin. The May 20, 1968, Press reported thedeath toll had originally been put at 14, butthere was some confusion regarding the listingof a boy identified as Tom Hall or Tom Brown.A search of the many morgues and hospitals

‘Never ending plume of smoke and fire’ at Shaw dump siteRecovery

Continued from page 22

RecoveryContinued on page 24


Page7

CyanMagenta

YellowBlack

CY

MK

CY

MK

Charles City Tornado 40th Anniversary • Thursday, May 15, 2008 • Page 22

from Colwell and New Hampton.“I think we owe a lot to the folks

from surrounding towns like Bel-mond,” remarked Bonnie Mitchell.“TheAmish and Mennonite families,too. They walked the fields fromCharles City to Elma picking up de-bris so that the farmers could plow.The fields were just full of debris.”She noted that her husband, Bud,

was given the task of overseeing min-imum security prisoners fromAnamosa who were bused in to helpwith the clean up.In addition, 88 Job Corps person-

nel arrived by bus to aid in clearingthe debris. They came from PoplarBluffs, Mo., and Ojibway, Mich., inresponse to Mayor Harry Brenton’srequest for help.Donations also poured in. Truck-

loads of household items and cloth-ing arrived from Dubuque from theMasons and Eastern Star membersthere. The response to the plea forclothing was so great that the RedCross asked donors to “hold off” untilwhat had already come in was sorted.The disaster even made interna-

tional news. Photos of the CharlesCity devastation appeared in newspa-

pers in Frankfurt, Germany. Collec-tions were taken in Frankfurt and Bo-cholt for clothes and blankets and aship offered to transport the packages.The Germans said they were gratefulfor the CARE packages received afterWWII and were simply returning thefavor.The Red Cross set up shop in St.

John Evangelical Lutheran Church,which was really the only church intown not heavily damaged. The Sal-vation Army, meanwhile, had aportable canteen truck on site withinan hour, with more to follow, and es-tablished an emergency relief stationat Immaculate Conception School. Itreportedly was serving 10,000 mealsa day that first week after the storm.Likewise, the Red Cross figured52,000 meals and snacks were servedthe first week, with as many as 15mobile units in the area making sureeveryone had something to eat. TheRed Cross also arranged for sleepingquarters for the army of volunteerworkers.The residents who still had a home

were doing their part to help out, aswell.Harriet (Eikenberry) Holzer, who

is now 83, said she and her husbandhad 70 people, at one time or another,

in their home on Ohio Avenue thatfirst night.“We took in three families, we

were wall-to-wall people,” she re-ported. “We also had people comelooking for their families and friends.My cousins brought a truckload ofsupplies. We had our own well and a30 gallon tank, so we had access towater for awhile.”There were four wounded people

among their guests that the Holzerscared for, including one womanwhose mouth was full of debris.“She opened her mouth and it was

all black,” said Harriet. “Her falseteeth were wedged so far back intoher jaw bone that a dentist had toeventually pull them back out.”For 25 years following the tor-

nado, the Holzers would host apotluck supper of thanks that they hadsurvived. Everyone who came to theirhouse that May in 1968 was alwaysinvited.“We had as many as 25 attend

each year, we always had someonejoin us,” Harriet commented,

Restoring orderWith peoples’ immediate needs for

Red Cross, Salvation Army on handCharles City Tornado 40th Anniversary • Thursday, May 15, 2008 •

The May 15-16, 1968, tornadooutbreak was a significant anddeadly tornado outbreak. It affectedthe states of:Arkansas, Illinois, Indi-ana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Mis-sissippi, Missouri, Ohio, andTennessee. This outbreak produced39 tornadoes from 3:28 p.m. CDT onMay 15 through 2:50 a.m. CDT onMay 16. This included two F5 torna-does in northeast Iowa. Table 1 (atright) provides a summary of the tor-nado intensities during this outbreak.These tornadoes caused 72 fatal-

ities and 1,203 injuries. It was one ofthe deadliest tornado outbreaks inthe United States during the 1960sand is one of the deadliest outbreaksever in Arkansas history. Table 2provides a break down by state of thefatalities and injuries during this out-break.

Outbreak detailsAs an anomalously deep low

pressure system moved east out ofthe Central and High Plains into theMid and Upper Mississippi RiverValley during the afternoon of May15, 1968, severe weather developedquickly. The first tornado occurred insoutheast Minnesota (Dakota and

Rice counties) at 3:28 p.m. CDT.During the next three hours, another18 tornadoes were reported acrossIllinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Min-nesota and Missouri. This includedtwo F5 tornadoes that hit central andeastern parts of Iowa about 45 min-utes apart during the late afternoon.These two tornadoes caused 18 fa-talities and 618 injuries.The first F5 tornado moved

through five counties and 65 miles.It affected Charles City just before 5p.m. CDT (4:47 p.m.) destroyingmuch of the area. Damage figureswere estimated up to $30 million inCharles City alone, while $1.5 mil-lion of damage was recorded else-

where. This tornado killed 13 and in-jured 462 others. The second F5 tor-nado affected Fayette County around4:57 p.m. CDT. It damaged or de-stroyed nearly 1,000 homes. Thehardest hit areas were Oelwein andMaynard where homes were com-pletely swept away from their foun-dations. Five people were killedwhile 156 others were injured. Dam-age was estimated at $21 million.These were two of four F5 tornadoesacross the United States in 1968, theothers being in southeastern Ohio onApril 23 and in southwestern Min-nesota on June 13. The next and lastofficial F5 tornado in Iowa took

place in Jordan on June 13, 1976.After the first tornadoes struck

the Upper Mississippi River Valley,the tornadic activity developed fur-ther south and east during theevening hours of May 15 and earlymorning hours of May 16. Severaldeadly tornadoes occurred inArkansas. One of the tornadoestouched down west of Jonesboro be-fore hitting the Craighead Countycity itself at around 10 p.m. CDT.The tornado, which caught most res-idents by surprise since most of thewarning systems failed, killed atleast 34. One more person was killedin neighboring Jackson County. The

tornado was the deadliest inArkansas since an F4 tornado that af-fected White County on March 21,1952, killing 50 people.The same city was hit by another

destructive tornado five years laterkilling at least three and injuring 250others while leaving much more de-struction throughout the city than the1968 event. The damage figureswere about $62 million in 1973 dol-lars. Another F4 tornado just to thewest of Jonesboro killed seven in OilTrough in Independence County andthree others were killed in BaxterCounty.The activity ceased across the

Deep South when the final tornadoestouched down across the metropoli-tan Memphis area and northern Mis-sissippi, as well as in the FortWayne, Ind., area.

— Provided by Jeff Boyne,National Weather Service

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/arx

EDITOR’S NOTE— For more onthe unusual weather conditions thattook place on May 15-16, 1968, visitthe NWSWeb site at:http://www.crh.noaa.gov/arx/?n=

may151968

The tornado outbreak of May 15-16, 1968

OMPU RONICSFor All Your Computer Needs

Contact Craig Haberkorn - Owner1004 5th Ave., Charles City, IA (641) 228-7477

23 Years Experience

257-4019 • FAX: 257-4230 email: [email protected] • www.fiai.net

Get On The Internet Today!

Computer Sales, Service,Repair, Upgrades, Reloads,Spyware and Virus Removal

DSL Now Availablein Charles City and Nashua

Twistin’ Up Savings

Since 1923in Charles City

204 North Main, Charles City, Iowa

“Clothing& Gifts for Men& Women”

HOURS:Mon-Fri. 9-5:30; Sat. 9-4

Lidd & Cordray Ltd.

Spring Jackets• Men’s • Women’s

$1968 OFF

Docker Pants$4000

• Men’s • Women’s

20% OFF


Jeans

Now $2999

Ad GoodMay 15-17, 2008

3 Days Only!Thursday

FridaySaturday

All Silk Ties$1968

Values to $45COMET BOWLHwy 218 South, Charles City, IA • www.cometbowl.com

Charles City’s choice forGreat Food & Great Fun for the last 35 years!

Last chance to sign-up for

Sand VolleyballStarting Sunday, May 18

641-228-2115

Table 1Summary of May 15-16 tornadoes by state, strength and number:State Strength Number

F0 F1 F2 F3 F4 F5Arkansas 0 1 0 1 2 0 4Illinois 0 1 0 3 0 0 4Indiana 0 0 3 1 0 0 4Iowa 0 2 1 0 0 2 5Kansas 0 0 0 1 0 0 1Minnesota 1 3 1 0 0 0 5Mississippi 0 2 1 0 0 0 3Missouri 0 5 3 1 0 0 9Ohio 0 1 1 0 0 0 2Tennessee 0 3 0 0 0 0 3

Table 2Summary of Fatalities & Injuriesfrom May 15-16, 1968 Outbreak:

State Fatalities InjuriesArkansas 45 413Illinois 8 135Indiana 1 20Iowa 18 619Minnesota 0 3Mississippi 0 7Missouri 0 6Totals 72 1203

905 Gilbert Street • Charles City, Iowa

Come seeour remodel!

StillwaterGreenhouse

“Your #1 Green House in the Country”3110 Shadow Ave., Orchard, IA

641-732-3252Hours: 8-8 Monday - Saturday

Directions: From Charles City 18 East, Turn Left onUnderwood Ave (New Haven Blacktop), till Mitchell LineStreet, Turn Left 2 Miles. Green house is on the corner of

Shadow Ave. and Mitchell Line St.

Quality at an Affordable Price

April - JuneSpring Flowers &Vegetable Plants

September-OctoberHardy Mums,

Pumpkins & Squash

Need a Wind Break, VegetableGarden or Landscape Coach?

WE CAN HELP!Delivery available

Get to Know Your Mover!“We” Pick Up...“We” Deliver, On TimeDIRECT TO YOU!!

• Free Estimates• Full & Partial Loads• Packing Services Available• No Hidden Costs• Licensed & Insured

• Nationwide• Climate Controlled Storage• Boxes & Moving Supplies• No Temporary Workers• Same Profesional MoversFrom Start to Finish

(Toll Free) 1-888-896-0433641-228-7214

www.fieldbrosmoving.comReferences Available US DOT# 714503

ARE YOU SHORT ON PACKING SUPPLIES?We sell boxes, bubble wrap and all necessary moving materials.

First 50 Miles to House Charged as a Local Call

Above: Floyd County Civil DefenseDirector Jim McNeilus (at left).Below: a city planning meeting

RecoveryContinued from page 21


Cy

anM

agen

taYe

llow

Blac

k

Page21

CyanM

agentaYellow

Black

CY

MK

CY

MK


So, just how many tornadoes were there inthe Charles City area that day 40 years ago?

The National Weather Service only officiallycounts the one that devastated much of CharlesCity on May 15, 1968. However, witnesses thatday have reported seeing two and even threeseparate funnels on the ground before two ofthem apparently joined forcesand headed into Charles City.

“That very well could havebeen,” said Jeff Boyne of theNational Weather Service officein La Crosse, Wis. “With theconditions that were in placethat day, there could have beena whole family of funnels bornout of that system. In terms ofdamage, though, it is counted asone tornado.”

Then-Floyd County Memo-rial Hospital AdministratorJames Johnson reported in thepapers the following day that hesaw as many as three funnelsoutside of town. A funnel cloudwas sighted near near MarbleRock just after 4 p.m. that day.Around 4:15 p.m., there werereports of two funnel clouds near Oakwood, 12miles southwest of Charles City, tracking to-wards town.

Editors Cameron Hanson and Heather Hullwrote in their book, “Past Harvests: A History ofFloyd County to 1996,” that the two funnelsparted ways near the Robert Howe farm, 7-1/2miles from Charles City. One headed south to-wards Greene, but the other reportedly contin-ued to track northeast and merged with a thirdfunnel cloud coming in from the east. That’s thetornado that hit Charles City.

Ben Krall, who at the time was working forFS Service Company, also reported seeing twotornadoes.

“Every tornado is said to have an orange ballin it,” Krall told then-student Elizabeth Bahe fora paper she wrote on the storm. “I saw it whenthe two tornadoes joined right in front of me.”

According to the NationalWeather Service, the 1968 tor-nado first touched down a milenortheast of Hansell at 3:10p.m. and passed east of Aredale,west of Greene, east of MarbleRock and grew larger and moreintense just before it hit CharlesCity. It continued northeast,striking Elma and causing an-other $1.5 million in damagebefore turing north and finallydissipating two miles south ofChester — four miles south ofthe Minnesota border. The mon-ster twister was estimated tohave been 400 yards wide, withwinds in excess of 300 milesper hour and traveled a distanceof 65 miles on the ground.

In all, there were seven con-firmed tornadoes reported on May 15, 1968, inthe La Crosse Region. Nationally, the May 15-16 tornado outbreak in 1968 resulted in 39 con-firmed tornadoes in Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana,Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Mississippi, Mis-souri, Ohio and Tennessee — from 2:28 p.m.CST on May 15 through 1:50 a.m. CST on May16.

A total of 72 fatalities and 1,203 injurieswere recorded from one of the deadliest out-breaks in U.S. history.

C.C. tornado said to have beenmerger of two funnel clouds

New DesignsNew Ideas

New Vision

219 N. Main Street - Charles City - 641-228-2931

Dean Jewelers is changing to better serve it’sgreat customers. Better quality, more

personalized service and creative designing.

“Our customers are one of a kind and theirjewelry should be one of a kind as well!”

“Hello, I’m Dave Davidsonfrom Dean Jewelers. I look

forward to meeting you anddesigning something special

just for you and at a verycompetitive price!”Dave Davidson

Jewelry Designer

Allied Construction Co. Inc.1211 S. Main, Charles City

641-228-4255

PPaavviinnggPPaavviinnggTThhee WWaayyTThhee WWaayy

SSiinncceeSSiinnccee1199552211995522

GreatReasons ToBuy Your

Next Vehicle Locally FromMike Molstead Motors



10

“like nobody else”

1501 S. Grand • Charles City(641) 228-7220 • 1-800-332-2579

HOURS:Mon. 8:30am-8:00pm

Tues./Wed./Thurs./Fri. 8:30am-6:00pmSat. 8:30am-4:00pm

Check out our inventory and current promotions atwww.mikemolsteadmotors.com

1SelectionMike Molstead Motors has North Iowa’sfinest selection ofnew and usedvehicles and if wedon’t have whatyou want, we will find it!

2SavingsMike guarantees he will meet or beat anybody’sprice. You will not pay moreto do business locally!

3Great PeopleMike Molstead Motors employs 30 ofyour neighbors, people who are yourfriends, people who have kids in ourschools, people you go to church with - all well trained professionals! 4Service

Mike Molstead Motors provide “state of theart” diagnostic and repair equipment with 6expertly trained and certifiedtechnicians to ensure the vehicle you buy stays in tip-top shape.

6WarrantiesOur new vehicles are built to last like never before and they’re backed up by factory warranties of up to 10 years. We also offer extended service contracts to cover the expense of maintaining your vehicle. See us for details.5Financing

Mike Molstead Motors has access to a wide variety of banksand factory lending institutions offering theabsolute best financing with the lowest rates.

7Peace of MindMike Molstead Motors stands behind the productswe sell 100%. We have the ability to screen usedcars for manufacturer recallsand have vehicle service his-tories available on used carsserviced at the dealership.Mike personally guarantees your 100% satisfaction!

8Great IntentionsMike Molstead Motors strives to establish and maintain long-term relationships with our cutomers! We are committed to complete customer satisfaction. Our goal is your 100%complete satisfaction.

9VarietyToyota, Honda, Ford, Chrysler, Lexus. Youname them, we have them or we can get them.We will get you whatever you want for lessmoney than you will pay going out of town.10High Standards

At Mike Molstead Motors, we hold ourselves to ahigher standard so your vehicle shoppingexperience will be a positive experiencethat will keep you coming back. Wewant you to be a “customer for life”.

GUARANTEE

We want to be North Iowa’s #1 Volume Dealer!

Charles City’s Hometown Dealer!


This funnel cloud wasone of three sighted by theRobert Howe family 7-1/2miles southwest of CharlesCity on May 15, 1968.

Want to read moreabout the CharlesCity tornado of ‘68?

The National Weather Service inLa Crosse, Wis., has dedicated a spe-cial Web site dedicated to the historicCharles City tornado of 1968. Go to:http://www.crh.noaa.gov/arx/?n=may151968 online to find out more aboutthe weather conditions that conspiredto produce killer tornadoes around thecountry; tornado statistics and com-parisons; view additional photos fromthe disaster; read eyewitness ac-counts; and even share your own ob-servations and feelings.

For even faster access, simplyclick on the NWS link on the Press’home page at www.charlescity-press.com.

walk around everything and you sawpeople walking around in a daze, kindof bloody, and everyone was justshocked,” remembered Elaine Mead.

Jim Hilgendorf was 25 and amember of the ambulance crew in1968. He and Wes Banks were out ona call with one of the ambulanceswhen the tornado hit and immediatelybegan assisting people.

“We looked across (the river) andit was a war zone,” Hilgendorf re-called. “We picked up our first personright about where City Hall is now.We picked up a lot more than one per-son.”

To get from the downtown area tothe hospital, he said, the ambulancehad to cut across yards to avoiddowned trees and power lines. Oncepeople were able to reach the hospi-tal, though, Hilgendorf said “thingswere thrown into a frenzy.”

“I saw one guy who was broughtin on a door,” he remembered.

By that night, FCMH Administra-tor James Johnson said the hospitalwas taxed to its limit and the injuredwere being diverted to Osage, NewHampton, Hampton, Mason City andRochester (Minn.).

The Press went on to report, “Thewail of sirens from emergency vehi-cles enveloped the city in the hoursafter the storm and continued until al-most midnight.”

Hilgendorf and Banks stayed onthe job well past their shift and dealtwith a variety of injuries.

“We had some pretty bad ones,” hesaid.

The tornado put a tremendousstrain on the town’s medical re-sources, but Hilgendorf cited an im-pressive volunteer effort that keptemergency services operational.

“You couldn’t believe the help thatpoured into this town,” he said. “Itwas really something.”

Help arrivesWithin hours of the disaster, help

for the beleaguered community wason its way in the form of neighboringtowns and farmers. Belmond, whichhad gone through the same thing twoyears earlier and remembered the helpit received from the folks in CharlesCity, had a dozen emergency workerson their way almost immediately.

“They will stay as long as they areneeded,” then-Belmond Mayor FloydBrosher told the media.

All told, Belmond brought in 30

pieces of equipment and 350 peoplewith the know-how to respond to sucha disaster.

Aid also poured in from the BlackHawk Sheriff’s Auxiliary; HardinCounty Emergency Squad; OsageJaycees, Junior Red Cross and 24members of the Osage American Le-gion; Citizens Band operators; unitsfrom the Clear Lake Fire Departmentand Independent Telephone Com-pany; men from Rudd and Rockford;auxiliary police units from ChickasawCounty and Storm Lake; and theWebster City Street Department. Sodid an uncounted number of civil de-fense units from around the region,including 21 from Sioux City alone.

The City of Des Moines sent aconvoy of 34 vehicles and nearly 50employees to spend a weekend aidingin the tornado cleanup. Six mountedpolice officers from Des Moines alsoarrived to help, as did the NoraSprings Rescue Squad and policeunits from Cedar Falls, Storm Lake,Iowa Falls, Osage, special deputiesfrom Osage, four carloads from theBureau of Criminal Investigation, po-lice officers from Garner, Plainfieldand Rudd and the fire departments

Outside aid poured in after stormRecovery



Above: Job Corps workers help removedebris

Below: Salvation Army mobile canteen

Cy

anM

agen

taYe

llow

Blac

k

Page9

CyanM

agentaYellow

Black

CY

MK

CY

MK


By Mark Wicksand Matt BarnesStaff WritersWhere do you begin?That undoubtedly crossed the

minds of the stunned residents ofCharles City as they emerged fromwhatever shelter they took on May15, 1968, when one of the strongestand deadliest tornadoes in Iowa his-tory swept through their community.In it’s wake, the F5 twister —

spinning at over 300 miles per hour— left a path of unimaginable deathand destruction. At one point themonsterous tornado was five blockswide and tore through the heart oftown. Thirteen people lost their livesin the storm and another 462 wereinjured.When the damage was all tallied

up, 337 homes had been destroyedand another 2,000 impacted to onedegree or another; 58 businesseswere wiped away and 210 moredamaged; more than 1,250 vehiclesdemolished; and hundreds of treeslost. Out of Charles City’s 3,600families at the time, 2,200 had beendirectly affected.Damage estimates in town were

put at $30 million. Translated into2008 figures, Floyd County Emer-

gency ManagementAgency DirectorBridget Moe puts the damage todayat more than $184 million.Of the seven-square mile city at

the time, only four square miles wereleft undamaged. Whole neighbor-hoods were erased, streets blockedwith debris, infrastructure such as

power, water and telephone servicewas down, school and church build-ings – where people usually congre-gate in times of crisis — were

uninhabitable, scores of people wereleft homeless and there were moreinjured than the local hospital couldcare for.“Utter confusion reigned imme-

diately following the tornado strike,”the Charles City Press reported thenext day. “But within 30 minutesclean-up crews were removing de-bris from in front of the fire station,which lost the entire portion of itsupper wall.”“It was hard to get everyone or-

ganized,” recalled Ben Krall. “Be-cause the ambulance was trapped inthe City Hall/Fire Station, the peoplewho weren’t hurt volunteered to takethe injured to nearby hospitals.”Caring for the injured became

priority one.For the first hour, Floyd County

Memorial Hospital only had onedoctor on hand. The rest of the staffcouldn’t get there because the bridgewas blocked by debris. Downedpower lines also made travel throughtown treacherous.“It was amazing because you

could not drive down a street be-cause of all the trees. You just had to

Outpouring of support helps community get back on its feet

Red Cross Disaster Relief headquarters was set up at St. John Lutheran Church to aid people af-fected by the devastating tornado of 1968.


By Mark Wicksand Matt BarnesStaff WritersYou hear about them, but can you

always believe them? There are somepretty wild stories floating around outthere when it comes to the CharlesCity tornado of 1968.Tracy Sweet, for one, is a believer.“I believe every tornado story I

hear now,” the longtime Charles Cityresident remarked. “I’ve seen toomany strange things not to.”For instance, there was that stack

of Coke bottles in wooden cases hecame across after the tornado —never opened, caps still on, but all ofthem were now half empty.Cal Larson’s favorite tornado

story involved two couples who livedon the north end of town in 1968.“These people were living on 18th

or 19th Ave. and would go back andforth to each other’s homes for cof-fee,” he explained. “The people onthe north side that day said come onover and have coffee with us andwe’ll ride out the storm. So (the cou-

ple on the south side) went over there,the storm came along, and the houseon the north blew away. They were alldown in the basement. The people onthe south side, they kept their house,but the other couple’s house blewover where their’s was.“They said the next time you come

over for coffee, don’t bring yourhouse with you!”Former high school science

teacher Charlie Hardt is full of tor-nado stories, some he’s heard andpassed on, but a number that involvehim directly. Like the letter he re-ceived from a minister in Preston,Minn., returning his water and lightbill after the tornado. Or his friendArtie Wade in LeRoy, Minn., whothat summer was out cutting alfalfaand found the Bluhm’s Electric signfrom Charles City. That sign is now apart of the Floyd County Museum’spermanent tornado display.“I remember we were out picking

through the wreckage of our housewhen my son Mark found a silverdollar by the driveway,” Hardt re-

called. “Then he found another —and another. Right inside our garage,inside the exposed foundation block,was a milk dish – unscratched – filledwith silver dollars.“I told (neighbor) Truman Man-

ship about it and he asked if theywere inside a milk dish, by chance. Itturned out they were his and had beensitting on top of the refrigerator insidehis house before the tornado!”Then there was his daughter’s

bathrobe, which they found stickingout through a tree after the storm.“I had heard of boards through

trees, but not this,” Hardt said. “Thetornado apparently bent the tree, itbroke, then snapped back togetherwith the robe in the middle.”He also likes the story Wilbur

Winterink told of the car that crossedthe Cedar River during the tornadowithout using a bridge. Or the sealedcan of beer that had nothing in it.“There are some real weird stories

Tornado talesFrom amazing discoveries to rides of a lifetime

Complete ApplianceDemanufacturingDave Bock, OwnerPhone: (641) 330-5597

Dealers WelcomeState of IowaLicense

(Appliance Disposal)Call today to

have your

appliances

picked up! SShhaannkkllaanndd IInnssuurraannccee 222288--77443366 CChhaarrlleess CCiittyySSttaauuddtt IInnssuurraannccee 331155--22667733 MMaarrbbllee RRoocckkPPeeoopplleess IInnssuurraannccee AAggeennccyy 443355--44331133 NNaasshhuuaa

Floyd County Mutual Insurance Assn.Angie Baldwin, Sec’y/Manager/Treas.215 N Jackson Street, Charles City, IA

Phone: 641-228-2446Quality Farm & Home Insurance Since 1880

Call us today.

Imagine having a local insurance company

After all, it’s a local call! Our company is one of the oldest companies in our community.

We have protected area families for decadesand will continue to do so for many more.

Find out how important local, hometown insurance service can be.

Phone (641) 394-32569 miles east of Charles City just off Hwy.18 on Cheyenne Ave. 1/2 Way Between

Charles City & New Hampton

Est. 1993Raleigh Hill

Public Golfing & Steak House

Dine out tonight in the Area’s Newest Steakhouse!

Full Banquet Facilities • CateringMore Open Dance Floor

and Seating Upstairs

Check out our new grill!Cook Your Own Meat

Golf Course Open!

People You Know, People You've Trusted For Over A Century

HAUSER FUNERAL HOME

1205 South Main StreetCharles City, IA

641-228-2323 • [email protected]

Cathie Groesbeck2845 155th Street, Charles City, IA 50616

(641) 330-9795Open Monday-Thursday Evenings and Friday-Sunday All Day

By Appointment Only

Manicures, Pedicures, Acrylics, Gels

- DESIGN SHOWROOM -• Professional Designers • In-Home Design Consultants

• Computer Drawings/Floor Plans- SERVICE AND QUALITY -

3649 4th Street SW, Suite A, Mason City, IA(Next to Slumberland Furniture on Business Hwy. 18)

641-423-6922Showroom Hours: Mon.-Fri. 8 a.m.-5 p.m.;

Sat. 9 a.m.-1 p.m. or by appointmentVisit Our Website at: woodharbor.com

Home Base217 N. Main

Charles City, Ia

Where the winds are

always blowing!

PARTY ON After the Party in the Park!

Top: Smith Lumber YardBelow: Geo P. Smith office

TalesContinued on page 10

— U.S. Army Photo



Page19

CyanMagenta

YellowBlack

CY

MK

CY

MK


“I went back to look at the tor-nado and I remember thinking tomyself, ‘Look at all that energy!’ Itwas tremendous,” said Hardt. “I sawa rooftop fly by and other debris,then I could feel the backwash andworried about something falling onme, so I put my arm over my head –like that would really save me.That’s when it threw me backwardson my butt and scooted me along theparking lot for 20-30 feet. I scram-bled back up and went inside.“Before I went in, though, I saw

the tornado move across right whereI lived on 21st Avenue, I thought,‘Please God, just leave me my fam-ily!’”Larson, too, was watching the

horrifying sight from the SalsburyLaboratories grounds.“I saw the side of a garage or roof

go — I could see the 2x4s there onemoment and then gone, just likethat,” he remembered. “ I lived onClinton Street and thought, ‘Oh no,my house is gone!’But it didn’t takeit. It did take the roof off the house,though.“I saw stuff flying — the debris

stayed fairly level, just going aroundand around a couple of hundred feetup.”Although he had grown up the

son of long-time Charles City mete-orologist E.G. Larson and knew allabout severe weather, this was thefirst tornado Larson had ever actu-ally seen in real life.“As I was watching, I thought,

‘My gosh, my dad would just love tosee this.’He never saw one up close.The one that hit Ionia (in 1948), hewas 15 miles away.”Back at the Trowbridge Center,

Schwarck said she started prayingand was halfway through the Lord’sPrayer when everything went quiet.“God was with me all the way. I

wasn’t hurt,” she remarked. “I saw alittle light and people going up thestairs. When I came up, everythingwas knocked down.“It was exactly like a dream I had

several weeks before of a storm justlike that, only I was at home.”As Schwarck and the rest of the

residents of Charles City were soonto learn, it wasn’t a dream at all buta real-life nightmare that there wasno waking up from.

Utter devastation“The first thing that came to my

mind when I got up those steps is,‘Good Lord, I survived a tornado,’”said Franklin Kicherer as he

emerged from the basement of hishome on Hildreth.On the east side of his street,

Kicherer reported only one housewas completely demolished out ofsix. The other five all sustained dam-age, but were still standing.“We had to go stay with my son

because our house was not liveable,”he said. “The tornado had perforatedit. Water ran right down through themiddle of it. It’s hard to describe. Itwas a real shocker.”Not as much as the scene across

the street, however.“The home on the corner was

gone,” he said. “Everything on thewest side of the street was wipedaway.”Kicherer and another man went

around what was left of the neigh-borhood turning off the natural gasvalves.“There was an atrocious smell of

gas. Oil, too,” Franklin recalled. “Wewere only a few blocks from theCharleyWestern (railroad) tanks andthe elevators. A couple of them wereruptured, apparently.“One gentleman thoughtlessly

took a match out and was going tolight a cigarette. He got jumped onreal quick.”The further north one went, the

worse the devastation appeared toget. Cars were said to have rolledlike tumbleweeds, brick buildingswere reduced to piles of rubble andwhole houses were tipped sideways,upside down or wiped completelyoff their foundations. The residentialarea on the far north end of town waspractically erased. Residents re-ported afterwards not being able toidentify where they were becausethere was no discernable landmarksleft.Larson remarked that he had a

hard time trying to figure out whathe was seeing.“Shock of seeing so much devas-

tation, I guess,” he said. “Later on Istood on the bridge there by Trow-bridges’s and looked to the north-west and there was just totaldestruction. Cars upside down andlight poles on the bridge all bentover.”Schwarck walked outside of the

Trowbridge Center after the stormhad past to a surreal world.“I had a brand new car, a Chevy

Impala, that I found in the basementof a house across the road,” she said.“There was also a yellow Volkswa-gen in there.A couple crawled out ofthat same basement afterward.“It was pretty awful, just terrible.

I’m thankful to the Lord that therewere not more hurt or killed than

there was.”Christensen reported after the

storm, “I had dirt and sand driveninto my head and something had hitme in the back. A few days later, Itook my folks and grandmother outto the plant where they had towedmy wagon. The top was crusheddown to the steering wheel and theonly clean place in the car is where Ihad been sitting.“My grandmother took one look

at the wagon and said, “Well theDevil takes care of his own!”At the YMCA, Goddard remem-

bers the silence after the storm hadpassed.“It was really quiet outside. You

could feel that the temperature hadreally fallen and the smell of rainwas strong in the air. I sometimesstill smell that when a storm is ap-proaching, a combination of rain anddirt,” she commented. “There was abig tree that had made its waythrough the front door and we allended up having to climb up and outof the doors. I remember seeingparts of the upper floors of the Ygone. There were people still up inthose rooms looking down, havingbeen caught with no warning ofwhere to go.“There was mass chaos with all

the kids wondering what to do nextand the Y instructors trying to keepus all in one place. I remember shiv-ering so hard that it hurt. It was justall too much for a 6-year-old to takein.”Eight-year-old Carnette Starr re-

members Rev. Ritter yelling intotheir wrecked home on Blunt to seeif anyone was in there.“My dad yelled back, ‘Yes!’ But

we were trapped. I don’t know forhow long — it seemed like it wasforever,” said Starr. “The guys fromthe garage that used to be where PortCharles is now came and literallychopped us out with axes.“I remember it being awfully cold

when I crawled through the hole theychopped so we could get out. Theyput me on a chair and then on astretcher. My mom was calling myname. I thought I was dead. I didn’trealize what had happened. Then Ithought it was maybe a dream.”Most of the Starr family escaped

with just minor injuries. SarahChambers was not as fortunate.“That was my grandma, but she

went by Sadie,” Starr said. “Shedied.”Chambers, 77, was one of the 13

fatalities in the tornado of May 15,1968. The others were MurrayLoomer, Harry Hall, Arthur Jacobs,August Merten, May Gault, Lela

Wolff, Florine Leach, Marie Green-less, Virval Dawson, Mr. and Mrs.John (Minnie) Kneisel and RobertStotts, a student teacher from theUniversity of Northern Iowa and theyoungest victim at age 22.The Kneisels — he was 89 and

she was 83 — were killed in theirCedar Terrace apartment; Greenless,82, also died at Cedar Terrace; Gault,85, died in her north side home; Ja-cobs, 82, was killed in his office atJacobs Elevator; Wolff, 77, died inher Freeman Street residence;Merten and Hall, both 67, werekilled in Merten’s shoe repair shopnear Trowbridge and from debristhat struck Hall’s Sears van respec-tively; Leach, 54, died en route to aWaterloo hospital from her injuries;Dawson, 45, died at home on 19thAvenue; and Loomer, the oldest vic-tim at age 95, died at home on Rich-ings Street.Their names are forever memori-

alized on a plaque in Central Park.For many of the survivors, tmem-

ories of that day 40 years ago arealso forever etched in their minds—or the scars from injuries sustained.It took years for Charles City to getback on its feet, but four decadeslater it still feels like yesterday attimes to some residents. It may be aparticular sound or smell that trig-gers those feelings, or perhaps athreatening cloud in the sky.“I still get feelings of compres-

sion sometimes,” said Schwarck.“To this day, I still have a buzzing inmy ears from that terrible pressure,like lots of cicadas. I’ve talked toothers who went through the tornadothat say the same thing.”Starr reports that, “Certain days I

can still smell that smell, damp andmusty. I respect tornado warningsnow.”“I still have tornado nightmares to

this day,” added Goddard. “ Thistime of the year is the worst with allthe public service announcementsabout severe weather. ““Now we take a pretty good look

and we watch,” remarked FranklinKicherer of whenever severeweather is in the area.Forty years later, Butler said she

still has her “Tornado City” sweat-shirt and her tornado book, “and if astorm approaches I RUN for cover.No questions asked. It changed mylife and lots of other kids in CharlesCity that May 15, 1968.”

Names of dead memorialized in Central Park

Just tell us why your life deserves an extreme makeoverwith an education in a 250 word essay.

Enter online by noon on May 28, 2008.

Choose NIACC First to makeover your life!If you’re at least 23 years-old and haven’t taken a NIACC creditclass in the past 3 years, you’re eligible.

2007-2008Winners

out there,” he chuckled. “The peoplewho lived next door, the mother wasstaying with them and she was in awheelchair. They found her after-wards, wheelchair and all, threeblocks away — sitting upright in herchair.”Despite losing his new house (“We

moved in on Labor Day and movedout May 16”), Hardt takes it all instride with a smile.“God left me my family. To this

day, I have very little use for materi-alistic things. I got what I wanted –my family safe,” he commented. “Myboys have grown up with the samephilosophy. Kim and Mark now liveon the east coast. Mark built a houseand it flooded. Kim drove down tosee how he was doing and there waswater in the family room. He andMark were laughing about it, but theirwives didn’t see the humor.“There’s nothing you can do about

it, so you might as well laugh.”Hardt began a poem about that day

back in May 1968, but has never fin-ished it:Now the 15th of MayWas a hell-flying dayWhen in every seaport in town

That the word got aroundThe big tornado was on its way

down …“That’s as far as I’ve got,” he said.

“Every May 15, I think about thatpoem and how I should finish it someday.”

‘The bodies’Catherine Eichmeier was working

at the F.W.Woolworth store when thetornado hit.“We had three dozen magazines

that all went out the front window,along with six mannequins that wehad just bought for $200,” she re-members of the big storm. “Someoneafterwards was crying there were sixbodies in the street and no one wasdoing anything about it‚ they were themannequins!”Eichmeier worked the drug and

candy counter at Woolworth’s andmarveled at how there were bottles ofclear nail polish on the shelves —never opened— that had dirt floatinginside them following the tornado.“The worst part was I had 2,000

pounds of candy delivered fromBrachs that day and there was blackdirt in every box afterwards and I hadto throw it all out. They were inclosed boxes, inside the store at the

time,” she said.Eichmeier mentioned she had also

been in a hurricane once in Georgia.When asked which was worse, a tor-nado or a hurricane, she replied“Both!”Her husband also has his own tor-

nado tale.“He was in his car at the time, it

picked him up, spun him around anddropped him from about 50 feet up,she said of Leston Eichmeier. “Hewasn’t hurt, just shaken up.”Al Bode and his son, Sean, also

went for a little ride that day.“We were at the corner of River-

side andWisconsin Streets, dead cen-ter between the two bridges inCharles City, approximately wherethe Charles City Public Library istoday,” Bode reported. “We werelifted into the air and, as I grabbedSean and dived into the back seat,glass was blown out of the windshieldand slammed into my head. I couldsee the papers on the windows of theold IGA grocery store blowing out,instead of in. The store was closed,and was being remodeled.“It was not until later that I real-

Mannequins are mistaken for victimsTales



Metal, wood, nor brick proved to be amatch for the fury of an F5 tornado


Tornado wasstrong – but notTHAT strong!By Mark WicksManaging EditorIn the days following the

Charles City tornado of May 15,1968, a pair of weather expertssaw a stunning photograph in theDes Moines Register of a CharlesCity farm field from above show-ing the distinct swirling patternsof a tornado. Paul Waite, a clima-tologist from the U.S. WeatherBureau in Des Moines and bureauchief Clarence Lamoureaux hadnever before seen such a detailedshot, which they believed theycould use with other informationto estimate the wind speed insidethe funnel.The duo drove to Charles City

and to the Claire Jaeger farm justnortheast of town, and with thenewspaper photo in hand as aguide, started measuring the over-lapping whirls. Using the recordedspeed of the twister, which ac-cording to radar had been 40 milesan hour, they used a formula ofvelocity equals the average of thecircumferences of the ellipses,times the number of rings permile, times the forward speed forthe funnel. As a result, they esti-mated the Charles City tornado tobe turning at a speed of 528 milesper hour. Their findings were frontpage news in the May 26, 1968,Des Moines Register.The only other time prior to

that this formula had been usedwas in 1955 with a lower qualityphoto from the Scottsbluff, Neb.,tornado. That one was estimated at428 miles per hour.Weather experts today, how-

ever, are disputing those findings."About 300 miles per hour is

the maximum we’ve seen fromany findings anywhere," reportedJeff Boyne of the NationalWeather Service office in LaCrosse,Wis. "There’s no evidencethey go much higher than that."Cal Larson of Charles City,

whose father was the meteorolo-gist stationed at the Charles CityWeather Bureau for 30 years andwho grew up there in the world ofweather reporting, agreed."I could believe 328 miles per

hour, but 528 seems pretty farfetched," he said. "It was a newformula back then, though, andobviously in need of some morefine tuning."


Page11

CyanMagenta

YellowBlack

CY

MK

CY

MK


We're proud to serve the Charles City Community! See Ustoday forall of yourbankingneeds.

Pictured (front, from left toright): Joel Rollefson, KathyHunt, and Charley Perry;(back, from left to right):Denise Lensing, KendraHarris, Renae Wedeking,Tracy Greenzweig, TeraSchroeder, and LindaHundt; Missing: Bill Bledsoe.

C US Bankwww.cusb.com1407 S. Grand AvenueCharles City, IA 50616641-228-25501-866-292-5557

Ask us about our Totally Free Checking, Free Gifts, andFree Money for your unused checks and debit cards.

At Edward Jones, you’ll always have the ability to find qualityinvestments. But the service and respect you’ll get from my office go far beyondthe numbers. So take a look at the figures below, then call me to learn more.

1. U.S. Government Guaranteed Bonds 1.33% to 4.36%*Guaranteed applies only to the payment of principal and interest.

2. Insured Federal Income Tax-Free Bonds 2.80% to 4.92%*Interest may be subject to state and local taxes and Alternative Minimum Tax. Insuredas to timely payment of principal and interest. Insurance does not eliminate market risk.

3. Investment-Grade Corporate Bonds 4.10% to 6.11%**Yield effective 05/13/08, subject to availability and price change. Yield and market value may fluctuate if sold prior to maturity, and the amountyou receive from the sale of these securities may be more than, less than or equal to the amount originally invested. Any bonds called prior tomaturity result in reinvestment risk for the bond owner. Bond prices may fall in a rising interest rate environment. Contact your local Edward JonesFinancial Advisor for more information about maturity dates and applicable call provisions. Bond investments are subject to interest rate risk suchthat when interest rates rise, the price of bonds can decrease and the investor can lose principal value.

FINDING THE RIGHTFINANCIAL ADVISORIS AS IMPORTANT AS FINDING THE RIGHT BOND.

Call or stop by today.

Mark Sindlinger, AAMSFinancial Advisor

218 N. Main, Charles City(641) 228-6210 orToll Free 1-800-441-1218

FRIEDRICH, LLCPlumbing, Heating, A/C

Pumps and Water Systems

• New Construction • Installation• Remodeling • Repairs

Chris Friedrich

641-228-2739

Celebrating our 40thAnniversary This Year!

the Cedar River, which ran through the middleof town. Before crossing over, though, it shat-tered the brand new Cedar Terrace elderlyhousing complex on the south side. Residentshad no basements or shelters on site to retreatto.Kitty-corner to that was the Trowbridge

Center, where SchuethAce Hardware is today.Betty (LaCoste) Schwarck of Rockford was inher 40s and was working downstairs in theshoe department by herself when the storm hit.“I was dusting shoes when the lights went

off — the store shut off its

power and gas just before the tornado hit,” sherecalled. “I couldn’t hear because of the pres-sure, other than a big crash as a wall full ofbottles in the drug department fell over. Igrabbed onto a shoe rack and held on tight.”Jack Christensen said he had just turned

onto Brantingham bridge when he looked inthe rear view mirror and saw the TrowbridgeCenter’s roof coming off.“Shortly after, the windows on my com-

pany station wagon blew out and I just duckeddown and held on to the steering wheel,” hereported. “The next thing I knew, I was slidingacross the bridge on my car top. I was against

the rail of the bridgeand luckily did not gointo the river.”Several witnesses

claim they actuallysaw the river bed asthe tornado crossedthe Cedar, sucking upwater and mud as itwent and hurling it allover. Winterinkshared a story after-wards of a car thatwent over the riverduring the storm —without the benefitof a bridge.The downtown

area was next in line

as the tornado’s devastating march north con-tinued. At the Northwestern Bell office, Wil-son and her fellow telephone operators had asplit-second to decide where to take cover —a 3 foot space between the switchboard and thewall that one woman suggested, or else duckunder the foot-wide ledge of the switchboard.All but one chose the latter.“We were down on our hands and knees

under there and the roof went off,” Wilson re-ported. “I can remember saying, ‘Look at that!Look at that!’ It sounded like a train, defi-nitely.”(The operator who hid between the switch-

board and wall, by the way, was dragged bythe tornado’s suction from one end of theswitchboard to the other.)Karla Goddard was six years old then and

had just finished her swimming lesson at theYMCA, which was located within the St.Charles Hotel on Blunt Street.“I remember Mrs. (Helen) Frye coming to

the front door to get us and the rest of the kidsthat were waiting,” she stated. “We went backdown into the lobby and were told to sit In-dian-style with our hands over our heads.Within a matter of moments the lights wentout. Kids were starting to cry when the loudnoise of the tornado came.We could hear glassbreaking all around us and it got very, verydark.”Just down the block at 807 Blunt, Starr and

her family also heard the roar. They had just

lit some candles after the power had gone out.“Mom said, ‘Blow out those candles,

quick!’ My grandma was living in the apart-ment across the hall, so my mom, my sisterand I went into the hallway and stood therewaiting for my dad to come with mygrandma,” Starr explained. “When they cameout, they were kind of walking funny and I canremember hearing pounding outside. The doorflew open and the tornado had hit. It had liter-ally lifted our house up, that’s why they werewalking funny.”She said the family tried to get to the base-

ment, but was stopped by debris.“Then we were thrown around like rag

dolls,” reported Starr. “We were trying to holdon to each other, but got pulled apart andbanged all over the place. I remember holdingonto an oak staircase with my legs in the air. Itpulled me loose and then I must have beenknocked out. The next thing I remember is itwas all dark and we couldn’t move. We wereall together and still in the building, but the tor-nado had thrown the house down on top of usand the only thing that had held it up off of uswas that old oak staircase.”Over at the high school, Hardt the coach

had just sent all of the track kids down into theshower room at the high school, but Hardt thescience teacher wanted a look at nature’s fury.

Cedar Terrace housing hit hard; Trowbridge roof torn offTornado



ized that the paper was blowing outbecause the roof had been blown offthe building. I blacked out and cameto on top of my son. Neither of us suf-fered any broken bones.”During his subsequent hospital

stay, Bode composed a song in hismind which later was used in a videoand a two-record documentary aboutthe tornado. The song was "BlackWednesday" —

It happened in Charles City, on thefifteenth day of May.

The black tornado struck the treesand blew them half away.

The houses fell like toothpicks andstarted to decay,

While families were separated,looking for homes to stay.

The bright red flashing sirens car-ried people bent with pain.

The silence of the aftermath wasfollowed by the rain.

Those who heard it come and gohad thought it was a train.

Now they wondered if they’d eversee the sunny skies again.

But helping hands from strangers,and neighbors no one knew,

Built a human tower of courage tohelp the homeless,

The injured, and the speechless.The refugees the black sky left be-

hind,As its destruction pass on through.

The cars on downtown cornerswere glassless and obscured.

Discouragement was mumbled,but scarcely ever heard.

People who lost everything wereglad to be alive,

While those untouched were hop-ing that their city could survive.

The search went out for relativesand friends who’d disappeared,

And with the dark of nightfall, theworst was more than feared.

Then faces missed for hours foundtheir way to food and beds,

While visions of the Killer keptchurning madly through their heads.

How nice the bridge had looked,when the first cars came across!

Now tangled steel and iron greeteddoctors,

And guardsmen, and the curious,The eyes who saw the vicious path,And vowed to save the town from

further loss.

We’ll rebuild Charles City, thismission we all know.

There is no time to sit around andallow dissent to grow.

The feeling of togetherness, ofhelping others live

Has brought us all new hope for insome way, we all give.

Give shelter to the homeless, andcure the wounds through time:

Let’s listen to confusion die awaynow,

Within our city, this very city,Which learned that it could over-

come,When Black Wednesday visited

and ran.The blackest day of all, my fellow

man.

Humor in face of tragedyThe death and destruction of that

day 40 years ago was almost unbear-able to many people, but some havefound a little bit of an escape throughhumor.Bonnie Mitchell talked about her

neighbor on Hildreth St. who had aparrot in a cage that survived thestorm — but all its feathers were

Song born out of ‘Black Wednesday’Tales



Above: All that’s left of Charlie Hardt’snew homeBelow: Crushed cars on Hulin Street

Cedar Terrace housingunits were demolished


Page17

CyanMagenta

YellowBlack

CY

MK

CY

MK


Since 1921

Pekin InsuranceNamed 2007 Top Performer

DISASTER PREPAREDNESSNearly every day a disaster occurssomewhere. Be prepared should onehappen to you by having a disastersupply kit for yourself and your home.

Important items in you kit should include: • First aid kit and essentialmedications • Canned food and can opener • At least three gallonsof water per person • Protective clothing, rainwear, and bedding orsleeping bags • Battery-powered radio, flashlight, and extra batter-ies • Special items for infants, elderly or pets • Written instructionsfor how to turn off gas, electricity, and water if advised to do so byauthorities • Keep essentials by your bed, such as a flashlight andsturdy shoes • A crow bar is useful in case a door jams(Courtesy of 1stAidSupplies.com)

SISSON &ASSOCIATES, Inc.

1101 South Grand Avenue • Charles City, Iowa 50616Phone 641-228-2835

Tom D. Sisson • Bob Ingram • Keith W. Poolman

NELSON TIRES& AUTO, INC.

1300 Gilbert St.Charles City, IA641-228-3175

“Home of Old Fashioned Friendly Service”

We Keep Your Ride Movin’Using The Latest And Most Modern

Equipment To Provide:• Wheel Alignments

• Wheel Balancing & Tire Service• Transmission Flushes

• Complete Engine Tune Up & Diagnosis• Fuel Injection Flushes• Air Conditiong Services

• Headlight Aiming• And All Other Car & Truck Repairs & Services

Cal Larson and his friends have longtold tales in regards to the big CharlesCity twister of 1968.“We used to sit around and talk about

the tornado. Through the years you hearso many of these strange stories — likestraw getting stuck in trees and Obie’sStandard Station where a 2x4went through a tire and it stillheld air — that I said somebodyought to write a book,” re-marked Larson.So his daughter is.Teresa Carr was 9 years old

when her family’s home was de-stroyed in the tornado.“As a child during the recovery and

rebuilding years, I was sheltered from alot of what happened with the disaster,”she explained. “A desire to gain a betterunderstanding of an event that made asignificant impact on my life drove meto gather other people’s stories and savethem for history’s sake.”Now living in Cedar Falls, Carr has

trekked back and forth between there andher hometown, interviewing close to 250

people and studying newspapers, scrap-books, diaries and personal narratives tocompile her work.

“I was hoping to have my collectionready by this anniversary year, but I’mnot quite done editing,” she reported.Carr is asking the public for some as-

sistance in filling a hole in herresearch.“I hope to honor the memory

of each of the 13 victims of thetornado by relating not only howthey lost their lives, but a littlebit about who they were andwhat was lost to the communityby their passing,” she explained.

“I have found very little informationabout Mae Gault besides her home ad-dress, date of birth and details of her fu-neral arrangements. I believe that shelived in a trailer court north of town andwas survived by her husband, JamesGault. I would appreciate a word fromanyone who might remember somethingmore about the Gaults.”Carr can be contacted at (319) 277-

3679 or at: [email protected].

Former resident workingon book about the tornado

Church vision survives tornadoto celebrate 150th anniversaryThis year, on May 15th, many people will think back to that day 40 years ago

when 13 churches in town were destroyed. This year, the Congregational U.C.C.Church is looking back even further in its history, as it celebrates 150 years ofbeing a congregation in Charles City.It all started with just nine original members as Rev. J.H. Windsor arrived here

from Cresco with a 2-horse team, with six boxes of books and a trunk of cloth-ing. He came to help organize a church — a dream of nine people who livedhere. It was a bold venture for such a small group of elderly people, but theywere of strong convictions and wanted a church of their own.The years passed and with the progress of the country, pastors came and

then moved on to other churches. Wars were experienced, the depression wassurvived, a tornado struck, but there were faithful members who knew the churchcould be a vital cornerstone of survival in good times and bad.So the church is celebrating 150 years later and being reminded of the pre-

cious heritage bestowed upon the congregation. The official celebration Sundaywill be this fall on Oct. 26, but Pastor Phil Corr and all members are thankful eachday for the vision nine people had many decades ago.

Damaged Congregational UCC Church in 1968

Cal Larson

gone.She also remembers the Shell sta-

tion that had been blown away, butpart of the sign remained.“The owner wrote, ‘We Shell Re-

turn,’ on the sign,” she noted. “Therewere lots of silly things like that.”One neighbor who worked at

Oliver, she said, walked home afterthe tornado hit to check on his wife,who he found in the tub taking a bathwith no idea at all of what had hap-pened.“A very good friend, Elling Go-

plerud, had a barber shop. His shopwas blown away and he held on to hisbarber chair as long as he could,”Mitchell recalled. “He was finallyblown into a field. He lived, but washurt. He picked glass out of himselffor a long time afterwards. I remem-ber months later we were playingcards and he would still be sittingthere, casually picking glass out ofhimself.”The May 24, 1968 Press reported

that Larry Manship of 1806 N. GrandAve., liked to sleep sans pajamas orother garb.“Was asleep at the time and hastily

awakened by his wife as she escorted

the family to the basement,” the arti-cle read. “Larry got up just as the tor-nado hit and drew a fast retreat to anearby corner of the bedroom. Allthat was left of the house above thebasement afterward was Larry’s cor-ner of the house. A quick survey ofthe scene by the naked Manship re-vealed his bathrobe snagged on partof the remaining structure, which hepopped into with lightning speed.”From the May 28, 1968 edition of

the Press, comes these “Believe It orNot” tales from the tornado in a storyentitled, “Ripley could have a fieldday in Charles City.”• Floyd Momberg’s mynah bird at

1709 N. Grand that had a propensityfor usage of foul language. The housewas let in shambles by the tornadoand the Mombergs assumed their petbird was gone, but out of the mass ofwreckage of what had been thekitchen they heard, “Floyd, you@#*!,” being repeated with disdainagain and again.• Mr. and Mrs. Orville Sinram of

Nashua and just left the KCHAstudioand headed south on Main Streetwhen the twister hit. The tornadopicked up their automobile, turned itaround and set it back down momen-tarily near Citizens National Bank,

before scooting it further north. Mrs.Sinram was said to have chided herhusband, “Well, you don’t have todrive so fast!” Replied Mr. Sinram,“Driving? Who’s driving? I don’teven have a motor!”• A Charles City citizen, attempt-

ing to be helpful, advised two out-of-town police officers standing at thecorner of Riverside and Main whowere supposed to be directing trafficthat this always was a very hazardouscorner. It was now even more so dueto cancellation of one-way traffic pat-terns. The citizen explained the one-way system was eliminated becausethere were no one-way signs remain-ing. One officer inquired, “Well, whydid they take them down?”• DonMolitor of 106 N. Iowa said

the first inkling he had that somethingwas wrong was when he saw GarlandCeradsky fly by the kitchen window.Said Molitor, “I’ve never seen Gar-land move that fast before.”• Bob Cook’s remarks at seeing his

beloved Elks Club in shamblesequaled those of the Momberg’smynah, according to a number of peo-ple.

Foul-mouthed mynah bird and moreTales



Above: Charles City ManufacturingBelow: The St. Charles Hotel

Start your morning out right

Convenient, timelylocal news, sports and

events delivered toyour home or desktop!

Name ____________________________________________Address __________________________________________City ________________State ______Zip______________Phone ____________________________________________

Type of Subscription: !! New !! Renewal

Mail in Your CHARLES CITY PRESS SUBSCRIPTION information and payment

1 MONTH 3 MONTHS 6 MONTHS 1 YEARIn Floyd County* ................$13.00 ...........$37.00 .............$70.00........$110.00Inside Iowa........................$18.00 ...........$42.00 .............$75.00........$115.00Outside Iowa .....................$29.00 ...........$61.00 .............$86.00........$132.00

801 Riverside Drive, Charles City, IA 50616

Acceptable Forms of Payment

Cash, Check, VISA or MasterCard

Offer Expires 5-30-08

Page

16

Cyan

Mag

enta

Yello

wBl

ack

Cyan

Magenta

YellowBlack

CY

MK

CY

MK


Name Plates • Vinyl Lettering • Name Tags • Magnetic SignsIndoor/Outdoor Signage • Full Color Printed T-shirts & Transfers

Large Format Color Digital PrintingMike & Debbie Kleinschmidt

1485 230th Street • Ionia, Iowa 50645V/F: 641.394.5018 • Cell: 641.330.2338 • Email: [email protected]

Shop online: www.precngraving.com

“We Use Safe Eco-SolBased Inks”

WE DO IT ALL!

Young Construction Ltd.There’s no constructionjob too big or too small!

Young Construction Ltd.301 Clark Street, Charles City

228-6443

We can help with all of these

projects and many more!

Residential • Commercial • Industrial

Call us for all yourBUILDING PROJECTS!New Home • Room AdditionsRefinish Basements • Decks

Window Replacement • Driveways & Sidewalks

Gary Lore41 Years Experience

as a Mechanic

HOURS: 8-5 MONDAY-FRIDAYYour 1 Stop Shop!

ASE Certified • Specializing in Fords • Air Conditioning CertifiedWORK ON GM, AMC & CHRYSLER ALSO SOME FOREIGN WORK

641-435-4412310 Livingston Street, Nashua (2 Blocks South of High School)

Good Mechanic?Searching For A

MASTER CRAFT TIRESPlus Other Brands Available

Authorized Dealer for Advantage

Folding Tonneau CoversYour Rigid Hitch

Dealer

4:51 p.m.The NWS officially has the tor-

nado entering the city limits ofCharles City at 4:47 p.m., moving at40 miles per hour and stretching anincredible 400 yards wide.

“Most tornadoes are like a rope,but this one was five blocks wide,” re-ported Larson.

Some described it as “big and fat,low to the ground,” while others saidit simply appeared to be a moving“black wall.”

"That’s why it did so much dam-age," resident Wilbur Winterink wasquoted as saying the next day in theWaterloo Courier.

It appeared that the monster’s firstvictim in town would be the recently-built Floyd County Memorial Hospi-tal.

"I thought it had hit the hospital,but it ended up going around it andheading for Charles Street," notedLarson.

The twister tossed around cars inthe hospital parking lot, but miracu-lously spared the facility itself. Notevery place would be as lucky,though.

Roaring down between Cedar and

Hildreth streets, the tornado took outpower lines and parts of the city wentdark. Residents often note how theirclocks stopped at 4:51 p.m., a mo-ment frozen in time that many peopleremember to this day.

Jean Kicherer had just picked herhusband up from work at the Olivertractor plant prior to that and told himthey were under a tornado watch.

"I had the road map out, turned theradio on and started tracking it," ex-plained Franklin Kicherer. As we gothome, the last I heard it was nearMarble Rock and I said to my mother-in-law, who was living with us, andmy wife that we should probablygather up anything you want and headto the basement. It wasn’t long beforethe roar came."

Bonnie Mitchell, now 82, lived atthe corner of 8th and Charles streetsin 1968 — right where the tornadocame into town. She had taken herdaughter, Amy, to the YMCA for herswimming lesson just prior to thestorm and was leaving to head homewhen she heard on the radio that therewas a tornado headed for CharlesStreet.

"I was frantic because I had threekids at home" she remembered. "I ranback into the Y and grabbed Amy. I

told Helen Frye, the instructor, to getthe kids under the wrestling mat,which she did.

"I then went tearing down MainStreet, I think I was the only one onMain. I had to get home to my kids.My son had the garage door openwhen I got there. I got out and saw thetornado hit three houses down andthen turn and go over towards Jeffer-son School. If it hadn’t turned, itwould have hit us."

Instead, Mitchell said she and herson watched it head north and tear upthe downtown.

"It was just a terrible roar," she re-called.

At 1108 Hildreth, FranklinKicherer, too, heard the roar overheadas the twister passed by.

"The one thing I remember is,even over that roar, I could hear thesqueak of hard spikes being pulled upas the roof raised off," he said. "Thatand the terrible pressure. There wasso much pressure I didn’t think Iwould have any eyes or ears left."

Thrown like rag dollsThe twister moved down toward

Narrowly misses hitting the hospitalTornado



Above: Gibson Discount Center andIowa Public Service

Below: This wrecked apartmenthouse is where Sadie Chambers died

Cy

anM

agen

taYe

llow

Blac

k

Page15

CyanM

agentaYellow

Black

CY

MK

CY

MK


H E A LT H N OT I F I C AT I O NAre You Hard Of Hearing?

A major brand hearing aid provider wishes to field test a remarkable new digital hearinginstrument in the area. This offer is free of charge and you are under no obligation.

These revolutionary 100% Digital instruments use the latest technology tocomfortably, and almost invisibly, help you hear more clearly. This technologyimproves speech understanding while reducing background noise.

If you wish to participate, you will be required to have your hearing tested in our officeFREE OF CHARGE to determine candidacy and report your results with the hearinginstruments each week for a two week period.

At the end of this period, you may purchase your instrument, if you so desire, at areduced charge. Otherwise, there is no charge whatsoever for participating in thisfield test. Special testing will be done to determine the increased benefits of thistechnology.

Benefits of hearing aids vary by type and degree of hearing loss, noiseenvironment, accuracy of hearing test, and proper fit. This is a wonderfulopportunity to determine if hearing help is available for your hearing loss whileyou evaluate your performance with this technology.

CALL NOW IF YOU WISH TO BE INCLUDED IN THIS FIELD TRIALFIELD TRIAL IS AVAILABLE MAY 12-16

FIELD TEST AVAILABLE THROUGH:

www.beltone.com

Rochester1312 7th St. NW

507-536-9002 or 1-877-495-0893

Austin212 4th Ave. NE

507-433-4327 or 1-888-818-4327

OVER 68 YEARS!Still the nameyou can trust.

0510

5301

96T

Hearing Test by Appointment Only!Hearing Test by Appointment Only!

Hurry!Appointments

Limited

Charles City200 N Main St.

641-228-1488 • 888-818-4327

Mason City202 1st St. S.E.

641-423-1778 • 877-369-5311

Decorah801 Commerce Ave

563-382-2200 • 888-818-4327

FIELD TRIAL IS AVAILBLE MMAAYY 1199--2222

Jerry Kayle40 Years Experience

Marlin Duren15 Years Experience

Stacy Eckhoff2 Years

Why does Hy-Vee fill moreprescriptions than anyone in

Charles City?! We have the most experienced pharmacy

staff in Charles City.! We’re the most convenient, service

oriented pharmacy in town with our drive-up window and we're open when you need it.

! We have a genuine interest in the healthand well being of our customers.

! On-line Refill ordering at www.hy-vee.com! Convenient Toll-Free number,

1-800-280-4123

Pharmacy (641) 228-1222Store (641) 228-1726

901 Kelly, Charles City, IA

EXPERIENCE, SERVICE, VALUE...YOUR HY-VEE PHARMACY

Experts that care about you and your family.Offering flu shots when available, diabeticclinics, health screenings and prescriptioncounseling. See store for details.

Over 57 years of combinedexperience to insure the

best quality care.

WE’RE MORETHAN JUST APHARMACY

400 genericprescriptions

for just $4 eachAsk your Hy-Vee pharmacist or physician if your

medication is available in generic form. Go to www.hy-veepharmacy.com for a list of

all 400 generic drugs.

• Iowa Public Service Manager Dan Ricesurvived the collapse of the IPS office buildingand later took his pen out of his shirt pocket towrite something down, but the pen no longerworked. When he unscrewed the cap, a tinypile of sand came out of it.

• Friends and relatives were helping Mrs.Claude Alderman at 1216 Indiana Ave., re-move furniture from her crushed house. Theroof was gone and the remaining walls werelopsided. Mason Bunn, attempting to move therefrigerator, asked her if it would be OK forhim to slide it across the kitchen floor. Mrs.Alderman replied, “No, you might scratch thelinoleum.”

For the birdsJeff Sisson shared a story about going to the

top floor of the St. Charles Hotel after thestorm.

“I remember the rooms were a mess, somewith bed mattresses half pulled out the win-dows. In the far northwest corner of the topfloor the walls had been peeled off and I recallseeing maybe a thousand robins splattered onthe walls and laying on the floor. A flock musthave gotten caught in the wind.”

He also remembers how everyone wasamazed and talked about how the churches andschools in town were destroyed, but the barsescaped damage.

“People said this was because the bars wereopen and the churches and schools weren’t,”he noted.

Sisson remembers the long 2x4 driven intothe brick of the First Baptist Church near theentrance.

“I remember it looked like an arrow stick-ing out of the brick,” he said. “It seemed likethere were always people standing looking at itin amazement.”

Also amazing, he added, was the corn thatgrew up “everywhere” that summer after thebig grain elevator had been destroyed on thesouth side of town. The tornado had distrib-uted the seeds all over and as a result, corn wasgrowing out of cracks in sidewalks, out of thebark in trees and along the street in the parkingarea.

“It was strange,” he said.

Sky highPerhaps the strangest story of all, though,

was the drive Sherry Sweet took that day inMay 40 years ago when she went to pick upher husband, Tracy, at the Oliver plant.

She was six months pregnant at the timewaiting in her white 1966 Plymouth Valiantnear the door her husband usually exited.

“One of Tracy's friends and co-workers,Jerry Fifer, came out to tell me that my hus-band was waiting inside the personnel officedoor, about a block away from where I wasparked,” she wrote down in a journal account.

“ As I started driving through the parking lot,Fifer jumped right in front of the car to warnme that I was driving right into the tornado!”

Fifer quickly got into the car with her asthey tried to escape.

“It was just like a big black tidal wave,”Sweet said of the twister. “ I put the car intoreverse to get away. As we were going back-wards, Fifer saw a brick wall collapsing be-hind them, so I immediately stopped and thenwent forward to avoid that. Having avoidedthe most pressing dangers, I stopped the car. Inever took the car out of gear. I had my footon the brake the whole time and I was prayinglike you would not believe.”

To avoid getting struck by the broken glassof the windows, they rolled their windowsdown, put on their seat belts and hung on toeach other and the steering wheel.

“Fifer covered me with my raincoat to pro-tect me from flying debris. And with that, werose off the ground, I say 15 feet maximum. Ihad nothing to be fearful of because I hadn'twitnessed it. I was underneath the raincoat. Inever realize how far off the ground the twisteractually took us. I didn't find out until 1992, inchatting with Fifer, that we were four storiesoff the ground, high enough to see the top ofthe smokestack of a nearby building.

“With that, I almost got sick to my stom-ach. Every time I think of this, I get shaky. It'snot a pleasant thought. And when we camedown, we came down with a thud. I went into

labor pains a few hours later, but they werefalse.”

The Plymouth had four blown tires fromthe impact, many dents and scratches from thehail and other flying debris. A downed lightpole nearly missed hitting the car. All of thecar's windows, including those rolled down,were unbroken.

“Jerry Fifer is my angel. If he had notstopped me, I would have driven right into it,”Sweet said. “For as long as I am alive thememories of that tornado will be me.”

Corn grows everywhere in town from scattered seedTales


Shell service station sign

Start your morning out right

Convenient, timelylocal news, sports and

events delivered toyour home or desktop!

Name ____________________________________________Address __________________________________________City ________________State ______Zip______________Phone ____________________________________________

Type of Subscription: !! New !! Renewal

Mail in Your CHARLES CITY PRESS SUBSCRIPTION information and payment

1 MONTH 3 MONTHS 6 MONTHS 1 YEARIn Floyd County* ................$13.00 ...........$37.00 .............$70.00........$110.00Inside Iowa........................$18.00 ...........$42.00 .............$75.00........$115.00Outside Iowa .....................$29.00 ...........$61.00 .............$86.00........$132.00

801 Riverside Drive, Charles City, IA 50616

Acceptable Forms of Payment

Cash, Check, VISA or MasterCard

Offer Expires 5-30-08

Page

16

Cyan

Mag

enta

Yello

wBl

ack

Page 13Cyan

Magenta

YellowBlack

CY

MK

CY

MK


Name Plates • Vinyl Lettering • Name Tags • Magnetic SignsIndoor/Outdoor Signage • Full Color Printed T-shirts & Transfers

Large Format Color Digital PrintingMike & Debbie Kleinschmidt

1485 230th Street • Ionia, Iowa 50645V/F: 641.394.5018 • Cell: 641.330.2338 • Email: [email protected]

Shop online: www.precngraving.com

“We Use Safe Eco-SolBased Inks”

WE DO IT ALL!

Young Construction Ltd.There’s no constructionjob too big or too small!

Young Construction Ltd.301 Clark Street, Charles City

228-6443

We can help with all of these

projects and many more!

Residential • Commercial • Industrial

Call us for all yourBUILDING PROJECTS!New Home • Room AdditionsRefinish Basements • Decks

Window Replacement • Driveways & Sidewalks

Gary Lore41 Years Experience

as a Mechanic

HOURS: 8-5 MONDAY-FRIDAYYour 1 Stop Shop!

ASE Certified • Specializing in Fords • Air Conditioning CertifiedWORK ON GM, AMC & CHRYSLER ALSO SOME FOREIGN WORK

641-435-4412310 Livingston Street, Nashua (2 Blocks South of High School)

Good Mechanic?Searching For A

MASTER CRAFT TIRESPlus Other Brands Available

Authorized Dealer for Advantage

Folding Tonneau CoversYour Rigid Hitch

Dealer

4:51 p.m.The NWS officially has the tor-

nado entering the city limits ofCharles City at 4:47 p.m., moving at40 miles per hour and stretching anincredible 400 yards wide.

“Most tornadoes are like a rope,but this one was five blocks wide,” re-ported Larson.

Some described it as “big and fat,low to the ground,” while others saidit simply appeared to be a moving“black wall.”

"That’s why it did so much dam-age," resident Wilbur Winterink wasquoted as saying the next day in theWaterloo Courier.

It appeared that the monster’s firstvictim in town would be the recently-built Floyd County Memorial Hospi-tal.

"I thought it had hit the hospital,but it ended up going around it andheading for Charles Street," notedLarson.

The twister tossed around cars inthe hospital parking lot, but miracu-lously spared the facility itself. Notevery place would be as lucky,though.

Roaring down between Cedar and

Hildreth streets, the tornado took outpower lines and parts of the city wentdark. Residents often note how theirclocks stopped at 4:51 p.m., a mo-ment frozen in time that many peopleremember to this day.

Jean Kicherer had just picked herhusband up from work at the Olivertractor plant prior to that and told himthey were under a tornado watch.

"I had the road map out, turned theradio on and started tracking it," ex-plained Franklin Kicherer. As we gothome, the last I heard it was nearMarble Rock and I said to my mother-in-law, who was living with us, andmy wife that we should probablygather up anything you want and headto the basement. It wasn’t long beforethe roar came."

Bonnie Mitchell, now 82, lived atthe corner of 8th and Charles streetsin 1968 — right where the tornadocame into town. She had taken herdaughter, Amy, to the YMCA for herswimming lesson just prior to thestorm and was leaving to head homewhen she heard on the radio that therewas a tornado headed for CharlesStreet.

"I was frantic because I had threekids at home" she remembered. "I ranback into the Y and grabbed Amy. I

told Helen Frye, the instructor, to getthe kids under the wrestling mat,which she did.

"I then went tearing down MainStreet, I think I was the only one onMain. I had to get home to my kids.My son had the garage door openwhen I got there. I got out and saw thetornado hit three houses down andthen turn and go over towards Jeffer-son School. If it hadn’t turned, itwould have hit us."

Instead, Mitchell said she and herson watched it head north and tear upthe downtown.

"It was just a terrible roar," she re-called.

At 1108 Hildreth, FranklinKicherer, too, heard the roar overheadas the twister passed by.

"The one thing I remember is,even over that roar, I could hear thesqueak of hard spikes being pulled upas the roof raised off," he said. "Thatand the terrible pressure. There wasso much pressure I didn’t think Iwould have any eyes or ears left."

Thrown like rag dollsThe twister moved down toward

Narrowly misses hitting the hospitalTornado



Above: Gibson Discount Center andIowa Public Service

Below: This wrecked apartmenthouse is where Sadie Chambers died


Page17

CyanMagenta

YellowBlack

CY

MK

CY

MK


Since 1921

Pekin InsuranceNamed 2007 Top Performer

DISASTER PREPAREDNESSNearly every day a disaster occurssomewhere. Be prepared should onehappen to you by having a disastersupply kit for yourself and your home.

Important items in you kit should include: • First aid kit and essentialmedications • Canned food and can opener • At least three gallonsof water per person • Protective clothing, rainwear, and bedding orsleeping bags • Battery-powered radio, flashlight, and extra batter-ies • Special items for infants, elderly or pets • Written instructionsfor how to turn off gas, electricity, and water if advised to do so byauthorities • Keep essentials by your bed, such as a flashlight andsturdy shoes • A crow bar is useful in case a door jams(Courtesy of 1stAidSupplies.com)

SISSON &ASSOCIATES, Inc.

1101 South Grand Avenue • Charles City, Iowa 50616Phone 641-228-2835

Tom D. Sisson • Bob Ingram • Keith W. Poolman

NELSON TIRES& AUTO, INC.

1300 Gilbert St.Charles City, IA641-228-3175

“Home of Old Fashioned Friendly Service”

We Keep Your Ride Movin’Using The Latest And Most Modern

Equipment To Provide:• Wheel Alignments

• Wheel Balancing & Tire Service• Transmission Flushes

• Complete Engine Tune Up & Diagnosis• Fuel Injection Flushes• Air Conditiong Services

• Headlight Aiming• And All Other Car & Truck Repairs & Services

Cal Larson and his friends have longtold tales in regards to the big CharlesCity twister of 1968.“We used to sit around and talk about

the tornado. Through the years you hearso many of these strange stories — likestraw getting stuck in trees and Obie’sStandard Station where a 2x4went through a tire and it stillheld air — that I said somebodyought to write a book,” re-marked Larson.So his daughter is.Teresa Carr was 9 years old

when her family’s home was de-stroyed in the tornado.“As a child during the recovery and

rebuilding years, I was sheltered from alot of what happened with the disaster,”she explained. “A desire to gain a betterunderstanding of an event that made asignificant impact on my life drove meto gather other people’s stories and savethem for history’s sake.”Now living in Cedar Falls, Carr has

trekked back and forth between there andher hometown, interviewing close to 250

people and studying newspapers, scrap-books, diaries and personal narratives tocompile her work.

“I was hoping to have my collectionready by this anniversary year, but I’mnot quite done editing,” she reported.Carr is asking the public for some as-

sistance in filling a hole in herresearch.“I hope to honor the memory

of each of the 13 victims of thetornado by relating not only howthey lost their lives, but a littlebit about who they were andwhat was lost to the communityby their passing,” she explained.

“I have found very little informationabout Mae Gault besides her home ad-dress, date of birth and details of her fu-neral arrangements. I believe that shelived in a trailer court north of town andwas survived by her husband, JamesGault. I would appreciate a word fromanyone who might remember somethingmore about the Gaults.”Carr can be contacted at (319) 277-

3679 or at: [email protected].

Former resident workingon book about the tornado

Church vision survives tornadoto celebrate 150th anniversaryThis year, on May 15th, many people will think back to that day 40 years ago

when 13 churches in town were destroyed. This year, the Congregational U.C.C.Church is looking back even further in its history, as it celebrates 150 years ofbeing a congregation in Charles City.It all started with just nine original members as Rev. J.H. Windsor arrived here

from Cresco with a 2-horse team, with six boxes of books and a trunk of cloth-ing. He came to help organize a church — a dream of nine people who livedhere. It was a bold venture for such a small group of elderly people, but theywere of strong convictions and wanted a church of their own.The years passed and with the progress of the country, pastors came and

then moved on to other churches. Wars were experienced, the depression wassurvived, a tornado struck, but there were faithful members who knew the churchcould be a vital cornerstone of survival in good times and bad.So the church is celebrating 150 years later and being reminded of the pre-

cious heritage bestowed upon the congregation. The official celebration Sundaywill be this fall on Oct. 26, but Pastor Phil Corr and all members are thankful eachday for the vision nine people had many decades ago.

Damaged Congregational UCC Church in 1968

Cal Larson

gone.She also remembers the Shell sta-

tion that had been blown away, butpart of the sign remained.“The owner wrote, ‘We Shell Re-

turn,’ on the sign,” she noted. “Therewere lots of silly things like that.”One neighbor who worked at

Oliver, she said, walked home afterthe tornado hit to check on his wife,who he found in the tub taking a bathwith no idea at all of what had hap-pened.“A very good friend, Elling Go-

plerud, had a barber shop. His shopwas blown away and he held on to hisbarber chair as long as he could,”Mitchell recalled. “He was finallyblown into a field. He lived, but washurt. He picked glass out of himselffor a long time afterwards. I remem-ber months later we were playingcards and he would still be sittingthere, casually picking glass out ofhimself.”The May 24, 1968 Press reported

that Larry Manship of 1806 N. GrandAve., liked to sleep sans pajamas orother garb.“Was asleep at the time and hastily

awakened by his wife as she escorted

the family to the basement,” the arti-cle read. “Larry got up just as the tor-nado hit and drew a fast retreat to anearby corner of the bedroom. Allthat was left of the house above thebasement afterward was Larry’s cor-ner of the house. A quick survey ofthe scene by the naked Manship re-vealed his bathrobe snagged on partof the remaining structure, which hepopped into with lightning speed.”From the May 28, 1968 edition of

the Press, comes these “Believe It orNot” tales from the tornado in a storyentitled, “Ripley could have a fieldday in Charles City.”• Floyd Momberg’s mynah bird at

1709 N. Grand that had a propensityfor usage of foul language. The housewas let in shambles by the tornadoand the Mombergs assumed their petbird was gone, but out of the mass ofwreckage of what had been thekitchen they heard, “Floyd, you@#*!,” being repeated with disdainagain and again.• Mr. and Mrs. Orville Sinram of

Nashua and just left the KCHAstudioand headed south on Main Streetwhen the twister hit. The tornadopicked up their automobile, turned itaround and set it back down momen-tarily near Citizens National Bank,

before scooting it further north. Mrs.Sinram was said to have chided herhusband, “Well, you don’t have todrive so fast!” Replied Mr. Sinram,“Driving? Who’s driving? I don’teven have a motor!”• A Charles City citizen, attempt-

ing to be helpful, advised two out-of-town police officers standing at thecorner of Riverside and Main whowere supposed to be directing trafficthat this always was a very hazardouscorner. It was now even more so dueto cancellation of one-way traffic pat-terns. The citizen explained the one-way system was eliminated becausethere were no one-way signs remain-ing. One officer inquired, “Well, whydid they take them down?”• DonMolitor of 106 N. Iowa said

the first inkling he had that somethingwas wrong was when he saw GarlandCeradsky fly by the kitchen window.Said Molitor, “I’ve never seen Gar-land move that fast before.”• Bob Cook’s remarks at seeing his

beloved Elks Club in shamblesequaled those of the Momberg’smynah, according to a number of peo-ple.

Foul-mouthed mynah bird and moreTales



Above: Charles City ManufacturingBelow: The St. Charles Hotel


Page11

CyanMagenta

YellowBlack

CY

MK

CY

MK


We're proud to serve the Charles City Community! See Ustoday forall of yourbankingneeds.

Pictured (front, from left toright): Joel Rollefson, KathyHunt, and Charley Perry;(back, from left to right):Denise Lensing, KendraHarris, Renae Wedeking,Tracy Greenzweig, TeraSchroeder, and LindaHundt; Missing: Bill Bledsoe.

C US Bankwww.cusb.com1407 S. Grand AvenueCharles City, IA 50616641-228-25501-866-292-5557

Ask us about our Totally Free Checking, Free Gifts, andFree Money for your unused checks and debit cards.

At Edward Jones, you’ll always have the ability to find qualityinvestments. But the service and respect you’ll get from my office go far beyondthe numbers. So take a look at the figures below, then call me to learn more.

1. U.S. Government Guaranteed Bonds 1.33% to 4.36%*Guaranteed applies only to the payment of principal and interest.

2. Insured Federal Income Tax-Free Bonds 2.80% to 4.92%*Interest may be subject to state and local taxes and Alternative Minimum Tax. Insuredas to timely payment of principal and interest. Insurance does not eliminate market risk.

3. Investment-Grade Corporate Bonds 4.10% to 6.11%**Yield effective 05/13/08, subject to availability and price change. Yield and market value may fluctuate if sold prior to maturity, and the amountyou receive from the sale of these securities may be more than, less than or equal to the amount originally invested. Any bonds called prior tomaturity result in reinvestment risk for the bond owner. Bond prices may fall in a rising interest rate environment. Contact your local Edward JonesFinancial Advisor for more information about maturity dates and applicable call provisions. Bond investments are subject to interest rate risk suchthat when interest rates rise, the price of bonds can decrease and the investor can lose principal value.

FINDING THE RIGHTFINANCIAL ADVISORIS AS IMPORTANT AS FINDING THE RIGHT BOND.

Call or stop by today.

Mark Sindlinger, AAMSFinancial Advisor

218 N. Main, Charles City(641) 228-6210 orToll Free 1-800-441-1218

FRIEDRICH, LLCPlumbing, Heating, A/C

Pumps and Water Systems

• New Construction • Installation• Remodeling • Repairs

Chris Friedrich

641-228-2739

Celebrating our 40thAnniversary This Year!

the Cedar River, which ran through the middleof town. Before crossing over, though, it shat-tered the brand new Cedar Terrace elderlyhousing complex on the south side. Residentshad no basements or shelters on site to retreatto.Kitty-corner to that was the Trowbridge

Center, where SchuethAce Hardware is today.Betty (LaCoste) Schwarck of Rockford was inher 40s and was working downstairs in theshoe department by herself when the storm hit.“I was dusting shoes when the lights went

off — the store shut off its

power and gas just before the tornado hit,” sherecalled. “I couldn’t hear because of the pres-sure, other than a big crash as a wall full ofbottles in the drug department fell over. Igrabbed onto a shoe rack and held on tight.”Jack Christensen said he had just turned

onto Brantingham bridge when he looked inthe rear view mirror and saw the TrowbridgeCenter’s roof coming off.“Shortly after, the windows on my com-

pany station wagon blew out and I just duckeddown and held on to the steering wheel,” hereported. “The next thing I knew, I was slidingacross the bridge on my car top. I was against

the rail of the bridgeand luckily did not gointo the river.”Several witnesses

claim they actuallysaw the river bed asthe tornado crossedthe Cedar, sucking upwater and mud as itwent and hurling it allover. Winterinkshared a story after-wards of a car thatwent over the riverduring the storm —without the benefitof a bridge.The downtown

area was next in line

as the tornado’s devastating march north con-tinued. At the Northwestern Bell office, Wil-son and her fellow telephone operators had asplit-second to decide where to take cover —a 3 foot space between the switchboard and thewall that one woman suggested, or else duckunder the foot-wide ledge of the switchboard.All but one chose the latter.“We were down on our hands and knees

under there and the roof went off,” Wilson re-ported. “I can remember saying, ‘Look at that!Look at that!’ It sounded like a train, defi-nitely.”(The operator who hid between the switch-

board and wall, by the way, was dragged bythe tornado’s suction from one end of theswitchboard to the other.)Karla Goddard was six years old then and

had just finished her swimming lesson at theYMCA, which was located within the St.Charles Hotel on Blunt Street.“I remember Mrs. (Helen) Frye coming to

the front door to get us and the rest of the kidsthat were waiting,” she stated. “We went backdown into the lobby and were told to sit In-dian-style with our hands over our heads.Within a matter of moments the lights wentout. Kids were starting to cry when the loudnoise of the tornado came.We could hear glassbreaking all around us and it got very, verydark.”Just down the block at 807 Blunt, Starr and

her family also heard the roar. They had just

lit some candles after the power had gone out.“Mom said, ‘Blow out those candles,

quick!’ My grandma was living in the apart-ment across the hall, so my mom, my sisterand I went into the hallway and stood therewaiting for my dad to come with mygrandma,” Starr explained. “When they cameout, they were kind of walking funny and I canremember hearing pounding outside. The doorflew open and the tornado had hit. It had liter-ally lifted our house up, that’s why they werewalking funny.”She said the family tried to get to the base-

ment, but was stopped by debris.“Then we were thrown around like rag

dolls,” reported Starr. “We were trying to holdon to each other, but got pulled apart andbanged all over the place. I remember holdingonto an oak staircase with my legs in the air. Itpulled me loose and then I must have beenknocked out. The next thing I remember is itwas all dark and we couldn’t move. We wereall together and still in the building, but the tor-nado had thrown the house down on top of usand the only thing that had held it up off of uswas that old oak staircase.”Over at the high school, Hardt the coach

had just sent all of the track kids down into theshower room at the high school, but Hardt thescience teacher wanted a look at nature’s fury.

Cedar Terrace housing hit hard; Trowbridge roof torn offTornado



ized that the paper was blowing outbecause the roof had been blown offthe building. I blacked out and cameto on top of my son. Neither of us suf-fered any broken bones.”During his subsequent hospital

stay, Bode composed a song in hismind which later was used in a videoand a two-record documentary aboutthe tornado. The song was "BlackWednesday" —

It happened in Charles City, on thefifteenth day of May.

The black tornado struck the treesand blew them half away.

The houses fell like toothpicks andstarted to decay,

While families were separated,looking for homes to stay.

The bright red flashing sirens car-ried people bent with pain.

The silence of the aftermath wasfollowed by the rain.

Those who heard it come and gohad thought it was a train.

Now they wondered if they’d eversee the sunny skies again.

But helping hands from strangers,and neighbors no one knew,

Built a human tower of courage tohelp the homeless,

The injured, and the speechless.The refugees the black sky left be-

hind,As its destruction pass on through.

The cars on downtown cornerswere glassless and obscured.

Discouragement was mumbled,but scarcely ever heard.

People who lost everything wereglad to be alive,

While those untouched were hop-ing that their city could survive.

The search went out for relativesand friends who’d disappeared,

And with the dark of nightfall, theworst was more than feared.

Then faces missed for hours foundtheir way to food and beds,

While visions of the Killer keptchurning madly through their heads.

How nice the bridge had looked,when the first cars came across!

Now tangled steel and iron greeteddoctors,

And guardsmen, and the curious,The eyes who saw the vicious path,And vowed to save the town from

further loss.

We’ll rebuild Charles City, thismission we all know.

There is no time to sit around andallow dissent to grow.

The feeling of togetherness, ofhelping others live

Has brought us all new hope for insome way, we all give.

Give shelter to the homeless, andcure the wounds through time:

Let’s listen to confusion die awaynow,

Within our city, this very city,Which learned that it could over-

come,When Black Wednesday visited

and ran.The blackest day of all, my fellow

man.

Humor in face of tragedyThe death and destruction of that

day 40 years ago was almost unbear-able to many people, but some havefound a little bit of an escape throughhumor.Bonnie Mitchell talked about her

neighbor on Hildreth St. who had aparrot in a cage that survived thestorm — but all its feathers were

Song born out of ‘Black Wednesday’Tales



Above: All that’s left of Charlie Hardt’snew homeBelow: Crushed cars on Hulin Street

Cedar Terrace housingunits were demolished


Page19

CyanMagenta

YellowBlack

CY

MK

CY

MK


“I went back to look at the tor-nado and I remember thinking tomyself, ‘Look at all that energy!’ Itwas tremendous,” said Hardt. “I sawa rooftop fly by and other debris,then I could feel the backwash andworried about something falling onme, so I put my arm over my head –like that would really save me.That’s when it threw me backwardson my butt and scooted me along theparking lot for 20-30 feet. I scram-bled back up and went inside.“Before I went in, though, I saw

the tornado move across right whereI lived on 21st Avenue, I thought,‘Please God, just leave me my fam-ily!’”Larson, too, was watching the

horrifying sight from the SalsburyLaboratories grounds.“I saw the side of a garage or roof

go — I could see the 2x4s there onemoment and then gone, just likethat,” he remembered. “ I lived onClinton Street and thought, ‘Oh no,my house is gone!’But it didn’t takeit. It did take the roof off the house,though.“I saw stuff flying — the debris

stayed fairly level, just going aroundand around a couple of hundred feetup.”Although he had grown up the

son of long-time Charles City mete-orologist E.G. Larson and knew allabout severe weather, this was thefirst tornado Larson had ever actu-ally seen in real life.“As I was watching, I thought,

‘My gosh, my dad would just love tosee this.’He never saw one up close.The one that hit Ionia (in 1948), hewas 15 miles away.”Back at the Trowbridge Center,

Schwarck said she started prayingand was halfway through the Lord’sPrayer when everything went quiet.“God was with me all the way. I

wasn’t hurt,” she remarked. “I saw alittle light and people going up thestairs. When I came up, everythingwas knocked down.“It was exactly like a dream I had

several weeks before of a storm justlike that, only I was at home.”As Schwarck and the rest of the

residents of Charles City were soonto learn, it wasn’t a dream at all buta real-life nightmare that there wasno waking up from.

Utter devastation“The first thing that came to my

mind when I got up those steps is,‘Good Lord, I survived a tornado,’”said Franklin Kicherer as he

emerged from the basement of hishome on Hildreth.On the east side of his street,

Kicherer reported only one housewas completely demolished out ofsix. The other five all sustained dam-age, but were still standing.“We had to go stay with my son

because our house was not liveable,”he said. “The tornado had perforatedit. Water ran right down through themiddle of it. It’s hard to describe. Itwas a real shocker.”Not as much as the scene across

the street, however.“The home on the corner was

gone,” he said. “Everything on thewest side of the street was wipedaway.”Kicherer and another man went

around what was left of the neigh-borhood turning off the natural gasvalves.“There was an atrocious smell of

gas. Oil, too,” Franklin recalled. “Wewere only a few blocks from theCharleyWestern (railroad) tanks andthe elevators. A couple of them wereruptured, apparently.“One gentleman thoughtlessly

took a match out and was going tolight a cigarette. He got jumped onreal quick.”The further north one went, the

worse the devastation appeared toget. Cars were said to have rolledlike tumbleweeds, brick buildingswere reduced to piles of rubble andwhole houses were tipped sideways,upside down or wiped completelyoff their foundations. The residentialarea on the far north end of town waspractically erased. Residents re-ported afterwards not being able toidentify where they were becausethere was no discernable landmarksleft.Larson remarked that he had a

hard time trying to figure out whathe was seeing.“Shock of seeing so much devas-

tation, I guess,” he said. “Later on Istood on the bridge there by Trow-bridges’s and looked to the north-west and there was just totaldestruction. Cars upside down andlight poles on the bridge all bentover.”Schwarck walked outside of the

Trowbridge Center after the stormhad past to a surreal world.“I had a brand new car, a Chevy

Impala, that I found in the basementof a house across the road,” she said.“There was also a yellow Volkswa-gen in there.A couple crawled out ofthat same basement afterward.“It was pretty awful, just terrible.

I’m thankful to the Lord that therewere not more hurt or killed than

there was.”Christensen reported after the

storm, “I had dirt and sand driveninto my head and something had hitme in the back. A few days later, Itook my folks and grandmother outto the plant where they had towedmy wagon. The top was crusheddown to the steering wheel and theonly clean place in the car is where Ihad been sitting.“My grandmother took one look

at the wagon and said, “Well theDevil takes care of his own!”At the YMCA, Goddard remem-

bers the silence after the storm hadpassed.“It was really quiet outside. You

could feel that the temperature hadreally fallen and the smell of rainwas strong in the air. I sometimesstill smell that when a storm is ap-proaching, a combination of rain anddirt,” she commented. “There was abig tree that had made its waythrough the front door and we allended up having to climb up and outof the doors. I remember seeingparts of the upper floors of the Ygone. There were people still up inthose rooms looking down, havingbeen caught with no warning ofwhere to go.“There was mass chaos with all

the kids wondering what to do nextand the Y instructors trying to keepus all in one place. I remember shiv-ering so hard that it hurt. It was justall too much for a 6-year-old to takein.”Eight-year-old Carnette Starr re-

members Rev. Ritter yelling intotheir wrecked home on Blunt to seeif anyone was in there.“My dad yelled back, ‘Yes!’ But

we were trapped. I don’t know forhow long — it seemed like it wasforever,” said Starr. “The guys fromthe garage that used to be where PortCharles is now came and literallychopped us out with axes.“I remember it being awfully cold

when I crawled through the hole theychopped so we could get out. Theyput me on a chair and then on astretcher. My mom was calling myname. I thought I was dead. I didn’trealize what had happened. Then Ithought it was maybe a dream.”Most of the Starr family escaped

with just minor injuries. SarahChambers was not as fortunate.“That was my grandma, but she

went by Sadie,” Starr said. “Shedied.”Chambers, 77, was one of the 13

fatalities in the tornado of May 15,1968. The others were MurrayLoomer, Harry Hall, Arthur Jacobs,August Merten, May Gault, Lela

Wolff, Florine Leach, Marie Green-less, Virval Dawson, Mr. and Mrs.John (Minnie) Kneisel and RobertStotts, a student teacher from theUniversity of Northern Iowa and theyoungest victim at age 22.The Kneisels — he was 89 and

she was 83 — were killed in theirCedar Terrace apartment; Greenless,82, also died at Cedar Terrace; Gault,85, died in her north side home; Ja-cobs, 82, was killed in his office atJacobs Elevator; Wolff, 77, died inher Freeman Street residence;Merten and Hall, both 67, werekilled in Merten’s shoe repair shopnear Trowbridge and from debristhat struck Hall’s Sears van respec-tively; Leach, 54, died en route to aWaterloo hospital from her injuries;Dawson, 45, died at home on 19thAvenue; and Loomer, the oldest vic-tim at age 95, died at home on Rich-ings Street.Their names are forever memori-

alized on a plaque in Central Park.For many of the survivors, tmem-

ories of that day 40 years ago arealso forever etched in their minds—or the scars from injuries sustained.It took years for Charles City to getback on its feet, but four decadeslater it still feels like yesterday attimes to some residents. It may be aparticular sound or smell that trig-gers those feelings, or perhaps athreatening cloud in the sky.“I still get feelings of compres-

sion sometimes,” said Schwarck.“To this day, I still have a buzzing inmy ears from that terrible pressure,like lots of cicadas. I’ve talked toothers who went through the tornadothat say the same thing.”Starr reports that, “Certain days I

can still smell that smell, damp andmusty. I respect tornado warningsnow.”“I still have tornado nightmares to

this day,” added Goddard. “ Thistime of the year is the worst with allthe public service announcementsabout severe weather. ““Now we take a pretty good look

and we watch,” remarked FranklinKicherer of whenever severeweather is in the area.Forty years later, Butler said she

still has her “Tornado City” sweat-shirt and her tornado book, “and if astorm approaches I RUN for cover.No questions asked. It changed mylife and lots of other kids in CharlesCity that May 15, 1968.”

Names of dead memorialized in Central Park

Just tell us why your life deserves an extreme makeoverwith an education in a 250 word essay.

Enter online by noon on May 28, 2008.

Choose NIACC First to makeover your life!If you’re at least 23 years-old and haven’t taken a NIACC creditclass in the past 3 years, you’re eligible.

2007-2008Winners

out there,” he chuckled. “The peoplewho lived next door, the mother wasstaying with them and she was in awheelchair. They found her after-wards, wheelchair and all, threeblocks away — sitting upright in herchair.”Despite losing his new house (“We

moved in on Labor Day and movedout May 16”), Hardt takes it all instride with a smile.“God left me my family. To this

day, I have very little use for materi-alistic things. I got what I wanted –my family safe,” he commented. “Myboys have grown up with the samephilosophy. Kim and Mark now liveon the east coast. Mark built a houseand it flooded. Kim drove down tosee how he was doing and there waswater in the family room. He andMark were laughing about it, but theirwives didn’t see the humor.“There’s nothing you can do about

it, so you might as well laugh.”Hardt began a poem about that day

back in May 1968, but has never fin-ished it:Now the 15th of MayWas a hell-flying dayWhen in every seaport in town

That the word got aroundThe big tornado was on its way

down …“That’s as far as I’ve got,” he said.

“Every May 15, I think about thatpoem and how I should finish it someday.”

‘The bodies’Catherine Eichmeier was working

at the F.W.Woolworth store when thetornado hit.“We had three dozen magazines

that all went out the front window,along with six mannequins that wehad just bought for $200,” she re-members of the big storm. “Someoneafterwards was crying there were sixbodies in the street and no one wasdoing anything about it‚ they were themannequins!”Eichmeier worked the drug and

candy counter at Woolworth’s andmarveled at how there were bottles ofclear nail polish on the shelves —never opened— that had dirt floatinginside them following the tornado.“The worst part was I had 2,000

pounds of candy delivered fromBrachs that day and there was blackdirt in every box afterwards and I hadto throw it all out. They were inclosed boxes, inside the store at the

time,” she said.Eichmeier mentioned she had also

been in a hurricane once in Georgia.When asked which was worse, a tor-nado or a hurricane, she replied“Both!”Her husband also has his own tor-

nado tale.“He was in his car at the time, it

picked him up, spun him around anddropped him from about 50 feet up,she said of Leston Eichmeier. “Hewasn’t hurt, just shaken up.”Al Bode and his son, Sean, also

went for a little ride that day.“We were at the corner of River-

side andWisconsin Streets, dead cen-ter between the two bridges inCharles City, approximately wherethe Charles City Public Library istoday,” Bode reported. “We werelifted into the air and, as I grabbedSean and dived into the back seat,glass was blown out of the windshieldand slammed into my head. I couldsee the papers on the windows of theold IGA grocery store blowing out,instead of in. The store was closed,and was being remodeled.“It was not until later that I real-

Mannequins are mistaken for victimsTales



Metal, wood, nor brick proved to be amatch for the fury of an F5 tornado


Tornado wasstrong – but notTHAT strong!By Mark WicksManaging EditorIn the days following the

Charles City tornado of May 15,1968, a pair of weather expertssaw a stunning photograph in theDes Moines Register of a CharlesCity farm field from above show-ing the distinct swirling patternsof a tornado. Paul Waite, a clima-tologist from the U.S. WeatherBureau in Des Moines and bureauchief Clarence Lamoureaux hadnever before seen such a detailedshot, which they believed theycould use with other informationto estimate the wind speed insidethe funnel.The duo drove to Charles City

and to the Claire Jaeger farm justnortheast of town, and with thenewspaper photo in hand as aguide, started measuring the over-lapping whirls. Using the recordedspeed of the twister, which ac-cording to radar had been 40 milesan hour, they used a formula ofvelocity equals the average of thecircumferences of the ellipses,times the number of rings permile, times the forward speed forthe funnel. As a result, they esti-mated the Charles City tornado tobe turning at a speed of 528 milesper hour. Their findings were frontpage news in the May 26, 1968,Des Moines Register.The only other time prior to

that this formula had been usedwas in 1955 with a lower qualityphoto from the Scottsbluff, Neb.,tornado. That one was estimated at428 miles per hour.Weather experts today, how-

ever, are disputing those findings."About 300 miles per hour is

the maximum we’ve seen fromany findings anywhere," reportedJeff Boyne of the NationalWeather Service office in LaCrosse,Wis. "There’s no evidencethey go much higher than that."Cal Larson of Charles City,

whose father was the meteorolo-gist stationed at the Charles CityWeather Bureau for 30 years andwho grew up there in the world ofweather reporting, agreed."I could believe 328 miles per

hour, but 528 seems pretty farfetched," he said. "It was a newformula back then, though, andobviously in need of some morefine tuning."

Cy

anM

agen

taYe

llow

Blac

k

Page9

CyanM

agentaYellow

Black

CY

MK

CY

MK


By Mark Wicksand Matt BarnesStaff WritersWhere do you begin?That undoubtedly crossed the

minds of the stunned residents ofCharles City as they emerged fromwhatever shelter they took on May15, 1968, when one of the strongestand deadliest tornadoes in Iowa his-tory swept through their community.In it’s wake, the F5 twister —

spinning at over 300 miles per hour— left a path of unimaginable deathand destruction. At one point themonsterous tornado was five blockswide and tore through the heart oftown. Thirteen people lost their livesin the storm and another 462 wereinjured.When the damage was all tallied

up, 337 homes had been destroyedand another 2,000 impacted to onedegree or another; 58 businesseswere wiped away and 210 moredamaged; more than 1,250 vehiclesdemolished; and hundreds of treeslost. Out of Charles City’s 3,600families at the time, 2,200 had beendirectly affected.Damage estimates in town were

put at $30 million. Translated into2008 figures, Floyd County Emer-

gency ManagementAgency DirectorBridget Moe puts the damage todayat more than $184 million.Of the seven-square mile city at

the time, only four square miles wereleft undamaged. Whole neighbor-hoods were erased, streets blockedwith debris, infrastructure such as

power, water and telephone servicewas down, school and church build-ings – where people usually congre-gate in times of crisis — were

uninhabitable, scores of people wereleft homeless and there were moreinjured than the local hospital couldcare for.“Utter confusion reigned imme-

diately following the tornado strike,”the Charles City Press reported thenext day. “But within 30 minutesclean-up crews were removing de-bris from in front of the fire station,which lost the entire portion of itsupper wall.”“It was hard to get everyone or-

ganized,” recalled Ben Krall. “Be-cause the ambulance was trapped inthe City Hall/Fire Station, the peoplewho weren’t hurt volunteered to takethe injured to nearby hospitals.”Caring for the injured became

priority one.For the first hour, Floyd County

Memorial Hospital only had onedoctor on hand. The rest of the staffcouldn’t get there because the bridgewas blocked by debris. Downedpower lines also made travel throughtown treacherous.“It was amazing because you

could not drive down a street be-cause of all the trees. You just had to

Outpouring of support helps community get back on its feet

Red Cross Disaster Relief headquarters was set up at St. John Lutheran Church to aid people af-fected by the devastating tornado of 1968.


By Mark Wicksand Matt BarnesStaff WritersYou hear about them, but can you

always believe them? There are somepretty wild stories floating around outthere when it comes to the CharlesCity tornado of 1968.Tracy Sweet, for one, is a believer.“I believe every tornado story I

hear now,” the longtime Charles Cityresident remarked. “I’ve seen toomany strange things not to.”For instance, there was that stack

of Coke bottles in wooden cases hecame across after the tornado —never opened, caps still on, but all ofthem were now half empty.Cal Larson’s favorite tornado

story involved two couples who livedon the north end of town in 1968.“These people were living on 18th

or 19th Ave. and would go back andforth to each other’s homes for cof-fee,” he explained. “The people onthe north side that day said come onover and have coffee with us andwe’ll ride out the storm. So (the cou-

ple on the south side) went over there,the storm came along, and the houseon the north blew away. They were alldown in the basement. The people onthe south side, they kept their house,but the other couple’s house blewover where their’s was.“They said the next time you come

over for coffee, don’t bring yourhouse with you!”Former high school science

teacher Charlie Hardt is full of tor-nado stories, some he’s heard andpassed on, but a number that involvehim directly. Like the letter he re-ceived from a minister in Preston,Minn., returning his water and lightbill after the tornado. Or his friendArtie Wade in LeRoy, Minn., whothat summer was out cutting alfalfaand found the Bluhm’s Electric signfrom Charles City. That sign is now apart of the Floyd County Museum’spermanent tornado display.“I remember we were out picking

through the wreckage of our housewhen my son Mark found a silverdollar by the driveway,” Hardt re-

called. “Then he found another —and another. Right inside our garage,inside the exposed foundation block,was a milk dish – unscratched – filledwith silver dollars.“I told (neighbor) Truman Man-

ship about it and he asked if theywere inside a milk dish, by chance. Itturned out they were his and had beensitting on top of the refrigerator insidehis house before the tornado!”Then there was his daughter’s

bathrobe, which they found stickingout through a tree after the storm.“I had heard of boards through

trees, but not this,” Hardt said. “Thetornado apparently bent the tree, itbroke, then snapped back togetherwith the robe in the middle.”He also likes the story Wilbur

Winterink told of the car that crossedthe Cedar River during the tornadowithout using a bridge. Or the sealedcan of beer that had nothing in it.“There are some real weird stories

Tornado talesFrom amazing discoveries to rides of a lifetime

Complete ApplianceDemanufacturingDave Bock, OwnerPhone: (641) 330-5597

Dealers WelcomeState of IowaLicense

(Appliance Disposal)Call today to

have your

appliances

picked up! SShhaannkkllaanndd IInnssuurraannccee 222288--77443366 CChhaarrlleess CCiittyySSttaauuddtt IInnssuurraannccee 331155--22667733 MMaarrbbllee RRoocckkPPeeoopplleess IInnssuurraannccee AAggeennccyy 443355--44331133 NNaasshhuuaa

Floyd County Mutual Insurance Assn.Angie Baldwin, Sec’y/Manager/Treas.215 N Jackson Street, Charles City, IA

Phone: 641-228-2446Quality Farm & Home Insurance Since 1880

Call us today.

Imagine having a local insurance company

After all, it’s a local call! Our company is one of the oldest companies in our community.

We have protected area families for decadesand will continue to do so for many more.

Find out how important local, hometown insurance service can be.

Phone (641) 394-32569 miles east of Charles City just off Hwy.18 on Cheyenne Ave. 1/2 Way Between

Charles City & New Hampton

Est. 1993Raleigh Hill

Public Golfing & Steak House

Dine out tonight in the Area’s Newest Steakhouse!

Full Banquet Facilities • CateringMore Open Dance Floor

and Seating Upstairs

Check out our new grill!Cook Your Own Meat

Golf Course Open!

People You Know, People You've Trusted For Over A Century

HAUSER FUNERAL HOME

1205 South Main StreetCharles City, IA

641-228-2323 • [email protected]

Cathie Groesbeck2845 155th Street, Charles City, IA 50616

(641) 330-9795Open Monday-Thursday Evenings and Friday-Sunday All Day

By Appointment Only

Manicures, Pedicures, Acrylics, Gels

- DESIGN SHOWROOM -• Professional Designers • In-Home Design Consultants

• Computer Drawings/Floor Plans- SERVICE AND QUALITY -

3649 4th Street SW, Suite A, Mason City, IA(Next to Slumberland Furniture on Business Hwy. 18)

641-423-6922Showroom Hours: Mon.-Fri. 8 a.m.-5 p.m.;

Sat. 9 a.m.-1 p.m. or by appointmentVisit Our Website at: woodharbor.com

Home Base217 N. Main

Charles City, Ia

Where the winds are

always blowing!

PARTY ON After the Party in the Park!

Top: Smith Lumber YardBelow: Geo P. Smith office


— U.S. Army Photo


Cy

anM

agen

taYe

llow

Blac

k

Page21

CyanM

agentaYellow

Black

CY

MK

CY

MK


So, just how many tornadoes were there inthe Charles City area that day 40 years ago?

The National Weather Service only officiallycounts the one that devastated much of CharlesCity on May 15, 1968. However, witnesses thatday have reported seeing two and even threeseparate funnels on the ground before two ofthem apparently joined forcesand headed into Charles City.

“That very well could havebeen,” said Jeff Boyne of theNational Weather Service officein La Crosse, Wis. “With theconditions that were in placethat day, there could have beena whole family of funnels bornout of that system. In terms ofdamage, though, it is counted asone tornado.”

Then-Floyd County Memo-rial Hospital AdministratorJames Johnson reported in thepapers the following day that hesaw as many as three funnelsoutside of town. A funnel cloudwas sighted near near MarbleRock just after 4 p.m. that day.Around 4:15 p.m., there werereports of two funnel clouds near Oakwood, 12miles southwest of Charles City, tracking to-wards town.

Editors Cameron Hanson and Heather Hullwrote in their book, “Past Harvests: A History ofFloyd County to 1996,” that the two funnelsparted ways near the Robert Howe farm, 7-1/2miles from Charles City. One headed south to-wards Greene, but the other reportedly contin-ued to track northeast and merged with a thirdfunnel cloud coming in from the east. That’s thetornado that hit Charles City.

Ben Krall, who at the time was working forFS Service Company, also reported seeing twotornadoes.

“Every tornado is said to have an orange ballin it,” Krall told then-student Elizabeth Bahe fora paper she wrote on the storm. “I saw it whenthe two tornadoes joined right in front of me.”

According to the NationalWeather Service, the 1968 tor-nado first touched down a milenortheast of Hansell at 3:10p.m. and passed east of Aredale,west of Greene, east of MarbleRock and grew larger and moreintense just before it hit CharlesCity. It continued northeast,striking Elma and causing an-other $1.5 million in damagebefore turing north and finallydissipating two miles south ofChester — four miles south ofthe Minnesota border. The mon-ster twister was estimated tohave been 400 yards wide, withwinds in excess of 300 milesper hour and traveled a distanceof 65 miles on the ground.

In all, there were seven con-firmed tornadoes reported on May 15, 1968, inthe La Crosse Region. Nationally, the May 15-16 tornado outbreak in 1968 resulted in 39 con-firmed tornadoes in Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana,Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Mississippi, Mis-souri, Ohio and Tennessee — from 2:28 p.m.CST on May 15 through 1:50 a.m. CST on May16.

A total of 72 fatalities and 1,203 injurieswere recorded from one of the deadliest out-breaks in U.S. history.

C.C. tornado said to have beenmerger of two funnel clouds

New DesignsNew Ideas

New Vision

219 N. Main Street - Charles City - 641-228-2931

Dean Jewelers is changing to better serve it’sgreat customers. Better quality, more

personalized service and creative designing.

“Our customers are one of a kind and theirjewelry should be one of a kind as well!”

“Hello, I’m Dave Davidsonfrom Dean Jewelers. I look

forward to meeting you anddesigning something special

just for you and at a verycompetitive price!”Dave Davidson

Jewelry Designer

Allied Construction Co. Inc.1211 S. Main, Charles City

641-228-4255

PPaavviinnggPPaavviinnggTThhee WWaayyTThhee WWaayy

SSiinncceeSSiinnccee1199552211995522





10

“like nobody else”

1501 S. Grand • Charles City(641) 228-7220 • 1-800-332-2579

HOURS:Mon. 8:30am-8:00pm

Tues./Wed./Thurs./Fri. 8:30am-6:00pmSat. 8:30am-4:00pm

Check out our inventory and current promotions atwww.mikemolsteadmotors.com

1SelectionMike Molstead Motors has North Iowa’sfinest selection ofnew and usedvehicles and if wedon’t have whatyou want, we will find it!

2SavingsMike guarantees he will meet or beat anybody’sprice. You will not pay moreto do business locally!

3Great PeopleMike Molstead Motors employs 30 ofyour neighbors, people who are yourfriends, people who have kids in ourschools, people you go to church with - all well trained professionals! 4Service

Mike Molstead Motors provide “state of theart” diagnostic and repair equipment with 6expertly trained and certifiedtechnicians to ensure the vehicle you buy stays in tip-top shape.

6WarrantiesOur new vehicles are built to last like never before and they’re backed up by factory warranties of up to 10 years. We also offer extended service contracts to cover the expense of maintaining your vehicle. See us for details.5Financing

Mike Molstead Motors has access to a wide variety of banksand factory lending institutions offering theabsolute best financing with the lowest rates.

7Peace of MindMike Molstead Motors stands behind the productswe sell 100%. We have the ability to screen usedcars for manufacturer recallsand have vehicle service his-tories available on used carsserviced at the dealership.Mike personally guarantees your 100% satisfaction!

8Great IntentionsMike Molstead Motors strives to establish and maintain long-term relationships with our cutomers! We are committed to complete customer satisfaction. Our goal is your 100%complete satisfaction.

9VarietyToyota, Honda, Ford, Chrysler, Lexus. Youname them, we have them or we can get them.We will get you whatever you want for lessmoney than you will pay going out of town.10High Standards

At Mike Molstead Motors, we hold ourselves to ahigher standard so your vehicle shoppingexperience will be a positive experiencethat will keep you coming back. Wewant you to be a “customer for life”.

GUARANTEE

We want to be North Iowa’s #1 Volume Dealer!

Charles City’s Hometown Dealer!


This funnel cloud wasone of three sighted by theRobert Howe family 7-1/2miles southwest of CharlesCity on May 15, 1968.

Want to read moreabout the CharlesCity tornado of ‘68?

The National Weather Service inLa Crosse, Wis., has dedicated a spe-cial Web site dedicated to the historicCharles City tornado of 1968. Go to:http://www.crh.noaa.gov/arx/?n=may151968 online to find out more aboutthe weather conditions that conspiredto produce killer tornadoes around thecountry; tornado statistics and com-parisons; view additional photos fromthe disaster; read eyewitness ac-counts; and even share your own ob-servations and feelings.

For even faster access, simplyclick on the NWS link on the Press’home page at www.charlescity-press.com.

walk around everything and you sawpeople walking around in a daze, kindof bloody, and everyone was justshocked,” remembered Elaine Mead.

Jim Hilgendorf was 25 and amember of the ambulance crew in1968. He and Wes Banks were out ona call with one of the ambulanceswhen the tornado hit and immediatelybegan assisting people.

“We looked across (the river) andit was a war zone,” Hilgendorf re-called. “We picked up our first personright about where City Hall is now.We picked up a lot more than one per-son.”

To get from the downtown area tothe hospital, he said, the ambulancehad to cut across yards to avoiddowned trees and power lines. Oncepeople were able to reach the hospi-tal, though, Hilgendorf said “thingswere thrown into a frenzy.”

“I saw one guy who was broughtin on a door,” he remembered.

By that night, FCMH Administra-tor James Johnson said the hospitalwas taxed to its limit and the injuredwere being diverted to Osage, NewHampton, Hampton, Mason City andRochester (Minn.).

The Press went on to report, “Thewail of sirens from emergency vehi-cles enveloped the city in the hoursafter the storm and continued until al-most midnight.”

Hilgendorf and Banks stayed onthe job well past their shift and dealtwith a variety of injuries.

“We had some pretty bad ones,” hesaid.

The tornado put a tremendousstrain on the town’s medical re-sources, but Hilgendorf cited an im-pressive volunteer effort that keptemergency services operational.

“You couldn’t believe the help thatpoured into this town,” he said. “Itwas really something.”

Help arrivesWithin hours of the disaster, help

for the beleaguered community wason its way in the form of neighboringtowns and farmers. Belmond, whichhad gone through the same thing twoyears earlier and remembered the helpit received from the folks in CharlesCity, had a dozen emergency workerson their way almost immediately.

“They will stay as long as they areneeded,” then-Belmond Mayor FloydBrosher told the media.

All told, Belmond brought in 30

pieces of equipment and 350 peoplewith the know-how to respond to sucha disaster.

Aid also poured in from the BlackHawk Sheriff’s Auxiliary; HardinCounty Emergency Squad; OsageJaycees, Junior Red Cross and 24members of the Osage American Le-gion; Citizens Band operators; unitsfrom the Clear Lake Fire Departmentand Independent Telephone Com-pany; men from Rudd and Rockford;auxiliary police units from ChickasawCounty and Storm Lake; and theWebster City Street Department. Sodid an uncounted number of civil de-fense units from around the region,including 21 from Sioux City alone.

The City of Des Moines sent aconvoy of 34 vehicles and nearly 50employees to spend a weekend aidingin the tornado cleanup. Six mountedpolice officers from Des Moines alsoarrived to help, as did the NoraSprings Rescue Squad and policeunits from Cedar Falls, Storm Lake,Iowa Falls, Osage, special deputiesfrom Osage, four carloads from theBureau of Criminal Investigation, po-lice officers from Garner, Plainfieldand Rudd and the fire departments

Outside aid poured in after stormRecovery



Above: Job Corps workers help removedebris

Below: Salvation Army mobile canteen


Page7

CyanMagenta

YellowBlack

CY

MK

CY

MK


from Colwell and New Hampton.“I think we owe a lot to the folks

from surrounding towns like Bel-mond,” remarked Bonnie Mitchell.“TheAmish and Mennonite families,too. They walked the fields fromCharles City to Elma picking up de-bris so that the farmers could plow.The fields were just full of debris.”She noted that her husband, Bud,

was given the task of overseeing min-imum security prisoners fromAnamosa who were bused in to helpwith the clean up.In addition, 88 Job Corps person-

nel arrived by bus to aid in clearingthe debris. They came from PoplarBluffs, Mo., and Ojibway, Mich., inresponse to Mayor Harry Brenton’srequest for help.Donations also poured in. Truck-

loads of household items and cloth-ing arrived from Dubuque from theMasons and Eastern Star membersthere. The response to the plea forclothing was so great that the RedCross asked donors to “hold off” untilwhat had already come in was sorted.The disaster even made interna-

tional news. Photos of the CharlesCity devastation appeared in newspa-

pers in Frankfurt, Germany. Collec-tions were taken in Frankfurt and Bo-cholt for clothes and blankets and aship offered to transport the packages.The Germans said they were gratefulfor the CARE packages received afterWWII and were simply returning thefavor.The Red Cross set up shop in St.

John Evangelical Lutheran Church,which was really the only church intown not heavily damaged. The Sal-vation Army, meanwhile, had aportable canteen truck on site withinan hour, with more to follow, and es-tablished an emergency relief stationat Immaculate Conception School. Itreportedly was serving 10,000 mealsa day that first week after the storm.Likewise, the Red Cross figured52,000 meals and snacks were servedthe first week, with as many as 15mobile units in the area making sureeveryone had something to eat. TheRed Cross also arranged for sleepingquarters for the army of volunteerworkers.The residents who still had a home

were doing their part to help out, aswell.Harriet (Eikenberry) Holzer, who

is now 83, said she and her husbandhad 70 people, at one time or another,

in their home on Ohio Avenue thatfirst night.“We took in three families, we

were wall-to-wall people,” she re-ported. “We also had people comelooking for their families and friends.My cousins brought a truckload ofsupplies. We had our own well and a30 gallon tank, so we had access towater for awhile.”There were four wounded people

among their guests that the Holzerscared for, including one womanwhose mouth was full of debris.“She opened her mouth and it was

all black,” said Harriet. “Her falseteeth were wedged so far back intoher jaw bone that a dentist had toeventually pull them back out.”For 25 years following the tor-

nado, the Holzers would host apotluck supper of thanks that they hadsurvived. Everyone who came to theirhouse that May in 1968 was alwaysinvited.“We had as many as 25 attend

each year, we always had someonejoin us,” Harriet commented,

Restoring orderWith peoples’ immediate needs for

Red Cross, Salvation Army on handCharles City Tornado 40th Anniversary • Thursday, May 15, 2008 • Page 7

The May 15-16, 1968, tornadooutbreak was a significant anddeadly tornado outbreak. It affectedthe states of:Arkansas, Illinois, Indi-ana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Mis-sissippi, Missouri, Ohio, andTennessee. This outbreak produced39 tornadoes from 3:28 p.m. CDT onMay 15 through 2:50 a.m. CDT onMay 16. This included two F5 torna-does in northeast Iowa. Table 1 (atright) provides a summary of the tor-nado intensities during this outbreak.These tornadoes caused 72 fatal-

ities and 1,203 injuries. It was one ofthe deadliest tornado outbreaks inthe United States during the 1960sand is one of the deadliest outbreaksever in Arkansas history. Table 2provides a break down by state of thefatalities and injuries during this out-break.

Outbreak detailsAs an anomalously deep low

pressure system moved east out ofthe Central and High Plains into theMid and Upper Mississippi RiverValley during the afternoon of May15, 1968, severe weather developedquickly. The first tornado occurred insoutheast Minnesota (Dakota and

Rice counties) at 3:28 p.m. CDT.During the next three hours, another18 tornadoes were reported acrossIllinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Min-nesota and Missouri. This includedtwo F5 tornadoes that hit central andeastern parts of Iowa about 45 min-utes apart during the late afternoon.These two tornadoes caused 18 fa-talities and 618 injuries.The first F5 tornado moved

through five counties and 65 miles.It affected Charles City just before 5p.m. CDT (4:47 p.m.) destroyingmuch of the area. Damage figureswere estimated up to $30 million inCharles City alone, while $1.5 mil-lion of damage was recorded else-

where. This tornado killed 13 and in-jured 462 others. The second F5 tor-nado affected Fayette County around4:57 p.m. CDT. It damaged or de-stroyed nearly 1,000 homes. Thehardest hit areas were Oelwein andMaynard where homes were com-pletely swept away from their foun-dations. Five people were killedwhile 156 others were injured. Dam-age was estimated at $21 million.These were two of four F5 tornadoesacross the United States in 1968, theothers being in southeastern Ohio onApril 23 and in southwestern Min-nesota on June 13. The next and lastofficial F5 tornado in Iowa took

place in Jordan on June 13, 1976.After the first tornadoes struck

the Upper Mississippi River Valley,the tornadic activity developed fur-ther south and east during theevening hours of May 15 and earlymorning hours of May 16. Severaldeadly tornadoes occurred inArkansas. One of the tornadoestouched down west of Jonesboro be-fore hitting the Craighead Countycity itself at around 10 p.m. CDT.The tornado, which caught most res-idents by surprise since most of thewarning systems failed, killed atleast 34. One more person was killedin neighboring Jackson County. The

tornado was the deadliest inArkansas since an F4 tornado that af-fected White County on March 21,1952, killing 50 people.The same city was hit by another

destructive tornado five years laterkilling at least three and injuring 250others while leaving much more de-struction throughout the city than the1968 event. The damage figureswere about $62 million in 1973 dol-lars. Another F4 tornado just to thewest of Jonesboro killed seven in OilTrough in Independence County andthree others were killed in BaxterCounty.The activity ceased across the

Deep South when the final tornadoestouched down across the metropoli-tan Memphis area and northern Mis-sissippi, as well as in the FortWayne, Ind., area.

— Provided by Jeff Boyne,National Weather Service

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/arx

EDITOR’S NOTE— For more onthe unusual weather conditions thattook place on May 15-16, 1968, visitthe NWSWeb site at:http://www.crh.noaa.gov/arx/?n=

may151968

The tornado outbreak of May 15-16, 1968

OMPU RONICSFor All Your Computer Needs

Contact Craig Haberkorn - Owner1004 5th Ave., Charles City, IA (641) 228-7477

23 Years Experience

257-4019 • FAX: 257-4230 email: [email protected] • www.fiai.net

Get On The Internet Today!

Computer Sales, Service,Repair, Upgrades, Reloads,Spyware and Virus Removal

DSL Now Availablein Charles City and Nashua

Twistin’ Up Savings

Since 1923in Charles City

204 North Main, Charles City, Iowa

“Clothing& Gifts for Men& Women”

HOURS:Mon-Fri. 9-5:30; Sat. 9-4

Lidd & Cordray Ltd.

Spring Jackets• Men’s • Women’s

$1968 OFF

Docker Pants$4000


20% OFF


Jeans

Now $2999

Ad GoodMay 15-17, 2008

3 Days Only!Thursday

FridaySaturday

All Silk Ties$1968

Values to $45COMET BOWLHwy 218 South, Charles City, IA • www.cometbowl.com

Charles City’s choice forGreat Food & Great Fun for the last 35 years!

Last chance to sign-up for

Sand VolleyballStarting Sunday, May 18

641-228-2115

Table 1Summary of May 15-16 tornadoes by state, strength and number:State Strength Number

F0 F1 F2 F3 F4 F5Arkansas 0 1 0 1 2 0 4Illinois 0 1 0 3 0 0 4Indiana 0 0 3 1 0 0 4Iowa 0 2 1 0 0 2 5Kansas 0 0 0 1 0 0 1Minnesota 1 3 1 0 0 0 5Mississippi 0 2 1 0 0 0 3Missouri 0 5 3 1 0 0 9Ohio 0 1 1 0 0 0 2Tennessee 0 3 0 0 0 0 3

Table 2Summary of Fatalities & Injuriesfrom May 15-16, 1968 Outbreak:

State Fatalities InjuriesArkansas 45 413Illinois 8 135Indiana 1 20Iowa 18 619Minnesota 0 3Mississippi 0 7Missouri 0 6Totals 72 1203

905 Gilbert Street • Charles City, Iowa

Come seeour remodel!

StillwaterGreenhouse

“Your #1 Green House in the Country”3110 Shadow Ave., Orchard, IA

641-732-3252Hours: 8-8 Monday - Saturday

Directions: From Charles City 18 East, Turn Left onUnderwood Ave (New Haven Blacktop), till Mitchell LineStreet, Turn Left 2 Miles. Green house is on the corner of

Shadow Ave. and Mitchell Line St.

Quality at an Affordable Price

April - JuneSpring Flowers &Vegetable Plants

September-OctoberHardy Mums,

Pumpkins & Squash

Need a Wind Break, VegetableGarden or Landscape Coach?

WE CAN HELP!Delivery available

Get to Know Your Mover!“We” Pick Up...“We” Deliver, On TimeDIRECT TO YOU!!

• Free Estimates• Full & Partial Loads• Packing Services Available• No Hidden Costs• Licensed & Insured

• Nationwide• Climate Controlled Storage• Boxes & Moving Supplies• No Temporary Workers• Same Profesional MoversFrom Start to Finish

(Toll Free) 1-888-896-0433641-228-7214

www.fieldbrosmoving.comReferences Available US DOT# 714503

ARE YOU SHORT ON PACKING SUPPLIES?We sell boxes, bubble wrap and all necessary moving materials.

First 50 Miles to House Charged as a Local Call

Above: Floyd County Civil DefenseDirector Jim McNeilus (at left).Below: a city planning meeting

RecoveryContinued from page 21



Page23

CyanMagenta

YellowBlack

CY

MK

CY

MK


was estimated to be 125 yards in width.A year later, on July 8, another F2 tornado

was reported eight miles north of Charles Cityaround 3 p.m., damaging a barn and farm ma-chinery. There were no deaths or injuries fromthe 200-yard-wide twister that was only on theground for about a mile.A small funnel cloud, rated an F0, was re-

ported two miles west of Charles City at 5:05p.m. on June 16, 1984. No injuries and nodamage was listed.Likewise for an F0 on June 22, 1984, which

was sighted at 6:02 p.m. five miles south oftown.An F2 tornado was reported traveling 12

miles from Nora Springs to seven miles westof Charles City on July 10, 1993. It wassighted near Nora Springs at 12:55 p.m. andoutside of Charles City at 1:25 p.m. The 110-yard-wide twister caused no reported injuriesbut several farmsteads were damaged.An F1 tornado onAug. 23, 1997, damaged

seven farms and destroyed numerous grainbins and outbuildings around 8 p.m. Eight cat-tle were killed by downed power lines, butthere were no reported human injuries. Thetwister was said to have been 150 yards wideand on the ground for five miles.In addition to the Charles City twisters,

Floyd County has also seen 15 other con-

firmed tornadoes since 1908. The worst wasan estimated F4 on May 9, 1918, that killedseven people and injured 15 others during a50-mile tirade from near Pearl Rock to Cal-mar. Reportedly 800 yards wide, the tornadotouched down in the extreme southeast cornerof Floyd County and moved into Chickasawand Winneshiek counties, where most of thedamage and all of the deaths occurred.Seventeen people were hurt when another

F4 touched down on May 5, 1965, two milesnorth of Nora Springs and traveled 80 milesthrough a total of six counties. Reported to be150 yards wide, it moved east-northeast, pass-ing within three miles of Cresco and liftingnear Yucatan, Minn. Two large farm houses inWinneshiek County were lost and some 28farms damaged or destroyed. Six people inFloyd County were injured, along with five inHoward County and six in Minnesota.An F2 tornado on June 11, 1925, injured

eight people in a 10-mile path from FarmersGrove to five miles northwest of Greene.Touching down at 6:30 p.m., it started out inButler County and moved north, mowingdown trees at the meeting place known asFarmers Grove. A farm five miles northwestof Greene lost all of its barns.That same storm produced a second F2 tor-

nado at about the same time, said to be 200yards wide and skipping along the ground for20 miles. It caused $10,000 damage to ruralhomes from two miles south of Marble Rock

to Carrville.Two people in Colwell were hurt in 1986

when an F2 struck a farmhouse, ripping off theroof and collapsing the house inward over thebasement.A number of outbuildings were alsodestroyed in the short-lived twister which wasonly said to be 25 yards wide and on theground for 0.2 miles.On July 20, 1999, an F1 tornado touched

down on the Floyd-Chickasaw county linenorth of Nashua and traveled just 0.1 milenortheast. However, the 60-yard-wide twisterextensively damaged two farms, blew down asilo, damaged crops, sheared off trees anddowned utility poles in it’s brief stint. Golf-ball-to-baseball-size hail was also reported.Anestimated $15,000 in crop damage was causedby the storm.The estimated dollar amount was the same

but this time it was in damage to homes whenan F2 hit several homes on the southwest edgeof Rockford around 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 6,1936.Other Floyd County tornadoes on record

include:• May 11, 1937, an F2 near Rudd at 9 p.m.

Abarn and other farm buildings destroyed, butno injuries.• Aug. 27, 1964, an F2 around 11 p.m. No

other information available.• Sept. 9, 1970, an F2 near Greene at 2:42

p.m. moved into Floyd County, destroyingsome barns and moving a truck 300 feet.

• Aug. 24, 1975, an F0 is reported at 8:45p.m. No other information available.• March 24, 1988, a rare winter F1 touched

down briefly a mile east of Nora Springsaround 3:15 p.m., causing some structuraldamage.• June 16, 1990, an F1 touched down at

10:54 p.m. three miles northeast of NoraSprings and caused extensive damage to sev-eral; farmsteads as it moved towards Rudd forfive miles.• July 6, 1994, an F1 was reported at 1:47

p.m. No other information available.• June 16, 2004, a brief F0 touchdown two

miles north of Rudd at 2:49 caused no dam-age.

* Some of the National Weather Servicedata used for this study came from “StormData and Significant Tornadoes — 1680-1991,” by Thomas P. Grazulis.

Summary of Floyd County tornadoes recorded since 1908Charles City Tornado 40th Anniversary • Thursday, May 15, 2008 •

Bill FellerFinancial AdvisorPrincor Registered RepresentativeFinancial Advisor101 N. Main StreetCharles City, IA 50616

(641) [email protected]

Principal Life Insurance Company (“The Principal®”) Des Moines, IA 50392-0001. Insurance offered through Principal Life Insurance Company. Securities and advisory prod-ucts offered through Princor Financial Services Corporation, member SIPC, Des Moines, IA 50392-0200. Principal Life and Princor are members of the Principal FinancialGroup® “The Principal®” is a registered trademark of Principal Life Insurance Company.#6572820007

WE UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU’RE WORKING FOR®

www.principal.com

FELLER&ASSOCIATES

• Simplify your finances• Create the income you need

• Avoid unnecessary income taxes• Manage your investment risk

Cedar HealthACC Enterprise

807 Fifth Street • Charles City, IA 50616641-228-1612

For those whodeserve the “Best”

Iowa’s Best Care Facility!Call us for all your health care needs!• Skilled Nursing Care• Long-Term Care• Secure Alzheimer’s Unit• Residential Care• Physical, Occupational, and Speech Therapy

EXCAVATING CORP.P

PROFESSIONALSite Preparation &General Excavatingare just a phone call away!

Phone 641.228.7965Fax 641.228.2278

CALL US FIRST 641-228-7965when you want the job done correctly and efficiently!

CHARLES CITY, IA 50616(641) 228-1822 • E-mail [email protected]

Patricia A. HuxsolIndependent Consultant

“I Sell Books Kids Love!”

Children’s Books Available InSpanish & Other Languages As Well

1003 Fifth AvenueCharles City, IA 50616

641-228-2183 or 1-800-392-6633

Circle KCommunications, Inc.

www.circlekcom.comA U T H O R I Z E D A G E N T®

Two-Way Radio Sales • Wireless Wans • Network Planning

* Wireless IP Networks * Kenwood Two-Way Radios* Cellular Phones and Accessories

We can remote controlanything without wires.

Ask About our 90 Pill Program!Our cash price may be lower than your insurance copay!

These drugs are $12.00 or lower. No more mail order and the waiting!!AmitriptylineAmilodipineAtenololBenazeprilCarbamazepineDigoxinDiltiazem Tablets

DiphenhydramineDoxazosinEnalaprilEstradiolFerrous SulfateFluoxetine (10, 20)Furosemide

GlyburideHydrochlorothiazideIbuprofenMetforminMetoclopramideMetopramideMetoprolol Tartrate

NaproxenPotassium TabletsRanitidineSimvastatin (10, 20, 40)TerazosinTramadolTrazodone

Some Strength exclusions apply. List may be added to or subtracted from based on manufacturer price changes.

Brad Harms, RphConnnor’s Clinic Pharmacy1501 S. Main • Charles City • 641-228-4136

Many otherprescriptions notlisted are available.

TwistersContinued from page 5

1948 Ionia tornado in Chickasaw Co.

medical care, food and first aid being ad-dressed, city and county officials could beginto tackle other things like restoring infrastruc-ture and clearing away the debris.The city council immediately declared a

state of emergency. Gov. Harold Hughes wasin Charles City the next day to see the devas-tation first-hand and meet with communityleaders, promising state assistance and Na-tional Guard support.A convoy of trucks paraded throughout the

city all day on May 16, removing debris andwrecked cars. Flammable material was takento the city dump and burned. Bricks, concrete,iron and other non-flammable material wastaken to area behind Allied Construction Co.on South Grand.“I remember a never ending plume of

smoke and fire at the ShawAvenue dump siteas debris was hauled and burned continuouslyfor months following the storm,” commentedJeff Sisson, who was 12 years old back in1968. “I recall seeing washers and dryers,freezers, lawn mowers and lots of things in apile that seemed 30-40 feet tall. Every block inthe devastated area had a pile like this.”National Guardsmen were in place by

Thursday night to provide security, taking uppositions around the downtown area. SheriffL.L. Lane had reports that downtown lootinghad taken place within 20 minutes of the dis-

aster. A curfew was put in place requiring allunauthorized personnel to be out of the down-town disaster area by 9:30 p.m.Absolutely no sight-seers were allowed in

Charles City at first. The highways into townwere already crowded by Wednesday night,but if you were not a resident or an emergencyresponse volunteer, you didn’t get in. All per-sons wanting to volunteer had to report to theFloyd County Courthouse for an official pass.Complicating matters was a report that the

Cedar River was steadily rising in the wake ofthe storm. High water cut off the Oak Parkarea, but by 3:30 a.m. Friday, the river begandropping back to normal.Electrical service to 40 percent of the town

was restored by 6 p.m. the first night, but forother areas like the downtown, the only light atnight came from emergency vehicles andflares. The hospital had power, thanks to twoemergency generators, but there was no citywater available. Milk trucks were loaded withwater, which was then pumped into the hospi-tal’s pipes. Milk cans were also filled withwater for other parts of town.Throughout the first couple of nights, only

two sources of gasoline were still available,Holiday station and Banks Standard Service.At times, emergency vehicles ran dangerouslylow on fuel.Phone service was restored by Saturday

night, thanks to 150 repair crewmen who de-scended on Charles City. Rhonda (Havner)

Wilson was an 18-year-old operator helping toman the local switchboard under a makeshifttent of plastic sheeting. The roof had beenripped off in the tornado.“We were actually back up and running in

part that first night,” she reported. “It was dis-heartening to take all those calls from peopletrying to find out what happened to their lovedones. I had seen those areas of town and knewit wasn’t good. It was hard, but it was some-thing you just knew you had to do.”Wilson also helped out with the Red Cross

switchboard in the days that followed. It wasthe first few nights, though, that she particu-larly recalls.“The eeriest thing I remember is the com-

plete silence at night, except for sirens,” shecommented. “There were the eerie shapes of apartially demolished Central School and otherstrange shadows you no longer recognized.But that complete silence, I will never forget.”Near-normal postal service resumed by that

next Monday and four local grocery stores re-opened during daylight hours, despite havingno electricity, so that food and related items instock could be distributed.

Organized chaosThe courthouse, which has only been

slightly damaged, became headquarters for themassive clean-up efforts. Generators suppliedpower and light.Sheriff Lane headed up the disaster unit and

Floyd County Civil Defense Director JimMc-Neilus coordinated the efforts of the estimated300 Guardsmen who reported. They had out-side help, as well. Jim Francis, executive di-rector for the Cerro Gordo County CivilDefense, was on hand giving information topersons on where they could go for housingand food, while Carl Blackburn, secretary oftheAFL-CIO, kept the list of homeless personswho were being relocated. Floyd County Ex-tension Director Bob McCrackin, meanwhile,was in charge of issuing work passes.Lack of communication for thousands of

people outside of Charles City trying to getword on relatives and friends was a major ob-stacle. The Floyd County Department of So-cial Welfare attempted to compile lists of theinjured and make it available at the courthouseto eliminate confusion by those seeking infor-mation.The city council directed that recovered

bodies be taken to Floyd County MemorialHospital for identification and the names ofdead directed to mayor’s office, with the RedCross responsible for notification of next ofkin. The May 20, 1968, Press reported thedeath toll had originally been put at 14, butthere was some confusion regarding the listingof a boy identified as Tom Hall or Tom Brown.A search of the many morgues and hospitals

‘Never ending plume of smoke and fire’ at Shaw dump siteRecovery




Page5

CyanMagenta

YellowBlack

CY

MK

CY

MK


First known C.C. twisterwas century agoBy Mark WicksManaging Editorand Jeff BoyneNational Weather ServiceWhile the Charles City tornado of

1968 is by far and away the most widelytalked about, it is far from the only twisterto strike the area.According to the National Weather

Service office in La Crosse, Wis., therehave been a total of 23 confirmed torna-does in Floyd County since 1850, includ-ing one F5, two F4s, one F3, 10 F2s, fiveF1s and four F0s (se Fujita Sale at farright). Seven of those twisters have beenin or around Charles City.The first recorded tornado in Charles

City’s history came on June 7, 1908, whenan estimated F3 twister tracked northeastthrough town at at 4:50 p.m. One deathand 10 injuries were reported. A man(W.R. Beck) was killed by a falling chim-ney. About 200 buildings were damagedor destroyed.The tornado was said to have been 100

yards wide and was on the ground for 11miles. Five homes on the eastern side oftown were destroyed and about 20 othersseverely damaged.A farm house had only

the floorboards left. Total estimated dam-age at the time was around $10,000.The story made the June 8, 1908, edi-

tion of New York Times: “Tornado hitsIowa Town — Man and child killed inCharles City and 200 buildings de-stroyed.”“Path of the storm about 10 rods wide

and 10 miles long,” the Times reported.“The tornado just missed the CharlesCity College buildings, barns were car-ried several blocks.Water was lifted fromthe channel of the river through town.”Former Charles City residentWilliam

L. Burge, now of St. Louis, has collectedseveral 1908 tornado photographs andstories.“My favorite,” Burge shared, “is there

were four hobos playing poker on theriver bank and one was taken over to theother side and set down by the creamery.He would not give his name, but wantedto get out of town."On May 20, 1953, an F2 funnel was

seen in Charles City around 9 p.m. Nodeaths or injuries were reported and theonly noted damage were some downedtrees. More damage from the storm oc-curred in nearby Butler County, as the tor-nado tracked 20 miles on the ground and

Area no stranger to tornadoesCharles City Tornado 40th Anniversary • Thursday, May 15, 2008 •

Enhanced Fujita ScaleThe Enhanced Fujita Scale, which

was adopted as of Feb. 1, 2007, is usedto assign tornadoes a rating based onthe highest wind speeds and relateddamage. The original Fujita Scale — in-troduced in 1971 by Tetsuya "Ted" Fu-jita of the University of Chicago — wasrevised to better reflect tornado dam-age surveys.

The National Weather Service is theonly federal agency with authority to as-sign official tornado EF scale ratings.

EF Rating(based on 3 Second gust of wind)

Rating (mph)0 ............................65-851 ............................86-1102 ............................111-1353............................136-1654............................166-2005............................Over 200

There are 28 different damage indi-cators, ranging from small barns andoutbuildings (1) to softwood trees (28)

Serious efforts to count tornadoesdid not begin until the Weather Bureautornado watches in 1953.

— From the National WeatherService Web site

TwistersContinued on page 6

Damage fromthe Charles CItytornado of 1908

— Photoscourtesy of

Bill Burge

ProudShareholders!

Solutions for life.

300 North Main Street • Charles City, IA 50616 • 641-228-5315 • www.firstcitizens.nb.com

First Citizens National Bankhas been providing thefinancial needs of our

community for over 116 years.

We’re your bankers — yourneighbors — your friends!

Bank with us in Hometown!America’s

involved failed to reveal the death ofa youth, however, and a young mannamed Tom Brown was later foundto be alive.A procedure regarding severely

damaged buildings was also estab-lished. An “X” was to be painted onthem and they were to be roped off.Temporary wooden safety canopieswere to be used to enter businessesstill open if there were unsafe struc-tures nearby.Urban Renewal Director Don

Johnson suggested designating Cen-tral Park and the City Hall parkinglot as areas for construction of tentsas temporary places of business. Anoffice for insurance adjusters wasalso established in the courthouse.Help with housing came from Dr.

M.C. Ballenger, president of CharlesCity College, who announced thatthe college would close within thatfirst week after the storm and thatstudents would move out as soon aspossible to free up apartment rentalspace for displaced communitymembers. The students and facultyof the struggling college had met thatSunday evening and made the deci-sion to close.Private individuals and busi-

nesses also stepped up to the plate.Farmers and their chainsaws helpedclear away the fallen trees aroundtown.H.M. (Mully) Finch, the Oliver

tractor plant manager at the time, of-fered use of any of the Oliver equip-ment to persons who knew how tooperate it. Numerous other busi-nesses also supplied equipment. TheOliver plant itself sustained onlylimited damage, but the displayshowroom along Grand Avenue wasblown away.Local hog buyer and farmer

Harley Peters took on the job as co-ordinator of cleanup activities. Petersset up a system of block chairmen toclean up one street at a time, utilizinga citizen’s band radio to dispatchneeded equipment from the citysheds. Then Dale Studt and Petersorganized a ward system. The townwas divided into five wards and eachday, depending on who was avail-able to work, ward chairmen wereappointed to head the clean-up effortin that area.“It’s the most organized mass

confusion I’ve ever seen, but it’sworking,” said Tom Kraft, assistantcity engineer, in the May 27, 1968,Press about the clean-up.Waivers were needed by home

owners to clean up the rubble and re-

move damaged homes from privateproperty. Through this and the wardchairmen, the city could look at amap and tell at a glance where crewswere working, which houses hadbeen removed and which were wait-ing for removal.Thousands of destroyed vehicles

were hauled to Lion’s Field andstored until they could be disposedof.“I remember them being stacked

like cord wood on the site of the oldfootball field,” recalled Sisson.Bill Smith, in a tornado report to

his customers at Smith Nursery,noted a return of optimism:“Most of the people are in good

spirits and tackling the job with avengeance,” he wrote of the cleanupand rebuilding effort. “Everybodyfeels sure that it will just be a matterof time before Charles City is backon its feet and rarin’ to go.”

Time to rebuildIt was clear that the community

would never be the same again afterMay 15, 1968, but there was a deter-mination by officials and residentsalike to rebuild a new Charles City.Ironically, the top story in town in

1967 was urban renewal. Proposedplans had split support in the com-munity, with a number of town meet-ings held and a public group formedto oppose the urban renewal plansbeing presented. Those plans calledfor an entire new downtown shop-ping complex, extending along MainStreet between Riverside and Kelly,and westward to the mid-point in theblock west of Jackson.Mayor Brenton had indicated his

opposition to any form of govern-ment subsidized urban renewal in‘67 and council members were spliton the issue.“The ultimate decision is with the

council and generally it appears thecontroversy will be short-lived dur-ing 1968,” a Press article reported onMarch 11, 1968, in its Progress re-port.Of course, the tornado made up

the community’s mind for them.A presidential disaster declara-

tion helped provide federal fundingfor the recovery efforts and a $10million redevelopment plan was con-ceived. Voters approved $1,412,000in debt to finance a new city hall, firestation and community redevelop-ment project.Assisting Charles City through

the rebuilding process was a delega-tion of city officials fromAlbert Lea,Minn., which had been hit by a tor-nado a year earlier.“The biggest favor you can pos-

sibly do for Charles City is to behard-nosed, cold, unwavering aboutthe building code,” Albert LeaMayor Niles R. Shoff said. “Our pri-mary concern and our duty was tobuild just as good a town afterwards,if not better than we had.”He emphasized that local resi-

dents could be victimized by un-scrupulous fly-by-night contractorswho would be converging on thetown.The community delegations dis-

cussed temporary use of trailer hous-ing, building inspections, workingwith contractors, building permitsand, in particular, warned of troublewith basement walls that could becracked from the pressure generatedby the tornado.When plans to secure state and

federal funds to install a disasterwarning system did not materialize,Charles City citizens, firms and or-ganizations stepped forward andhelped raise more than $20,000 sothat a new community warning sys-tem could become a reality.School voters, meanwhile, ap-

proved a $3,535,000 bond issue forthe $5,300,000 school building pro-gram. The Charles City Board of Ed-ucation decided to cancel elementaryschool classes for the rest of theschool year. McKinley, the ManualArts Building and Washingtonschools all sustained major, if notcomplete damage. Central Elemen-tary, however, was repairable.It was decided to rebuild Wash-

ington on the same site. ManualArtswould be rebuilt as an addition to thejunior high school and an addition toJefferson would replace McKinley.Regular classes at the junior and

senior highs — which survived thestorm — did resume on May 27,with classes running through June 4.Those buildings were not damagedand 210 Charles City seniors werepresented their diplomas on June 5.“Julie Groesbeck, who suffered a

leg injury in the tornado, hobbledbravely down the aisle on crutchesand made it across the stage withoutthe encumbering aids,” the June 6Press that year reported. “Parents,who would have no after-graduationparties in their homes, but would‘make do,’watched with tear-stainedfaces.”The title of the commencement

address given by Supt. H.J. Eastmanwas, “The Rising Sun Looks On ANew Day.” Dr. Max Johns, vicepresident of the school board,pledged to the graduates that his gen-eration, “Will build the churches,homes and businesses. We will builda better Charles City.”

Determined community rebuilds from the rubbleRecovery

Continued from page 23A Walk Down Main Street on May 14, 1968

The following directory of businesses that existed on Main Street on May 14,1968, the day before the tornado, is from the book “Past Harvests: A History ofFloyd County to 1996” by Cameron Hanson and Heather Hull. Published in 1996,the book was commissioned by the Floyd County Historical Society.

Businesses are listed from the south to the north beginning at Main Street’s in-tersection with the street listed. The odd-numbered addresses were on the westside and even-numbered on the east. Private residences/apartments not listed.

Gilbert Street(Highway 18/218)106 A & W Root Beer Drive-In101 Floyd County Courthouse100 Obie’s Standard Service

Court Street99 Ray’s Family Kitchen98 Abstract and Title Service97 Ken’s Radio and TV Sales96 Shriver’s Groceries94 Bradens93 Charles City Chamber of Com-

merce; Des Moines Register and Trib-une Agency; Frye and McCartney

92 Three-R Wood Shop91 Marigold Dairies; Howlyn’s Office

Supply90 Kepple Realty89 Sylvester’s Home Interiors

Cedar River95 Melody Lounge97 All Iowa Sewing Company

Riverside Drive100 Charles City Press101 George Wentland Property

Management and Insurance103 Gambles104 Sears and Roebuck107 Floyd County Museum109 J.C. Penney Store112 Spurgeon’s113 Van Rees Music115 Spic and Span Bakery116 Field Drug118 Nockles Shoe Store119 Ace Lounge120 Mode-O-Day121 Ben Franklin Store121 1/2 Gilbert Hotel122 Muesel Hardware

Clark Street200 Woolworths201 Weinberger Pharmacy201 1/2 Hohler Piano Service203 Garthwaite’s Office Supply203 1/2 Iowa Title and Reality; Mu-

tual Benefit Life Insurance; LeRoy Nel-son, Attorney

204 Lidd’s Clothing205 Coast-to-Coast206 Brown’s Shoe Fit208 Citizens National Bank209 Charles City Trading Store210 Butler’s Men’s Wear210 1/2 Credit Bureau of Chickasaw

and Floyd County; Clyde King Insur-ance; K.T. Marsh Insurance

211 Van’s Hardware214 Montgomery Ward215 Dutch Oven Bakery216 Western Auto217 Dean Jewelers219 Avco Delta Finance220 Janan’s Children’s Clothing221 McDermott TV Service222 Koffee Kup; May Drug

223 Uptown Cafe

Kelly Street300 Sherwin-Williams Paint; Larry’s

Barber Shop; Sharlet’s Beauty Salon300 1/2 KCHA Radio302 Ellis Jewelry304 Thorp Credit306 Muller’s Clothing306 1/2 Milady’s Beauty Shoppe308 Park Fashion310 Bluhm Electric; Farmers Mutual

Insurance; Martens Agency Insuranceand Real Estate

312 Blunt Printing314 Davis Paint316 Cora’s Counter318 Iowa Public Service320 Gibson’s Discount Store Blunt

Street400 Credit Finance Company410 Commercial Trust and Savings

Bank404 Wamsley’s Plumbing and Heat-

ing406 Culbert Electric409 Charles Theater414 Mid-Town DX Gas Station417 Knights of Columbus419 Charles City Savings and Loan;

McMains Realtors; Russell McMains In-surance

421 Peerless Photo423 Glen’s Barber Shop

Ferguson Street500 United States Post Office501 B&L Shell Service Station509 Cedar Valley Farm Fleet Dis-

tributing512 Spar Maple Lanes Bowling523 Charles City Laundry and

Cleaners

Hulin Street600 Young’s Beauty601 Pederson Drive-In Cleaners604 Folkerts Printing615 Frudden Lumber620 Lindemere Dairy; Matthews

Products Machine Shop624 Duane’s Gulf Service Station

Spriggs Street700 Smith Lumber Company701 Charles City Granite Works703 Golden Touch Beauty Salon705 Farm Bureau; Farm Bureau In-

surance707 Knitting Korner721 Eli Goldstein Junk Dealer726 Charles City Creamery

Richings Street803 Whirlaway Car Wash804 Sar Seed Farms805 Oliver Corporation Warehouse807 North Main Barber Shop810 Checkerboard Cafe813 S&D Tavern


Page25

CyanMagenta

YellowBlack

CY

MK

CY

MK


then the wind …"The National Weather Service

(NWS) reports that the tornado thatwould eventually hit Charles Cityfirst touched down a mile northeast ofHansell at 3:10 p.m. It tracked east ofAredale, west of Greene and east ofMarble Rock, growing bigger andmore intense as it went."We knew the storm was coming

because we started getting phone callsfrom Greene and Marble Rock want-ing the sheriff to report tornadoes,"commented Rhonda (Havner)Wilson,now of Denver, Iowa, but then an 18-year-old high school senior whoworked as an operator at the North-western Bell office in Charles City.She had just reported for work thatday at 4 p.m. "We were able to trackit by the phone calls as it got closerand closer to town."Cal Larson was a maintenance

worker at Salsbury Laboratories (nowFort Dodge Animal Health and Cam-brex-Charles City) and the son oflong-time meteorologist E. G. Larson.He grew up in the Weather Bureaubuilding in Charles City that his dadwas stationed at for 30 years, so heknew all about bad weather – and he

could feel something coming."We were told that a tornado was

down the other side of Marble Rockand we were told to put the coolingwater on and shut everything down,"he reported. "About 4:30 p.m. wecould see this front coming in fromthe southwest. We were heading forthe shower room and saw this littletornado come down somewhere nearthe fairgrounds and go right back up.I joked, ‘There’s our tornado, nowlet’s all go home!’"However, Larson said he wasn’t

satisfied that was all there was."That front was still coming, so I

went along the front of the chembuilding and out east where there wasa tank farm to get a better look."At 4:25 p.m., Bart’s Clubhouse

was interrupted for an importantweather bulletin.“The TV said there was a tornado

headed for Charles City. I went to tellmy parents across the hall, but mymom said don’t worry about it and wegot ready for supper,” recalled Starr.Several residents noted that it got

“eerily still” out. It began to rain, thencame the hail – golfball size and big-ger.“The size was enormous,” stated

Sisson. “ I remember them comingdown and splatting on our driveway

and thundering off of my father’s In-ternational Scout.”Charlie Hardt was an assistant

track coach at the time and was outlining the track at the CollegeGrounds."I had just finished when it started

to hail. I saw some dismal-lookingclouds and my son Kim said he sawthree things hanging down," reportedHardt. "I didn’t know my car wouldgo that fast as we took off for the highschool."Larson was standing on the Sals-

bury Laboratories property looking tothe west, when he turned around tosee what was coming from the south."I looked and there was this tor-

nado, this huge thing, real close to theground," he said. "I was standingthere and it looked like it was comingstraight towards me, getting biggerand bigger. I noticed that there werethese little dinky tornadoes that werecoming down and twisting into themain funnel.”Over at the Northwestern Bell

switchboard in Charles City, Wilsonsaid another operator took a call inwhich a woman screamed, "It’s here,it’s here. It’s at Charles Street!"

An ‘eerie’ stillness before the stormCharles City Tornado 40th Anniversary • Thursday, May 15, 2008 •

Automotive ServiceOf Excellence Certified

DAVE HUFFMANOWNER

641-228-30881000 5th Ave. (Hwy. 18 East)

Does Your

Body NeedSome Work?

COLLISION REPAIR SPECIALISTSQuality Craftsmanship Since 1983Complete Auto Body & Paint Shop

Professional Color Matching • Glass Installation

Huffman Auto Body, Inc.

MILLS INC.Plumbing & Heating

Lennox • Econar Geo312 North Main

641-228-2545

M

!"#$%&'&

()'$*)+,,,

$-./01

228-4543 • Toll Free: 877-233-1947email: [email protected]

206 N. Main, Suite 1ACharles City, IA

If you’d like insurance protection to cover you 24 hours a day,then why settle for 9:00 to 5:00 service?

As a local independent insurnace agent representing Auto-Owners Insurancecompany, I’m here for you. I’m your neighbor–somone you know, someoneyou can trust and respect.Luckily, emergencies don’t happen every day, but when they do isn’t it niceknowing I’ll be here to help you through it 24 hours a day 7 days a week?Stop in and see me, I’ll be delighted to serve you.

Discover Timeless Treasures at...Floyd County Historical Society

MUSEUMMon-Fri 9am-4pm; Sat-Sun 1-4pm

Admission: Adults $4.00. Age 10-18 $2.00. Under 9 free.Memberships: Single $10.00; Family $20.00.500 Gilbert Street, Charles City, IA

(641) 228-1099 Fax (641) 228-1157www.floydcountymuseum.org



Top: Looking north from Clark StreetBelow: The Elks Lodge

How to prepare adisaster supply kitHaving a disaster supply kit ready

to take with you at a moment’s noticeensures that you will have necessarysupplies no matter how fast you mayneed to evacuate. Pack supplies induffel bags or backpacks and keepthem in a designated place. Your kitwill also come in handy if you musttake shelter in your home. This listwill help ensure that your disastersupply kit includes all the essentials.

WaterPack at least one gallon per person

per day for at least three days.Store water in tightly sealed, non-

breakable plastic, fiberglass orenamel-lined metal containers.Change your water every six

months.Food

Pack enough food to last eachfamily member at least three days.Include canned and boxed foods

because they require little preparationand stay good for long periods oftime. Remember to bring a manualcan opener or to buy food in self-opening cans.Pack foods in sealed metal or plas-

tic containers.Replace foods every six months.Include foods for infants and fam-

ily members with special diets.Tools and equipment

Battery-powered radioFlashlightsSpare batteriesResealable plastic bagsWashcloths and towelsPaper cups and plates and plastic

utensilsToothbrushes, toothpaste, sham-

poo, deodorant, and other toiletriesHeavy-duty plastic garbage bagsChange of clothing and an extra

pair of shoes and socks for each per-sonBlankets or a sleep bag for each

personPersonal items

Personal identificationCopies of birth and marriage cer-

tificates, inventory of householdgoods, bank account numbers andother important documentsMapsExtra car and house keysPrescription medicationsFirst aid kit essentials

Adhesive bandagesAntacidAntibiotic ointmentAntidiarrhea medication

AntisepticAspirin and nonaspirin pain re-

lieverCleaning agents (isopropyl alco-

hol, hydrogen peroside, soap, germi-cide)Cotton ballsFirst aid manualGauze pad and rollLatex glovesLaxativeMoist towelettesNeedle and safety pinsPetroleum jellyScissorsSunscreenThermometerTriangular bandagesTweezers

Preparing for a tornadoDesignate a shelter area in your

home. Basements or storm cellars arethe safest. Otherwise, use an interiorroom or hallway on the ground floor.Practice getting to your home shel-

ter area.If you live in a mobile home, find

a sturdy building nearby where youcan take shelter. Mobile homes offerlittle protection in a tornado.Know the locations of designated

shelter areas in place like schools andshopping centers.

Are you prepared for when disaster strikes?

Above:Near where

the VFW PostHome is today

At left:Immaculate

C o n c e p t i o nChurch


Page3

CyanMagenta

YellowBlack

CY

MK

CY

MK


By Mark WicksManaging Editor"My God, there it is!"KCHA radio announcer John

Phillips would later say he thoughtthe microphone was off when helooked out the window of the down-town studio moments after broad-casting a report that a tornado wasstriking the south side of CharlesCity. Those last five words, though,are burned into many residents’memories as they recall the most in-famous day in the community’s his-tory."I remember the static and panic

in the announcer’s voice," said Bar-bara Fuls, who was then a senior atNashua High School on May 15,1968."Then the radio station went

blank," added Jeff Heller, who wasat his family’s farm outside of town.He and his mother watched as themassive twister traveled east ofwhere they were, then turned northright into Charles City. "I looked atmy mother and she started crying,saying the whole town was probablygone."Not quite, but close enough.What would later be categorized

as an F5 tornado tore through theheart of the community, travelingnorthward into the downtown areaand beyond, leaving a path of de-struction behind five blocks wideand 2-1/2 miles long through town.To this day, it remains among thebiggest tornadoes ever recorded inIowa – and one of the deadliest.Thirteen people lost their lives intown that day and another 462 wereinjured. The statistics are staggering– 337 homes destroyed and another2,000 damaged to one degree or an-other; 58 businesses wiped away and210 more damaged; eight churchesand three school buildings, along

with the Elks Lodge and other clubsites left in ruin; more than 1,250 ve-hicles demolished; signage erased;and hundreds upon hundreds of treesuprooted, sheared off or left broken.It was reported that 2,200 out ofCharles City’s 3,600 families at thetime had been directly impacted bythe tornado.Damage estimates were put at

$30 million in Charles City alone,with another $1.5 million inflictedelsewhere – primarily in nearbyElma which was also hit - during themonster twister’s 65-mile rampage.Translated into 2008 figures, accord-ing to Floyd County EmergencyManagement Agency Director Brid-get Moe, the damage to Charles Citywould have surpassed $184 million.

"Total devastation," eyewitnessCal Larson called it. "I was in shockseeing so much devastation.""I’d like to say I was a baby and

can’t remember the tornado," re-marked Kathy Krieger of CharlesCity, who was 14 at the time of thebig storm. "However, I do rememberit well and for all of us that experi-enced it, it is a memory that can’tpossibly be forgotten."

Unseasonably hotThose who experienced the hor-

ror first-hand all described the dayprior to the storm’s arrival as "hotand muggy." Elizabeth Bahe laterwrote in a student paper about thetornado that the temperature had al-ready climbed above 60 by 7 a.m.

and had reached a "humid 80 de-grees" by noon. The thermometer re-portedly topped out at 84 degrees –15 above normal for that time ofyear."It was so very, very hot," con-

firmed Bonnie Mitchell, a middle-aged mother at the time and ownerof the Golden Touch Beauty Salonon the north end of town.At 2:35 p.m., the National

Weather Service issued a tornadowatch for Floyd County.The Charles City schools back

then usually let out classes at 3:30p.m., but that particular day was aspecial one because of the annualgrade school track meet. As a result,students were dismissed 15 minutesearlier that day. Looking back, those

extra minutes may not have made adifference – then again, no one willever know for sure."Can you imagine what would

have happened if the tornado had hita little earlier, especially consideringwhat it did to the school buildings intown," more than one person won-dered out loud as they retold theirstories 40 years later.Then-12-year-old Jeff Sisson re-

called the wind switching directionas the afternoon progressed, startingto blow more from the south, and itgetting quite warm.“Winds were very gusty and the

running course at the CollegeGrounds was laid out east to west.We figured they did that becauserunning to the south for kids of thatage would have been hard that day,”remembered Sisson.He called the walk home to 714

ThirdAve. after school “very muggy.It was sunny and hazy.”Like many children, Sisson and

his siblings tuned into “Bart’s Club-house,” a children’s show hosted bythe KGLO-TV weatherman BartCurran that came on at 4 p.m. Overon Blunt Street, eight-year-old Car-nette Starr had just come home fromCentral Elementary and was alsowatching Bart’s Clubhouse.“I remember at school they told

us to go straight home because therewas bad weather coming,” said Starr.They were right.

‘Strange’ skyWitnesses said the sky began to

turn dark around 4:30 p.m."(It) went to a green-black color,"

recalled Susan (Blume) Butler, whonow resides in Round Lake Beach,Ill. "It looked so strange outside and

A moment frozen in timeForty years later, residents still vividly remember the day Charles City was nearly blown away

Horrifying imageThis famous shot of the 1968 Charles City tornado was taken west of the Floyd County Fairgrounds

by then-Sheriff L.L. Lane. To this day it remains one of the strongest and deadliest tornadoes on recordin Iowa, killing 13 people in Charles CIty and injuring 462 others.

Pictured from left to right: WashingtonSchool, First Methodist Church and Cen-tral Methodist Church.

TornadoContinued on page 4Tornado’s path through Charles City on May 15, 1968. That’s S. Main Street on the left, Hulin on the right and 9th Street running east-west.

CreditsThe Charles City 40th Anniversary special edi-

tion is a supplement to the Charles City Press.Extra copies are available at the Press office at801 Riverside Dr., Charles City IA 50616 or by call-ing (641) 228-3211.Stories were written by Mark Wicks and Matt

Barnes, with some submitted material through thePress’s tornado blog site at www.charlescity-press.com and the National Weather Service Website at: www.crh.noaa.gov/arx/?n=may151968.Special thanks to Kim Bucknell for the cover, JeffBoyne at the NWS, Jeff Sisson, Linda Klemesrud,Charlie Hardt, Franklin Kicherer, U.S. Army photosand the photo collection of Ken Carr which ap-pears throughout this edition.Wrecked cars

at Lion’s Field

Discover the difference: Put our network, products and customer serviceto the test for 30 days . Change your calling plan at any time during yourservice agreement without signing a new contract . Renew your contractand take advantage of new phone pricing before your current contract ends

U.S. Cellular is wireless where youyou matter most.SM

Things we want you to know: Offer valid on plans $39.95 and higher and with two-year service agreement. All service agreements subject to early termination fee. Credit approval required.$30 activation fee. $15equipment change fee. Roaming charges, fees, surcharges, overage charges and taxes apply. 96¢ Regulatory Cost Recovery Fee applies; this is not a tax or governmentrequiredcharge. Network coverage and re-liability may vary. Usage rounded up to the next full minute. Use of service constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions. Promotional Phonesare subject to change. Buy one handset and get a second hand-set of equal or lesser value for free. Each handset must have a minimum posted price of $49.95 (before rebate). Mail-in rebaterequired on each handset. Rebate will be in the form of a U.S. Cellular Visa DebitCard. U.S. Cellular Visa Debit Card issued by MetaBank pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. Allow 10–12 weeks for rebate processing. The card does not have cash access and can be used at any merchantlocation that accepts Visa Debit Cards. U.S. Cellular Visa Debit Card valid for 120 days after issued. easyedge: U.S. Cellular–approved phone required on all easyedge plans. easyedge is a service mark of U.S. Cel-lular. Application charges apply when downloading applications. Promotional offer requires purchase of $9.95 unlimited easyedge access plan for at least 90 days. Smartphones require minimum purchase of$39.95 voice plan and $24.95 e-mail plan and Web 4MB plan for entire term of service agreement. Data access available in U.S. Cellular data coverage areas. easyedge service not available. Smartphone featuresintended for accessing intranets, e-mail and Internet. U.S. Cellular–approved equipment required. Smartphone features may not be used for other purposes (e.g., continuous fi le transfers, telemetry, Web cam-era posts, peer-to-peer fi le sharing) or to substitute for private line, frame relay or other dedicated connection. Such use or use of more than 5GB per line per month mvay result in termination of service withoutnotice. Each partial kilobyte of data transferred will be rounded up and billed a full kilobyte. Research in Motion, the RIM logo, BlackBerry, the BlackBerry logo and SureType are registered with the U.S. Patent andTrademark Offi ce and may be pending or registered in other countries–these and other marks of Research In Motion Limited are used under license. $100.00 mail-in rebate required. BlackBerry and RIM fami-lies of related marks, images and symbols are the exclusive properties of and trademarks or registered trademarks of Research In Motion Limited–used by permission. Smartphone coverage is only available inU.S. Cellular–enhanced services area. easyedge not available on smartphones. All other trademarks and brand names are the property of their respective owners. 30-Day Guarantee: Customer is responsible forany charges incurred prior to return. Text Messaging: Unlimited Family Text Messaging Plan only available on current Family Plans. U.S. Cellular does not guarantee message delivery or timeliness. 150-charac-ter limit per message for Text Messaging. U.S. Cellular not responsible for content of messages. A charge of 20¢ per outgoing message applies if no messaging package is selected or existing package limit is ex-ceeded. By using Text Messaging you agree to be bound by all terms and conditions at www.uscellular.com/Messagingterms. Night and Weekend Minutes valid Monday through Friday 7 p.m. to 6:59 a.m., or 9p.m. to 5:59 a.m. (depending on calling plan) and all day Saturday and Sunday. Night and Weekend Minutes are available throughout your calling area. Kansas: In areas in which U.S. Cellular receives supportfrom the Federal Universal Service Fund, all reasonable requests for service must be met. Unresolved questions concerning services availability can be directed to the Kansas Corporation Commission Offi ce ofPublic Affairs and Consumer Protection at 1-800-662-0027. Other restrictions apply. See store for details. Limited-time offer. ©2008 U.S. Cellular. 2BSTAN-AD4C-A-5/08

Things we want you to know: Offer valid on plans $39.95 and higher and with two-year service agreement. All service agreements subject to early termination fee. Credit approval required. $30 activation fee.$15 equipment change fee. Roaming charges, fees, surcharges, overage charges and taxes apply. 96¢ Regulatory Cost Recovery Fee applies; this is not a tax or government- required charge. Network coverageand reliability may vary. Usage rounded up to the next full minute. Use of service constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions. Promotional Phones are subject to change. Buy one handset and get a sec-ond handset of equal or lesser value for free. Each handset must have a minimum posted price of $49.95 (before rebate). Mail-in rebate required on each handset. Rebate will be in the form of a U.S. Cellular VisaDebit Card. U.S. Cellular Visa Debit Card issued by MetaBank pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. Allow 10–12 weeks for rebate processing. The card does not have cash access and can be used at anymerchant location that accepts Visa Debit Cards. U.S. Cellular Visa Debit Card valid for 120 days after issued. easyedge: U.S. Cellular–approved phone required on all easyedge plans. easyedge is a service markof U.S. Cellular. Application charges apply when downloading applications. Promotional offer requires purchase of $9.95 unlimited easyedge access plan for at least 90 days. Smartphones require minimum pur-chase of $39.95 voice plan and $24.95 e-mail plan and Web 4MB plan for entire term of service agreement. Data access available in U.S. Cellular data coverage areas. easyedge service not available. Smartphonefeatures intended for accessing intranets, e-mail and Internet. U.S. Cellular–approved equipment required. Smartphone features may not be used for other purposes (e.g., continuous fi le transfers, telemetry,Web camera posts, peer-to-peer fi le sharing) or to substitute for private line, frame relay or other dedicated connection. Such use or use of more than 5GB per line per month mvay result in termination of serv-ice without notice. Each partial kilobyte of data transferred will be rounded up and billed a full kilobyte. Research in Motion, the RIM logo, BlackBerry, the BlackBerry logo and SureType are registered with theU.S. Patent and Trademark Offi ce and may be pending or registered in other countries–these and other marks of Research In Motion Limited are used under license. $100.00 mail-in rebate required. BlackBerryand RIM families of related marks, images and symbols are the exclusive properties of and trademarks or registered trademarks of Research In Motion Limited–used by permission. Smartphone coverage is onlyavailable in U.S. Cellular–enhanced services area. easyedge not available on smartphones. All other trademarks and brand names are the property of their respective owners. 30-Day Guarantee: Customer is re-sponsible for any charges incurred prior to return. Text Messaging: Unlimited Family Text Messaging Plan only available on current Family Plans. U.S. Cellular does not guarantee message delivery or timeliness.150-character limit per message for Text Messaging. U.S. Cellular not responsible for content of messages. A charge of 20¢ per outgoing message applies if no messaging package is selected or existing pack-age limit is exceeded. By using Text Messaging you agree to be bound by all terms and conditions at www.uscellular.com/Messagingterms. Night and Weekend Minutes valid Monday through Friday 7 p.m. to6:59 a.m., or 9 p.m. to 5:59 a.m. (depending on calling plan) and all day Saturday and Sunday. Night and Weekend Minutes are available throughout your calling area. Kansas: In areas in which U.S. Cellular re-ceives support from the Federal Universal Service Fund, all reasonable requests for service must be met. Unresolved questions concerning services availability can be directed to the Kansas Corporation Com-mission Offi ce of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection at 1-800-662-0027. Other restrictions apply. See store for details. Limited-time offer. ©2008 U.S. Cellular. 2BSTAN-AD4C-A-5/08

CHARLES CITY ELECTRONICS, BIKE & TV SERVICE, INC.

Now accepting cash payments for your U.S. Cellular® Wireless Plan.

221 North Main, Charles City, IA • 641-228-3125Hours: M-F 9-5:30; Sat. 9-3

Buy any phone. Get any other free.With U.S. Cellular® you can give the gift that gives right back.

FREE PHONE MUST BE OFEQUAL OR LESSER VALUE.

Anticipate your wireless costswith confidence.Get a Prepaid Plan with Free Incoming Calls and Text Messages.





Page


Page27

CyanMagenta

YellowBlack

CY

MK

CY

MK


By Matt BarnesPress Staff WriterMaryAnn Townsend is always a

little busier in May, whether it be onthe phone with a meteorologist orlistening to stories from formerCharles City residents.As the director of the Floyd

County Historical Museum, she hasfound that the anniversary of the1968 tornado strikes an interest in avariety of people.“People always showmore inter-

est this time of year,” she said.Townsend has fielded calls from

local weathermen and hosted offi-cials from the National WeatherService at the museum. She hasheard and recorded many storiesfrom past and current Charles Cityresidents.For the 40th anniversary of the

tornado, she has done her part to en-sure that the museum offers a com-prehensive collection that representsthe sights, sounds and feelings ofMay 15, 1968.The permanent exhibit at the mu-

seum is always on display for thepublic, and was recently expandedon for the tornado’s anniversary.The expansion includes more

photographs and information. Visi-

tors to the museum will be able toview a video presentation about thetornado pieced together by Charles

City resident John Sebern. A powerpoint presentation featuring “manyviews of the tornado” will be exhib-

ited on Saturday, May 17, and willbe narrated by Dick Young.One exhibit highlight not to

miss, according to Townsend, is arecording of a radio station broad-cast following the tornado.“The day before the tornado

came, the radio station got a newgenerator, so without that nobodycould have heard anything that hap-pened in town,” Townsend ex-plained.Immediately following the tor-

nado, the radio signal was knockedoff-line, but came back a few hourslater. That is when resident BobHammer started recording whatwould have been the first voice res-idents would have heard over theradio following the disaster.“When you listen to it, (the an-

nouncer’s) voice kind of quivers,”Townsend said.Handwritten notices that were

read over the air are featured withthe display.Other exhibit items include a

business sign from Bluhm Electricthat was blown across Iowa’s bor-der into Minnesota, and an interac-tive device that explains themechanics of a tornado.The Floyd County Historical Mu-

seum is open 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Mon-day through Friday, and from 1-4p.m. on Saturdays.

Museum expands tornado display for anniversary

This sign from Bluhm Electric Company in Charles City ended up in an alfalfa field in LeRoy. Minn.— 45 miles away — following the tornado of 1968. It is part of the permanent tornado display at theFloyd County Historical Museum.

T-J Service221 N. Main • Charles City

(641) 228-1521 or (641) 228-3125

We Service All Brands

Tom & Julie Bock

Bring the Heat!The Big Green Egg

Smoker, Grill andOven in one!

• Rotary spark igniter• Stainless steel cooking grid• Heavy duty cast iron burner

Still looking for theperfect charcoal?

The BIG GREEN EGG charcoalburns longer and leaves less ash!

The Heritage• NuStone® side shelves• Thermometer• Utensil holder

The Tradition LS

Watch for our Grilling Democoming in June!

with a new grill from T-J Service

AUDIBEL HEARING CENTERSNOW Available To You!

CalvinTrepp, HISHearing Instrument Specialist

1626 S. Grand AvenueCharles City, IA 50616

Hours:Thurs. 9 a.m.-4 p.m.

(641) 228-7513Toll Free

1-866-945-2105

Over 25Years of FactoryTraining

No high pressure salesJust honest professional service!

HEARING CENTERof Charles City

— Press photo by Matt Barnes

800.272.0159Charles City • Aredale • DumontIonia • Marble Rock • Rockford

Requirements to earn top rate: ten debit card transactions,receive electronic statement, one direct deposit or ACHauto debit and access online banking. Requirements mustbe met per qualification cycle** to receive rewards.*5.01% Annual Percentage Yield (APY) paid on balancesup to $25,000 and 1.00% APY paid on all amounts above$25,000 each qualification cycle the minimum require-ments are met. If you do not meet the requirements perqualification cycle, your account will still function as a freechecking account with no maintenance fees earning thestandard rate of .40%, however it will not be eligible forthe additional benefit of refunded ATM fees imposed byother ATM operators for that statement period. Rates as of05/15/08. We may change the interest rate and APY atany time after the account is opened. No minimum balancerequired. However, you must deposit a minimum of $100to open this account. Available to consumer accounts only.**Qualification cycle means a period beginning one dayprior to the current statement through one day prior to theclose of the current statement

Page


PageCyan

Magenta

YellowBlack

CY

MK

CY

MK

Page


Page1

CyanMagenta

YellowBlack

c h a r l e s c it y e l e c t r o n ic s ,b ik e & t v s ... · p ublic a ffairs and c onsum...

Documents