Photos St. Patrick's Church Burlington St. College St.  College Green Park   Washington St. Lucas St. Iowa Avenue Hotz Avenue Rochester Ave. Seventh Avenue

IowaCityTornados.com Tornadoes in Iowa City, Iowa, 4.13.06 Maundy Thursday, April 13, 2006      Good Friday, April 14, 2006 Saturday, April 15, 2006 The Chi Omega House, Washington St. & Governor St. St. Patrick's Catholic Church, Court St. near Linn St. Help out the agencies that helped Iowa City: IC Red Cross United Way Of Johnson County Salvation Army Nechama Lutheran Disaster Response Storm Recovery Resources: University of Iowa Storm Info Page Iowa City Press-Citizen Tornado Page      This site is to provide a clearinghouse of information to the Iowa City Community and the Iowa City Diaspora to tell the story of the damage and response to the Tornadoes that tore through Iowa City the night of Thursday, April 13, 2006. Due to limited time, I mainly covered the area of downtown to the northern end of Seventh Ave, though the tornadoes inflicted 4.5 miles of damage from near I-380/US-218 running all the way northeast to just south of the I-80/Highway 1 exit. See map of path.      The Grant Wood Red Cross, the Salvation Army, Nechama Jewish Disaster Response, and agencies working with the United Way of Johnson County worked hard to help not only those who displaced by this disaster, but also to supply water, juice, and food to neighbors helping neighbors with chain saws, cleaning, heavy lifting, and sweat. Iowa City's First Responders did a first rate, professional job. They came through an arduous task keeping a bad night from getting worse and making sure a stunned & curious public didn't go wandering about downtown in the dark getting its fool self hurt.      While some folks in town might not feel it yet, Iowa City was incredibly lucky. For all the devastation, no one was killed nor seriously hurt.      Friday, I spent an hour taking photos. Saturday morning, I took up a borrowed chain saw and spent some quality time high above, discovering the fine relationship of balance, poise, and saw dust while bringing down some cedars on Washington St.      That afternoon, though, I walked the length of the Tornadoes' path from downtown to the end of Seventh Avenue, helping out when I could and then moving on before I became a nuissance. Some folks preferred to walk about with mouths agape and finger pointing. By the time I turned homeward that afternoon, though, that it was pretty clear on several victims' faces that they were fed up with their misfortune providing a spectacle to bug-eyed gawkers.      That being said, many of us who were not direct victims of the wind's fury still needed to pause and marvel at how the all too familiar had been so suddenly twisted into the unreal.      Vernon Trollinger, webmaster. Copyright 2006, IowaCityTornados.com Tornadoes in Iowa City, Iowa, 4.13.06. All rights reserved. No part of this website may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means -- electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise -- without the prior written permission of Vernon Trollinger. All photos and story rights remain property of those submitting them to this website.

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