Creston remembers 10th anniversary of tornado

(Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part series on the 10th anniversary of the EF2 tornado that struck the northern edge of Creston on April 14, 2012.)

On this day 10 years ago, Creston was still in a clean-up and recovery mode from an EF2 tornado that dropped out of the sky southwest of Creston and tore through four public entities.

While there were a few serious injuries sustained, the remarkable outcome of the Saturday evening tornado was no fatalities directly related to the brief, yet powerful storm.

A tornado watch was issued for southern Iowa shortly before 3 p.m. on April 14, 2012, as several rounds of severe weather moved across Iowa during the late afternoon and evening hours. A tornado formed about one and a half miles east of Cromwell at 6:55 p.m. and quickly tracked into northwest Creston.

Damage occurred at Greater Regional Medical Center and the Southwestern Community College campus at 7 p.m., as well as surrounding residences along Townline Street. Many cars were flipped or destroyed.

The tornado continued tracking to the northeast and swept through the former Green Hills Area Education Agency building along Green Valley Road and adjacent apartment buildings after ripping a large swimming pool dehumidifier off the roof of Southern Prairie YMCA.

Destruction continued on Creston Community Schools property, with the bus barn and football stadium sustaining the most damage. Large bleacher sections were flipped and deposited on the football field, while trailers of band equipment were relocated by the 130 mph winds. The tornado continued to the northeast and damaged several farmsteads northeast of Creston before dissipating about 10 miles northeast of town at approximately 7:15 p.m.

The average path of t

he tornado was estimated at 600 yards by the National Weather Service.

Monte Neitzel, chief executive officer of Greater Regional Medical Center, said it doesn’t seem like 10 years have passed since he was in Maryville, Missouri with family and friends after watching son Nick play in the Northwest Missouri State University spring football game. A friend of Nick’s had heard weather had turned severe in Creston.

Ellen Carney, Monte Neitzel’s assistant, told him in a phone call that she couldn’t get to the hospital to check on its status because of debris on the roads and roadways in the heavily damaged areas being blocked by law enforcement authorities.

“I thought, that’s not good,” Neitzel recalled. “Very soon we were high-tailing it out of Maryville. I may have broken some speed limits.”

Hospital reponse

When he got to the hospital, he said it was a good sign that nursing director Gwen Buck greeted him with a smile and thumbs up gesture. Although there was extensive damage after heavy rainfall dropped water into an exposed interior from major roof damage, patients had been evacuated and there were no fatalities or serious injuries sustained at the facility.

“Kudos to our leadership team and our employees,” Neitzel said last week while reflecting on the incident. “Our staff that was working at the time reported that they felt a large boom that shook the ceiling with lights flickering, and then water was coming in everywhere. Hallways had become like a wind tunnel, so it was fortunate that we hadn’t moved patients into the hallways. We’ve since changed our disaster shelter protocols and have made presentations to other hospitals and the IHA (Iowa Hospital Association) about our experience.”

Three people in Creston were transported to Des Moines for serious injuries, but there were no fatalities. Multiple Southwestern Community College dormitories were damaged, but only one student was injured (lacerate finger). It was a spring weekend, and only seven students were residing in campus housing on that evening.

Eight Greater Regional Medical Center inpatients and one obstetrics patient and an infant were transferred Saturday night to Alegent Health in Corning. Greater Regional’s hospice home was hit and five patients were transferred to local nursing facilities.

Disaster declaration

Gov. Terry Branstad declared Union County an emergency disaster area Saturday night and held a press conference Sunday afternoon at GRMC.

“We were fortunate not to be down for a long period of time,” Neitzel said. “It felt like an eternity, but it was maybe 10 days. The ER was moved to the medical arts plaza and we moved the medical-surgical floor operation to the surgery area. Within 24 hours we had 100 guys on our roof fixing it, and Service Master was inside working with our maintenance crew to extract water and open up an air flow to dry this place out. All we asked from the governor and state government was that when we were ready to be up and running, please remove the red tape to get prompt approval from the Department of Inspections and Appeals. The state was fabulous in allowing us to provide care to patients as quickly as possible.”

Damage was estimated at $12 million to GRMC property.

SWCC damage

Across Townline Street to the north, damage was estimated at $3.6 million at Southwestern Community College to multiple dormitories, the technical instruction center and performing arts center (shared facility with Southern Prairie YMCA.)

“It was like driving through a war zone when I got out there,” said Tom Lesan, who is retiring June 30 as SWCC vice president of economic development. “My first thoughts were that we wouldn’t be able to finish the school year at all. As it turned out, we were holding classes by the middle of the next week, and we were delayed only because Highway 25 wasn’t opened up yet from the electrical line repairs. It was a matter of waiting for safe access to the campus.”

By 6 a.m. Sunday morning, a groundswell of volunteers showed up to clean debris at all of the affected areas (see Tuesday’s installment). Alternate housing was found in the community for the displaced dorm residents.

Most of the Green Hills Area Education Agency building was leveled by the storm, and its offices were relocated to the Burton R. Jones Center for Education on North Elm Street through an agreement with Creston Community Schools. The former AEA site is now being developed as a child care center by GRMC and partners.

Southern Prairie YMCA was closed for three months for renovations and installation of a new gymnasium floor because of water damage.

Hundreds of volunteers were on the Creston school grounds on Sunday in a mass clean-up effort. Debris from other damaged buildings had been strewn across the property, and much of the football stadium complex sustained damage. The football scoreboard was ripped in half by an airborne band trailer filled with equipment. Track and field hurdles were found several hundred yards to the northeast in open fields.

Brad Baker, then Creston Elementary School principal and newly-hired superintendent of Chariton Community Schools for the 2022-23 school year, still possesses a large metal letter ‘M” that sustained damage that day from the school sign on the front of the building. It’s a reminder of the devastation of that day, yet incredible fortune.

Just 24 hours earlier, a large crowd was gathered at the athletic field for the annual Panther Relays meet. Hardly anyone was on the property at 7 p.m. one day later when the tornado struck. Track coach Pat Schlapia was in the middle school library making copies of meet results when he heard a noise that he thought was hard rain against the building. Later, he realized it was debris striking the building as the tornado passed. His car parked in front of the school was heavily damaged.

“We took about three days off of classes and during that time people showed up and did everything they could to help out and clear all of the debris,” Baker said. “Electrical work had to be fixed inside for the safety of the students and staff, and our maintenance staff covered up the holes upstairs where the air exchange handlers had blown off. Some classes were moved to alternate areas if there was water damage. The amount of glass inside was enormous, so we had to take the carpets out. Just looking around, you got a sense of the pure force of the storm.”

(Tuesday: Public entities sustaining damage from the 2012 Creston tornado underwent rapid recovery thanks to armies of volunteers turning out in the following days. Creston Community Schools paid forward that spirit of selfless aid last month, sending students to join in the cleanup of a deadly EF4 tornado that struck Madison County on March 5.)