April 14 of 2012 was just like every other spring day. It was a cloudy day with a hint of storm clouds gathering in the west. The possibility of rain had been forecast but had not yet materialized. It was Saturday evening. People had already gathered at their favorite eating establishments, as is common on a Saturday night.
Nearly all the workers at the Area Education Agency had gone home for the weekend. Across the street to the west, classes were over and most of the students had gone home with just a smattering of students living in the newly-built dorms. To the south, Greater Regional’s new surgery wing was about to be occupied. Occupancy in the hospital itself was down, but a full stall was on hand to take care of daily chores and handle the emergency room.
At 3 p.m., the weatherman had mentioned the possibility of tornadoes in Southwest Iowa, but nothing further was noted. It was turning out to be just another overcast spring day in southern Iowa.
At 6:55 p.m., a funnel cloud was spotted one and a half miles east of Cromwell. Creston was located six miles further east. That funnel cloud was short lived and jumped back in with the other clouds. But this time, it was noticed. Five minutes later, it dropped back down again, the sirens blew, the hospital got hit, several homes got totally damaged, college dorms took damaged, the AEA building was totally damaged, and then it jumped back with the other clouds and wasn’t seen again until it reached Cherry Street.
This time, it took out a barn, a couple of smaller buildings and the top half of an older two-story farmhouse. Luckily, the couple who lived there, Don and Betty Pottinger, had also seen it heading in their direction and were in the basement by the time the tornado had taken the top half of their house to another location yet to be found.
Across Cherry Street to the east, two men were fishing at Green Valley Lake at the very same time the tornado hit the hospital. The twister had picked them up and whisked into a field across from the Pottinger farm and dropped them into that field alive, unharmed and still fishing.
The story continued that the fishermen were given a small fine for fishing without a license. The fishermen claimed that they did have licenses, but the wind must have blown them out. The case remains open.