A Paper in Parkersburg

A Paper in Parkersburg

One of the many reasons I love process serving is the chance to get out of the office and travel the roads and small towns of Iowa. The other day, I had a paper to serve in Parkersburg, IA. Ask almost anyone in our great state, and they’ll surely know at least one thing about Parkersburg — that it was nearly wiped off the map on May 25th, 2008, by an EF5 tornado.

That day, nine lives were lost, and nearly everyone in Northeast Iowa was affected in some way. The tornado that hit Parkersburg was one of the strongest in recorded history — 1.2 miles wide and on the ground for nearly 45 miles, destroying everything in its path.

At the time, I was working as a police officer in Oelwein, and I remember the panic I felt. My 10-year-old son was camping with friends near Parkersburg, and the weather had felt ominous from sunrise — but nobody could have predicted the devastation that was coming.

I worked almost 24 hours straight that day. The destruction I witnessed could only be compared to a war zone (and I’ve seen that too). I remember pulling families from basements — easier than it should have been because the homes above them were simply gone. I remember shingles raining from the sky, carried from Parkersburg 40 miles to the west. One semi-truck was lifted by the storm and has never been found.

That summer, my colleagues and I helped the Parkersburg PD cover their shifts. The town was devastated — physically and emotionally. But here’s the thing that struck me as I drove through it again recently:

You wouldn’t know it today.

Parkersburg has rebuilt itself into a beautiful, almost idyllic Iowa farm town. The destruction is gone, but the strength remains. The people here are resilient — they rolled up their sleeves and rebuilt, just like Iowans do.

It’s a town with a heart of gold and a backbone of forged iron — you’d never guess the storm it stood through.