Where Were You When - Disasters

Disasters & Epidemics: The Armistice Day Blizzard . . . . .1940 Polio Outbreak . . .1952-53 Downtown Shenandoah fire . . . . . . . . .1963 Astronauts on fire Apollo One mission . . . . . .1967 Blizzard of . . . .1976 Page County tornado . . . . . .1979 Three Mile Island . . . . . . .1979 Mount St. Helens erupts . . . . . . .1980 Kansas City Hyatt Regency walkway collapse . . . . .1981 AIDS . . . . . . . .1981 Space Shuttle Challenger . . . .1986 Chernobyl . . . .1986 Pan Am Flight 103 Lockerbie Scotland plane crash . . .1988 Page County Courthouse fire 1991 Flood of . . . . . .1993 Space Shuttle Columbia . . . . .2003 Hurricane Katrina . . . . . .2005 Indonesia tsunami . . . . . .2005 Minneapolis bridge collapse . . . . .2007 Haiti earthquake . . .2010

July 2010

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June 2010 3

THE ARMISITICE DAY BLIZZARD 1940

Took place in the Midwest region of the United States on November 11 (Armistice Day) and November 12, 1940.

The intense early-season "Panhandle hook" winter storm cut a 1,000-mile-wide (1600 km) path through the middle of the country from Kansas to Michigan.

Lorri Smith Shenandoah, IA "Was in high school had to walk home through the storm."

Susan Blane Shenandoah, IA "At home with the new baby."

Imogene Maher Shenandoah, IA “I was living in west borrow Missouri and the roads were horrible. I was tramped at home with my

POLIO OUTBREAK 1952-53 At its peak in the 1940s and 1950s, polio would paralyze or kill over half a million people worldwide every year.[

Barbara Cunningham Shenandoah, IA My family was living in Minneapolis in 1949. It was a scary summer as the polio epidemic was happening around the country.

The swimming pools were closed.

People were advised to stay away from large groups. Then my older sister Carol got the "flu" so she thought. That summer she was going into the ninth grade. My parents took her to the doctor who immediately put her in the Minneapolis hospital. After tests it was determined she had polio. She was in a room with a private nurse and only my parents could see her for several weeks.

My younger siblings and I were quarantined to the house for two weeks. In Minneapolis we were fortu-

Carl Headly Shenandoah, IA “During the blizzard of 1976 I was at home taking a nap” Betty Kellison Shenandoah, IA “My twin grandchildren were born the day of the blizzard. The ambulance had such a had time getting to the house to get my daughter, one of my grandchildren were born on the way to the hospital.”

Louise Simpson Shenandoah, IA “The only thing I can remember about that is I was living on a farm and we lost a lot of fruit trees.”

Carol Cline Shenandoah, IA “I was at the pool when we got the news. I was not allowed back at the pool for two summers because of it."

“When I was a young boy I had polio on the whole right side of my body it went from the top of my head down to my foot.”

Maxine Myers Shenandoah, IA Polio Outbreak 1952-53: “I remember seeing people in a iron lungs just to help them breathe.”

Imogene Maher Shenandoah, IA “It was everyone biggest fear. I prayed everyday that my two boys and I wouldn’t get it.”

Carl Headly Shenandoah, IA

nate to have the Sheltering Arms Hospital. Sister Kenney from Australia had a treatment for polio patients: Hot packs, iron lungs and Kenney sticks.

My sister was transferred there when she was able.

The hospital wasn't too far from our house.

For nine months Carol was confined to the Sheltering Arms and had school, therapy and hot

pack treatments. She was fortunate to be able to go to this hospital. She learned to walk again while there.

Me and the rest of the family? We couldn't go inside the hospital. For months we got to wave to her in the window. My parents gave all of us love and care. What a struggle it must have been for them but we didn't suffer at all!

Love pulled us all through.

Barbara Bredensteiner Shenandoah, IA “It was snowing like billyheck and the blizzard seemed to close everything down.”

Louise Simpson Shenandoah, IA “I was living in Colorado when we heard about the polio outbreak. My sister who was three years younger then me got polio as a young child and could not walk for three years.”

Barbara Bredensteiner Shenandoah, IA “My cousin Mariyln Gruber was just hired at Bedford school to be a teacher when she died of polio. To this day when I think about it I get upset.”

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Carol came home in time to go to ninth grade for a month. She only had a brace...full body... to help her through the year. We didn't think of her as handicapped because she really wasn't.

Polio? Well after that my mother worked on the March of Dimes campaign.

The money from all of us was used to eliminate Polio from our lives. I remember taking the vaccine by mouth and then by shot.

Today we don't hear of Polio. Someday that will be true with Cancer! Let's continue to work to make it a memory too.

two boys.”

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June 2010 4

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DOWNTOWN SHENANDOAH FIRE 1963 Karen Lane Shenandoah, IA During the downtown Shenandoah fire or 1963 I was at my house three miles north of Shenandoah standing in my yard looking towards town because I would see the flames in the sky. I did not know what actually happened until the fire was already out.

Lyle Green Shenandoah, IA I was living on a farm outside of Shenandoah when the downtown Shenandoah fire took place.

I say the fire and headed

into town to watch it.

Jack Linquest Shenandoah, IA "Heard on the radio in Coin."

Astronauts on fire Apollo One mission: "Sitting at home in Essex watching in on TV." Blizzard of 1976: "Farming in Essex had to get kids from the school."

Page County Tornado: "In Essex fixing to milk cows."

Mount St. Helens erupts 1980: "Farm supple in Red Oak." Kansas City Hyatt

Regency walkway collapse 1981: "Had just been there a week before and was sitting at home."

Susan Blane Shenandoah, IA "At home with my brother my parents had gone to the show. they came and got me to watch the fire."

Darrell Jones Shenandoah, IA "I was at home when I got the news"

into town to watch it. I remember that it was very cold out."

Mary Book Shenandoah, IA Downtown Shenandoah fire 1963: “I lived in begum and the sky lit up and made it look like it was daylight.”

Blizzard of 1976: “I’ve never seen so much snow in my life. You couldn’t even get out of the house. No one could even open the roads.”

Gloria Weber Shenandoah, IA "I was home then I came

Memories of

ASTRONAUTS ON FIRE APOLLO ONE MISSION 1967 Apollo 1 (official designation Apollo/Saturn-204) was planned to be the first manned mission of the Apollo manned lunar landing program to launch in February 1967. Its flight was precluded by a fatal fire on January 27, which killed all three crew members and destroyed the Command Module cabin.

Carol Cline Shenandoah, IA "I was teaching school in Harlen Iowa when we got the news."

Maxine Myers Shenandoah, IA “What have we done to our men now.”

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June 2010 5

BLIZZARD OF 1976 Darrell Jones Shenandoah, IA "I was at work at the Earl May Garden Center"

Lyle Nelson Shenandoah, IA “It was nice so I started driving my truck than the storm hit. I delivered a baby in the snow storm that same day.”

Maxine Myers Shenandoah, IA “It was a warm fall so a lot of people left their windows open and left.

Then the storm hit and frozen all the pipes in the house.”

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June 2010 6

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PAGE COUNTY TORNADO 1979

Darrell Jones Shenandoah, IA "I was home" Maxine Myers Shenandoah, IA “Went from Glenwood and all the way around to other towns and took whatever it wanted in its path.

Helena Lubit was killed that day.”

Imogene Maher Shenandoah, IA “I watched the funnel clouds all around us and I put a metal bucket over my head and went out and grab some hails stones and put them in my freezer. I showed everyone in Florida how bad our hail storms got.”

Ron Sanson I had just been up for a 4H television show in Omaha and they were telling about it. That was the first tornado I was involved in helping coordinate the rural cleanup for.

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THREE MILE ISLAND 1979 The Three Mile Island accident was a partial core meltdown in Unit 2 (a pressurized water reactor manufactured by Babcock & Wilcox) of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania near Harrisburg.

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June 2010 7

MOUNT ST. HELENS ERUPTS 1980

The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, a stratovolcano located in Washington state, in the United States, was a major volcanic eruption. The eruption (which was a VEI 5 event) was the only significant one to occur in the contiguous 48 U.S. states since the 1915 eruption of Lassen Peak in California.[

Randy Rodgers Shenandoah, IA "I was at a confrense in San Antonio” Dorias Perry Shenandoah, IA “Saw all the damage after the eruption.”

Maxine Myers

Shenandoah, IA “Told a old man who lived on the mountain to get off that it was going to erupt he refuse to listen and he died along with everything else in its path.”

Imogene Maher Shenandoah, IA

“Went up to Alaska after the erupt and saw all the damage.”

Ken Garrett We toured the northwest a month after it happened. I collected some of the ash and still have the container sitting on my desk.

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June 2010 8

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KC HYATT REGENCY WALKWAY COLLAPSE 1981

The Hyatt Regency hotel walkway collapse was a major disaster that occurred on July 17, 1981 in Kansas City, Missouri, United States, killing 114 people and injuring more than 200 others during a tea dance. At the time it was the deadliest structural collapse in U.S. history.[

anyone being concerned,so she went about her life not knowing that people were frantically trying to reach her. It was before answer phones were common and cell phones were non existent. Today some one would reach her on her cell phone and stop all the anxiety immediately.

This was the second time Shirley had had a close call, she has missed being on a bridge that collapse in the

East Sadly, she died of breast cancer three years later.

Those that knew and loved her wondered about her close calls and her life ending way too early.

Katy Martin We were living in the Kansas City area when the Walkway collapsed. Norb and I were with several friends who had gone to dinner of this sad Friday

evening. One couple chose to go to the Tea Dance at the Hyatt, upon returning home we saw on TV our friends who were lucky and not hurt being interviewed.

Norb being in insurance claims business sonn got phone calls.

Laurie Arbuthnot Belton, MO I was at work in downtown Kansas City. I heard sirens, then more sirens,

and more sirens. It seemed like the only thing we heard was that awful sound. I looked outside of office window and saw what I thought was smoke.

Everyone was thinking it was a fire. A short time later someone ran into the building screaming people were trapped. Everyone started to panic. Everyone was in a state of shock. The news stations covered that tragedy for days! The scenes were horrible!

Ten years later I went to work for a company called Mail Print. The owners were the Danner family. I got to meet the older sister named Myrna Danner. I found out that Myrna was a survivor of that terrible accident and she was trapped under the rubble for almost twenty four hours.

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Dee Nelson Sidney, IA I was staying with my best friend in Kansas City; we were just having fun and shopping at Hyatt Regency when we heard a big pop. Next thing I knew the walk way had collapsed into a V shape there were people hanging from the edges, there were people down in the v shape and there were people who were crushed under the walkway. We were standing on one of the sides so we did not get hurt, we called our parents as soon as we could to tell them we were ok, they knew we were shopping there. The one thing I will never forget is that popping sound the only way to explain it is medal and plastic breaking.”

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supported but the middle was not so when it broke it went into a V shape. The people that were helping the hurt people had chainsaws out and they had to cut peoples legs off to save their lives. I will never be able to forget that day it was a horrible site.”

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Lona Lewis At the time, I was living in Missouri and had many friends in the KC area. One of them was an avid dancer and loved going to the Hyatt. We were driving to San Diego when we heard about the collapse. We just knew she (Shirley) had been there. It was a tense two days for us and her family. She had been there but left before the collapse.

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June 2010 9

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Amy Jardon I remember a lot of these, but I don't remember the exact details. One thing that stands out to me is Ryan White and AIDS. I remember AIDS being talked about--more like whispered about--but it was in the papers.

I remember hearing about Ryan White about him being hemophiliac (sp?). . .contracting AIDS through a blood transfusion, and him being ostracized, kicked out of schools, parents hating him for something he had no control over.

I remember the day he died. I don't recall the exact date, but I was in driver's

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He was such a brave young man, roughly the same age as I was at the time, and he had to have been hurting emotionally inside, but he didn't show that side to the public. He stood tall in the face of so much hatred over something that adults misconstrued and fear that ran rampant.

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June 2010 10

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SPACE SHUTTLE CHALLENGER 1986

The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster occurred on January 28, 1986, when Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, leading to the deaths of its seven crew members. The spacecraft disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of central Florida, United States, at 11:39 a.m. EST (16:39 UTC).

Adrian Haddix Space Shuttle Challenger 1986 - I was sitting in my 2nd grade classroom at school in Bertrand, Nebraska, Mrs. Renken's class. Although I had not been in school very long, any time the principal came over the intercom system, we all knew something significant had, or was going to happen. An announcement was made as to the tragedy and several classes sat together and watched coverage on the news. This in and of itself is a vivid memory. It was the first major historical event that I can remember, and realize now how significant it was nationwide. While the teachers were all calm and very poised when explaining what happened, I appreciate how difficult that must have been for the teaching

staff. We had been learning about the mission and were excited to know that a teacher was going to space.

To a 7 year old who was set on attending Space Camp, those are two of the most interesting topics in the world - teachers and outer space, and for this event, they were one in the same. I remember watching the explosion in disbelief that something like that could happen, and wondering what was to come next.

Our parents remember the day Kennedy was shot, and I think this is the memory that our generation will always remember.

Amy Jardon I remember the Challenger explosion in so much as I remember it happening. I think we saw it in teh school library, but I am

not sure. . time warps memories unfortuantely. I remember the devestation and senseless in the school.

I've seen it replayed so many times and yet it hits home every time I see it.

There's an arm patch from the Challenger on display at hte Air and Science Smithsonian Museum on the Mall in D.C. They found it on the beach. That says it all, doesn't it? Just a piece of clothing that people wore in the craft were found. A shoe here, a patch there, but nothing else.

bank heard it on the radio."

Randy Rodgers Shenandoah, IA "I was delivering doughnut when I heard."

Nick Bosley Shenandoah, IA

"I was in Mrs. Stamps at Broad Street School."

Dee Nelson Sidney, IA “I was at my sister and her husbands new house watching TV. and helping unpack. I remember the camera facing Krista Mcollufs faces and seeing how they were watching

the daughter make history and then all the sudden their expressions changed because they knew something had gone wrong. I also remember we watched for hours hoping and preying that they were all ok that they would find them or somehow they got out but then reality sat in.” (challenger)

Lorri Smith Shenandoah, IA "At home watching it on TV." Susan Blane Shenandoah, IA "At work at the drive thru

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June 2010 11

CHERNOBYL 1986

The Chernobyl disaster (Ukrainian: ×îðíîáèëüñüêà êàòàñòðîôà, Èornoby¾œka katastrofa) was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine (then in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, part of the Soviet Union). It is the worst nuclear power plant accident in history and is the only level 7 event on the International Nuclear Event Scale.

Bernie Veak Essex, Iowa There was not a lot of information about Chernobyl when it happened because the Soviet Union did not want to say what had happened. I can remember that numerous people died, many different countries volunteered to help with the clan up but they were told their help was not needed. I really did not have any specific thoughts about all of it simply because of the lack of information provided, the only thought I really had is nothing is going to happen to me.

Memories of

PAN AM FLIGHT 103 1988 Pan Am Flight 103 was Pan American World Airways' third daily scheduled transatlantic flight from London Heathrow Airport to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. On Wednesday 21 December 1988, the aircraft flying this route—a Boeing 747-121 named Clipper Maid of the Seas—was destroyed by a bomb, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew members. Eleven people in Lockerbie, southern Scotland, were killed as large sections of the plane fell in and around the town, bringing total fatalities to 270. As a result, the event has been named by the media as the Lockerbie Bombing.

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Amy Jardon Pan Am flight: I knew an airline had 'crashed' at the time, but I remember the sadness that was in the house when mom and dad

would watch the news.

Sadly, this feeling of sadness and helpless was replayed in September 2001 in my own home, as my husband and I would

come home from work and just sit in front of the tv and hear what was new, if any survivors were found, etc.

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June 2010 12

Memories of

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PAGE COUNTY COURTHOUSE FIRE 1991

When history burned

H OW TO C O N TAC T U S...

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Like so many others, we saw smoke from our house just North of town and we got a phone call from someone that said the courthouse was on fire. I remember running upstairs to my bedroom window and looking out, hoping it wasn’t true. But the direction of the smoke indicated otherwise. We drove into town and gathered around the square, watching history burn. What follows is the essay I wrote just after the fire. It was printed in The Cardinal, the school newspaper, on March 26, 2002. Later, it was reprinted as a letter to the editor in support of the bond issue to restore the courthouse. This essay became my true beginning in historic preservation, leading me to assemble scrapbooks of articles and pictures from the courthouse fire through its restoration, among other efforts. I earned my B.S. in Historic Preservation from Southeast Missouri

Susan Blane Shenandoah, IA "At work."

617 West Sheridan Ave. Shenandoah, IA 51601

Darrell Jones Shenandoah, IA "I was home"

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Nick Bosley Shenandoah, IA "I was working at the antique Ally for Mr. Oestman. We refinished all

State University in 1999.

I now work for the Clarinda Herald-Journal and am proud of our community’s efforts to restore the Page County Courthouse. I can’t imagine Clarinda without it.

By MANDY WAGONER Freshman English Student

“It’s just an old building, no big deal,” that’s what a classmate of mine said. To him, maybe it was “just a building,” but to me it was a symbol, a symbol of what freedom and justice means to us. Built in 1887, and just recently restored, our courthouse has stood the test of time. …I’d never been to a fire scene before. As I watched, just another on-looker who couldn’t really help, I realized that I, along with many others, was taking part in history. All the time knowing that because this symbol of the past was burning, it would forever become a symbol of the future, etched deep into our hearts and minds. And I was proud to be part of it.

Parents stood watching, telling their children what was burning, what it meant.

All were looking to where the fire was still raging, still

of the damaged wood."

Eleanor Radden Shenandoah, IA “Rushed to my aunts in Shenandoah thinking it would be safer there than where we were.”

burning the memories and scenes of time. How was it that this building, this monument of the past, might forever be destroyed? A part of us was dying and there was nothing we could do.

[The following morning] Anxious as I was to see her, I was afraid of what I would see, what I would come to know. Would she be dead, or would there be some hint of life left within her? My heart ached when I saw her.

She was ravaged by the fire, empty and desolate, yet as I looked, I saw our flag, all tattered and torn. I felt like Francis Scott Key, who was overjoyed when he saw that after a night of battle, our flag of freedom still waved proudly. Our courthouse fought is own battle and in the morning she said, “Hey, look at me, I’m still here!

I’m still your symbol.”

Although this fire has tragically destroyed our courthouse, there is hope in that we can rebuild, that we can once more find our memories of the past.

Based on the author’s memory of the December 11, 1991, Page County Courthouse fire and written the day after.

Mandy (Wagoner) Ford Clarinda, Iowa

Maxine Myers Shenandoah, IA “They thought that the Christmas lights and had set the courthouse on fire.”

Emily Akers We lived near the square and went down to Weil’s.

We all stood around on the square watching it burn. It was wild.

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Amy Jardon The Flood of 1993: I remember this pretty well.

I had a doctor's appt July 5 or 6 in Des Moines, then went back to the farm by Imogene. I was suppose to go back to Des Moines for an appointment around the middle of the month, and wasn't able to, due to the flood closing I-80. Instead, I waited at the farm and watched the scenes unfold on the news. Then, at the end of July we were able to make it to Des Moines for my doctor's appointment and I was promptly admitted to Des Moines General (now Mercy Capitol). The scene from my room (once I was allowed out of bed) was the big National Guard tent basins for water reservoirs for the hospital use. . . and, being a teen, the National Guard men in uniform! That November my sister Cecilia and I drove to St. Louis for a cousin's wedding. All along the road we took were washouts/whirlpool evdience in farm fields and patches on the roadways from the road being washed away by the current. One could not see the rivers from the roads, but with such flat land, the river

expanded and slammed into farm land, eroding it and leaving sand dunes in its wake as the waters receded. The water line by the Arch and along their dike system was higher than one could imagine, except that the water line was still quite visible at that time. Our cousins there said it was amazing seeing the force of the river.

Barb Trimble Shenandoah The flood of 1993 was devastating for the Midwest. I was publisher in Leavenworth, KS at the time and our newspaper was instrumental in keeping the public informed as well as participating in helping with employees loading sandbags to put down by the Missouri River. We had set up a water station and were bringing in bottled water for all of the workers. At one point we made an effort to put sandbags around the community center that was approximately 300 feet from the Missouri River bank. Our police chief, Lee Doehring, was a strapping man who volunteered to take the bags and place them around the foundation

FLOOD OF 1993

of the center. He had gotten the bags as high as 4 to 5 feet when the water was knee deep. He wanted to get one more row of bags done before he would not be able to make it back to the center. The fire crew secured a harness around him and he started back to the sandbag area. It seemed like a split second, but the water rose so fast and was so swift that it knocked him off his feet and he was being pulled into the main river current. All of the volunteers dropped everything they were doing and we all started to pull him in.

Several times his head went under water and the rope was burning our hands as we fought the river.

Finally he was able to gain footing and stand so we could pull him to safety.

That was one of the scariest moments in the flood of 1993, but we were successful where a lot of communities lost loved ones to that terrible flood.

Darrell Jones Shenandoah "I was home" Nick Bosley Shenandoah

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SPACE SHUTTLE COLUMBIA 2003 The Space Shuttle Columbia disaster occurred on February 1, 2003, when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas stretching from Trophy Club to Tyler and into parts of Louisiana during re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere, resulting in the death of all seven crew members, shortly before it was scheduled to conclude its 28th mission, STS-107.

Randy Rodgers Shenandoah, IA "I was at work watching it on the t.v."

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Darrell Jones Shenandoah, IA "My wife and I were in Orlando Florida at our daughters house."

"It was my senior year and I was in Ames Iowa at a track and feild camp. interstate I-80 was closed."

Maxine Myers Shenandoah, IA “Had brought a home on east nisha it never flooded in the basement but our stuff had that misty smell

to. I remember seeing people put stuff on the corner to have it be picked up.”

JoElla Travis Shenandoah, IA “Got sick and the doctors couldn’t get to me until the next day. Than I volunteer to cook meals in the Hamburg High School for

all the volunteers helping with the flood.”

Carl Headley Shenandoah, IA “The water was all around my house. We could not get out of our house I just remember watching the whole town flood.” (1993)

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HURRICANE KATRINA 2005

INDONESIA TSUNAMI 2005

Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States.

Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall. At least 1,836 people lost their lives in the actual hurricane and in the subsequent floods, making it the deadliest U.S. hurricane since the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane; total property damage was estimated at $81 billion (2005 USD) nearly triple the damage wrought by Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

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Gloria Weber Shenandoah, IA "I was home watching CNN."

Randy Rodgers Shenandoah, IA "I was on vacation in San Antonio"

Gloria Weber Shenandoah, IA "I was home watching CNN."

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MINNEAPOLIS BRIDGE COLLAPSE 2007

The I-35W Mississippi River bridge was an eight-lane, steel truss arch bridge that carried Interstate 35W across the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota. During the evening rush hour on August 1, 2007, it suddenly collapsed, killing 13 people and injuring 145. The bridge was Minnesota's fifth busiest,carrying 140,000 vehicles daily. The NTSB cited a design flaw as the likely cause of the collapse, and asserted that additional weight on the bridge at the time of the collapse contributed to the catastrophic failure.

Amy Jardon The Minnesota Bridge Collpase was incredible.

No one thought that such a thing could occur and then it did. . .then the bridges in Iowa were inspected and many of them were found to be lacking, and in possible danger as well. The bridges on I-80 by Atlantic were ones I travel over

often enough and they were at the high end of danger.

The collpase was so unreal, since it seemed to be due to construction and overusage. . .bridges that carry thousands of people every day with no problem.

The loss of life and those not found stays with you, but what surprised me was that the company who

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replaced the bridge got a bonus for completing the bridge before the deadline.

They got a huge monetary bonus for completing work so quickly.

Darrell Jones Shenandoah "I was home and heard it on the t.v."

Nick Bosley Shenandoah "I was working at a bank in Omaha, the bank had a branch in Minneapolis and some of my coworkers from that branch were calling me and telling me about it."

HAITI EARTHQUAKE 2010

The 2010 Haiti earthquake (Haitian Creole: Tranblemanntè 2010 nan pe Ayiti) was a catastrophic magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake, with an epicentre near the town of Léogâne, approximately 25 km (16 miles) west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital. The earthquake occurred at 16:53 local time (21:53 UTC) on Tuesday, 12 January 2010. By 24 January, at least 52 aftershocks measuring 4.5 or greater had been recorded. An estimated three million people were affected by the quake; the Haitian Government reported that an estimated 230,000 people had died, 300,000 had been injured and 1,000,000 made homeless. They also estimated that 250,000 residences and 30,000 commercial buildings had collapsed or were severely damaged

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Lorri Smith Shenandoah, IA "Had just woken up and it was all over the TV."

Susan Blane Shenandoah, IA "Brushing my teeth getting ready for work."

Nick Bosley Shenandoah, IA "I was driving down main street when I heard the news."

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