MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa — One year ago Friday, an EF3 tornado touched down in Marshalltown, destroying several buildings and homes.
It was one of 21 tornadoes that touched down in Iowa that injured 17 people but killed no one.
Marshalltown is still recovering even a full year later.
“There’s places that they haven’t even touched yet. There’s houses way down there that they haven’t even touched yet,” Marshalltown resident Gary Brooks said.
Some businesses are still in the recovery phase too. Some are still boarded up.
The tornado ripped the roof off Marla Grabenbauer’s salon Marla’s Headliner on Main. She’s back open now and celebrating 50 years of business in the community.
But she says it’s not just the buildings that need repairing.
“The emotional part of what goes on with the families, is hard to watch.”
Across the street, Black Tire Bike Company is one of the town’s big success stories following the twister.
“We lost about a third of our roof. We had the west wall collapse, ” Owner Matt Gertandt recalls. ” We were told by several people that the building was totaled.”
Gertandt credits a great engineering team and a strong network of support that helped them rebuild.
To be as major of a turnaround as what we were – as fast as we were – was quite the impressive and is quite the impressive feat downtown for Marshalltown.”
by Michael Howell & Eva Andersen (2019, July 19) CBS2 Iowa
