The Parkersburg tornado:Former Royal woman's family starts again

(Graphic courtesy National Weather Service) The Todd and Alisa (Zieman) Neil farm is located about halfway between Dunkerton and Fairbank. The funnel grew weaker, but wider as it made its way east.

The family's show cattle are a source of pride -- and more than half of them are lost

Dirt and water have likely ruined the furniture. The garage is gone. The in-laws, a mile away, lost their home completely.

(Photo submitted) Alisa (Zieman) Neil and her husband Todd raise cattle and farm with his parents outside Fairbank. Their farm, along with his parents' home, was destroyed by the tornado that hit Parkersburg. Todd and Alisa and their kids were on the way back from Omaha when it touched down on their farmstead. They lost cattle, a hog building and many of their belongings. Alisa is the daughter of Roger and Kay Zieman of Royal. She also teaches art classes in the Manchester West Delaware School District.

So "lucky" seems like a strange way to sum up Alisa Neil's outlook after the Parkersburg tornado.

But then she watches the news for the first time on Tuesday night as an anchor reads the names of those who lost their lives in the May 25 storm.

On Wednesday afternoon she looks out the window and sees 160 Wapsie Valley students picking up chunks of wood and tin.

And she remembers that her family was safe in a car, trailing the storm.

Her nearby friends and relatives are fine. Even the personal belongings that can't be replaced seemed to have made it through the storm.

So, yes. Alisa Neil considers herself lucky. She'll dust off her antique Coke machine and start again.

People in the Royal area knew Alisa as Alisa Zieman. Her folks, Roger and Kay Zieman, still live on the farm where Alisa grew up. It's about 2 1/2 miles south of the small Clay County community.

She met her husband, Todd, at Iowa State University. She didn't get off the farm, though: Todd brought Alisa back to his -- about halfway between Dunkerton and Fairbank.

"I was cussing Iowa this winter when I had to drive through blizzards, ice and storms," Alisa Neil said. "But when you have something like this happen and see all of these people come help -- that's pretty neat. That wouldn't happen just anywhere."

The Neil farm was one of the last properties damaged as the tornado made its 43-mile trek east from the Aplington area to a rural location near Fairbank. Gov. Chet Culver said 350 homes were destroyed, another 100 received major damage.

When the tornado first touched down, near Parkersburg, it was a historically strong "EF5" on the scale used to classify the power of a tornado. Peak winds of 205 mph were recorded by the National Weather Service. Since 1950, only five tornados in Iowa have reached the strength matched by Sunday's storm.

The Neils likely chased an "EF2" version of the storm near their home. The family was returning to northeast Iowa after a trip to Omaha and the Henry Doorly Zoo.

"We were at Parkersburg and we stopped to see some friends," Neil said. "It started to storm, so we headed north out of town. We went to go pick up Todd's truck in Waterloo and drove into it. Then we turned around and went back north and, yeah, we pretty much followed it in."

With winds of 111 to 135 mph, it was weaker -- but gouged a much wider path -- as it descended on the Neil farmstead. Damage suggests the tornado was more than a mile wide as it crossed the area near Neil's farm.

"We pulled up to our house about five minutes after it happened," Neil said.

Help wasn't far behind -- for every daughter in the storm there are parents who want to be by her side: The Ziemans of Royal drove across the state, to the Neil farm, on Monday.

The tornado shattered windows on the house and ripped siding and shingles off. It blew dirt into the house at such a velocity that everything in closets and drawers was coated with a mix of dirt and mud.

"The tornado took their barn, their garage, a corn crib and a grain bin," Alisa's mom, Kay Zieman, said. "The worst part is: It took their cows and calves. They raised show cattle and spent years building up their cow herd. It's like losing a member of the family. They thought that about two-thirds of the calves are gone. Some of them -- they've never found. They're just gone."

Todd's parents, Mel and Judy Neil, live on the other side of the section. They are in even worse shape.

"His parent's place was destroyed," Zieman said.

Neil is a middle school art teacher in the Manchester West Delaware School District. As soon as it was safe, faculty members from her school and their spouses arrived at the farm with four-wheelers and generators. They walked through the broken glass and began loading up the family's belongings. Another family friend has an empty house in Fairbank. The Neils are staying there at no charge.

"You have no idea that you've touched so many people and that they care enough to come help you," Neil said. "We live in a very giving community with very nice people and it's neat to see that they all care and will give a helping hand. It's amazing. I'll bet there were 150 people at our house the day after it happened. When I stood there, I felt like I was in the way."

Cole, the family's kindergarten student was back at school where stories of the tornado likely competed with the animals accounts from his trip to the zoo. As the cleanup continued, 4-year-old Ellie was tossing a piece of plastic, working on her softball technique.

"And they each got a new bike, so they think: No matter what happens -- as long as they have new bikes, they must be doing pretty good," Alisa Neil said.

In some ways Alisa finds it hard to adapt as easily. She and her father-in-law were interviewed for the news segment that started with the names of the people killed in Sunday's storm.

The list of seven includes three people in their 70s from Parkersburg: Shirley Luhring, Ray Meyocks and Charles Horan. Parkersburg also lost a couple, both 80-years-old: Robert and Ethel Mulder. The tornado claimed two people from New Hartford: 48-year-old Norman Beuthien and 71-year-old Leasa Bleeker.

About 70 people were injured, according to a public information statement from the National Weather Service.

"They showed Parkersburg and nothing was a foot above the ground," Neil said. "It was awful to watch that on TV."

So can a tornado victim be lucky? If they can, Alisa Neil counts herself among that group.

"The bottom line is: We're here to tell about it," she said.