(AP Photo by Christopher Gannon, Des Moines Register) Survivors of the tornado which decimated the town of Parkersburg, Iowa this spring will be attending the opening day of the 2008 Clay County Fair.

It will be easy to spot the 50 people from Parkersburg who attend this Saturday's opening day of the 2008 Clay County Fair. They'll be wearing this black accessory.

Paul Daniels, who has managed the U.S. Cellular stores in Spencer and Storm Lake since October, thinks the busload of tornado survivors Spencer resident Ted Cate is lining up to attend the celebrated annual event are in need of the getaway. Daniels, his wife Candace and their 3-year-old daughter are among the "blessed" ones: They escaped this spring's deadly twister with only loss of a home.

"I think it's a great initiative and a great thing that he's doing," Daniels said of Cate's third bus trip to the fair for survivors of tornados. "Anything to get their mind off stuff. ... I just think anything to give those people something else to think about or do is great and definitely needed."

(Photos submitted by Paul and Candace Daniels) Paul and Candace Daniels' recently-remodeled home before the May 25 tornado which ripped through Parkersburg.

The May 25 tornado which decimated the east central Iowa town of 1,889 residents topped the National Weather Service's scale, ranking as an EF5 tornado. The twister not only leveled half the town, it killed seven people. Deemed the strongest to hit the state in 32 years, the May 25 tornado which ripped through Parkersburg ranked as the second-deadliest Class 5 tornado in Iowa since 1950. An estimated 350 homes were destroyed, with another 100 receiving major damage.

"Parkersburg is a very tight-knit community," Daniels said. "They're huge into sports: The town shuts down on Friday night; they've got an outstanding high school football program. They're pretty close-knit, with a lot of families there.

It was a great community to live in. ... A lot of the families have decided to stick around, but there's some that haven't. So, you've got a real mixed bag of how things are now."

Following the deadly twister, Daniels' home collapsed into its basement. [Click to enlarge]

The Daniels family, which had moved to Spencer last fall, was still trying to sell its remodeled home in Parkersburg the day the massive tornado ripped through the Butler County town.

"The day of the tornado, we actually went back to Parkersburg. We were going to Cedar Rapids for my niece's graduation, and along the way, we stopped at the house in the afternoon to work on it a little bit. We cleaned up the outside a bit and 2 - 3 hours before the tornado hit, we buried a St. Joseph statue upside down in the front yard," Paul Daniels recalled.

During his niece's party, Daniels received a text message from a friend who asked: Is your house still there?

"We didn't know what he was talking about, so we looked on the news and saw that a major tornado had gone through Parkersburg," Daniels said. "We decided to go back to check out what was going on and to see what was going on with the house. When we got to Parkersburg, the town was blocked off. ... But it was such a chaotic mess around there, you could still get into town if you walked through a field, which we did."

The closer they got, the more their former hometown appeared to be "a war zone."

"All the lights were out, and there was basically just rubble as far as the eye could see," Daniels described. "It was raining and windy. There were cop and car lights, and crews working on power lines. There were power lines down everywhere. It was a pretty unbelievable sight."

"As we walked toward our house," Daniels recalled, "I said to my wife, 'I think that's our house. The frame of it is still standing.'"

Candace Daniels responded, "No, that's our neighbor's house. Our house should be blocking the view of that one.'"

The Daniels' home of four years had collapsed into its basement.

"The best way I can describe it is just (being in) shock. You can't understand the magnitude of it. We saw pictures of the tornado from helicopters on TV before we got to our house that night, and it didn't even come close to describing what we actually saw on the ground," Daniels said. "Where there used to be trees, houses and other things, now it was just horizon. It didn't even seem like the same city on that half of the town."

Although they didn't actually experience the tornado's full strength firsthand, the Daniels were among the Parkersburg residents who felt the devastation of it.

"We were very fortunate in that we didn't have anything there of any real importance to us. It was, basically, just the house to deal with," he said. "...We had dwellers insurance. So, basically, we cut our losses. ... The insurance guy didn't even set foot on our ground. He just came up and said, 'I'm here to write you a check for the total loss of your house.'"

But Daniels described the emotional after-effects of the May 25 tornado as being a "mixed bag." While they escaped without loss of life or limb, he said feelings of guilt have emerged because others lost what they did. Dealing with regulations in regard to what could be done with the debris left behind was also minor, he added, in comparison to the insurance tangles others have found themselves in ever since.

"The town's come along pretty good," Daniels said. "It's already cleaned up amazingly. They're rebuilding: I bet there's at least 15, 20 houses that owners have started to rebuild, and a couple of them are even close to being done at this point."

"But there's so much to deal with for so many of them," he added. "Some people got denied on insurance claims or didn't receive what they thought they'd get. (Some are still) just figuring out where they're going to live or still trying to sell their lot."

Spencer resident Ted Cate, meanwhile, finds himself busily preparing for the arrival of Saturday's busload of Parkersburg residents. Eager to partake in the fair and adorned with black baseball caps, they will be treated to meals and nutty bars throughout the day, as well as a grand stage show Saturday night featuring Trisha Yearwood and special guest Rockapella.

2008 marks the third year that Cate has organized a trip to bring tornado survivors to the local fair. Residents of Spencer, S.D. and Bradgate, Iowa attended the 2003 and 2004 Clay County fairs, respectively. Asked why he selected Parkersburg this year, Cate simply said, "It was probably the biggest disaster we've had prior to the flooding in southern Iowa. And if you've seen the pictures of their town, you'll realize they lost over 200 homes."

As Cate worked to contact local officials who could help him in issuing an invitation to this year's Clay County Fair, he was referred to Aplington-Parkersburg Community Schools Superintendent Jon Thompson and teacher Brian Buseman.

"(Brian) Buseman told me he was surprised with how quick and how many people responded to the ad to come. And the superintendent told me that the kids are still really uptight -- even thunder scares them now," Cate relayed. "...I think it's hard for people to realize what it is to lose everything -- and that's what happened (to residents of this town). I'm hoping this will give them a little respite from the whole thing. And, I'm hoping everybody has a good time."