One Year Anniversary of the Winterset Tornado 3-5-22

Today marks the one-year anniversary of the EF-4 tornado that hit our flower farm in Winterset, Iowa, on March 5th, 2022. The tornado left a trail of destruction in its wake, and caused loss of lives, widespread damage throughout our neighborhood, greater Iowa community, and to our beautiful flower farm.

Both of our cell phones received an audible alert around 4:00PM that we were under a tornado warning. We were working outside in the greenhouse in the backyard of our home at the time, but when we received that alert we knew that it meant that a tornado was imminent. However, it was strange to receive the alert, because there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the weather was absolutely perfect. It was 70 degrees and sunny, but we would soon find out how deceptive the weather could be.

Our son’s 15th birthday was that day. He had invited over four of his friends to spend the evening with him in our event barn, setting it up to play video games with his friends for his birthday. When the alerts went off on our phones, the boys came milling out of the barn, looking inquisitive about what they should do. We told them immediately to go into the house until we could make sure it was safe for them to return to the barn to carry on with birthday party festivities.

Around 4:20PM, bored from staying inside, the boys asked Adam if they could return back to the barn and Adam allowed them to go back out, but he stayed outside and kept an eye to the west for a several minutes to make sure everything was going to be safe. By that time, the storm front was starting to move in and the clouds were starting to look ominous.

Keeping a watchful eye to the west, Adam began to see rotation of the clouds 4:32PM. Luckily, one of the kids’ parents had just been out to drop something off for one of the boys and he happened to be walking by when Adam saw the rotation in the clouds. He told the boy to go get the others and tell them to get into the house immediately, because there was a tornado.

The boys came running out of the barn, over to where Adam was standing, looking to the west, and saw the tornado dropping out of the clouds. They froze in place for a few seconds before Adam snapped harshly at them to run into the house and get into the basement. It was 4:34PM at that time and the tornado was beginning to grow in size.

While Jenn, our son and his friends, and our daughter Quinlan huddled in the basement of our home, Adam stayed outside, took further video for the tornado, and watched in disbelief as the tornado approached the farm for a direct hit. Adam’s last video of the tornado as it came closer to the farm was timestamped at 4:38PM, below.

Adam quickly ran into the basement and told us that we needed to prepare ourselves for a direct hit - that the tornado was coming straight for us. We instructed the boys to cover their heads just like the learned in school and we began to pray to God aloud.

We could hear the ferocious roar of the tornado approaching us, debris hitting the house in what sounded like mud hitting your car when you get stuck in mud on the road, the crashing sounds of windows breaking and trees falling all around us.

High winds could be heard hitting our house and our house gave way to a loud cracking sound, almost as though 2X4s in the walls were snapping. Wind blew into the basement and dust hit our faces as we huddled together. It felt like the house was being sucked up and off of its foundation. There was a split second during all of this chaos when Adam said there was a feeling of “either the house was going to go or stay” and said at one point that he was preparing himself during that time to dive onto the top of all of us to protect us.

All of our ears were popping, just like when taking off on an airplane, but with 1,000X more intensity as the pressure from the tornado went right over the top of us. We found it hard to breath as the pressure pressed down on us for the few seconds it took for the tornado to pass over.

From the end of this video, taken at 4:34PM to the time the tornado hit our farm was about 60 seconds

Then everything was absolutely still and quiet.

Adam walked upstairs and instructed everyone to stay where they were and not move. He needed to assess the damage and what we would be dealing with. At that point, we thought maybe a part of our house was gone and that we would be walking upstairs to nothing being there.

At 4:45 Adam called Jenn upstairs to see the damage. Luckily the house itself was still standing with just a small amount of damage, but everything else around the house and around the flower farm was obliterated.

We stepped out of the house and took our first video of the damage at 4:47PM.

Adam told our son’s friends to call their parents and let them know they were safe and asked them to have their parents come pick them up. Little did we know that our driveway was blocked by a large downed tree, which Adam had to push out of the way to get the parents into our property.

Worried about our 9 cats who were all outside during the tornado, our daughter searched for them around the farm and in the wreckage, not finding any during her search.

Time stamp on video 4:47PM

The boys and their parents started helping us gather a few items from our event barn that had survived. Rain was coming in behind the storm and we were rapidly trying to salvage anything we could. Everything was stacked inside our living room and office area, because there was no other place to put these items.

Mud was everywhere. There was no electricity and we found that the tornado had pushed water back up into the pipes. Our toilets were empty of water and we had to run the sink tap for 2-3 minutes before water started coming out again.

A view of the destruction to the Red barn and event barn area at pepperharrow

The first calls we made were to Jenn’s brother, Josh, who’s son had been at our property and to Jenn’s mom and dad who live in Winterset. All of them came out to see the damage and to help out. Josh was in disbelief and had to leave right away to help, because duty was calling. He works at Madison County Secondary Roads and needed to get the roads cleared to help first responders get to people on Carver Road. Jenn’s parents took our two kids and Josh’s son to their house to have a little normalcy as we gathered ourselves and tried to figure out next steps.

The ethereal sunset after the tornado

As we tried to calm ourselves and get some rest for the following day, the long, hard day full of clean up efforts we knew was coming, we laid in our bed, unable to fall asleep. Our minds kept replaying the events of the afternoon and we found ourselves too hyped on adrenaline to find the reprieve of sleep.

Eventually we did rest, but it was only for an hour or so. We roused ourselves around 6:00AM the next morning, pulling insurance policies, ordering PODS for storage and getting ourselves ready for a very long, and difficult day. We were incredibly mentally, physically exhausted and traumatized.

The first volunteer showed up at the farm around 7:00AM and people began to show up rapidly after that. We put a call out to our community through social media and by noon, there were over 200 people at the farm helping with cleanup.

We were walking around in a daze and didn’t have full control over our mental faculties to instruct people on what exactly what needed to be done, besides ‘clean up’, so it was incredible to have Dave Handsacker from the Pumpkin Ranch, another Madison County business, show up, take control and help direct people on what needed to be done. Thank you, Dave!

We couldn’t have done it without these amazing people! Their kindness and willingness to help us with cleanup was extraordinary and we cannot express how humbled we are by this. It was a long, hard day of work and these folks gave up their free time to help. God Bless all of you for all of your help!

For the next several days and weeks to come, volunteers from across the region also stepped up to help, donating their time, money, and resources to assist. The outpouring of support was heartwarming, and it helped to bring hope and comfort to us, after we had lost so much.

Pella boys football team helping with clean up at pepperharrow

Looking back over the the past year, ourselves and our neighbors have worked tirelessly to rebuild and recover from the tornado. Homes and businesses have been reconstructed, and many of our neighbors have been able to move back into their homes. However, there is still so much work to be done, and many people are still struggling to recover from the physical, emotional, and financial impacts of the tornado.

As we mark the one-year anniversary of the Winterset tornado, it is important to remember those who lost their lives and to honor the bravery and heroism of the first responders and volunteers who worked tirelessly to save lives and help those in need.

We’ve seen that tornadoes and other natural disasters like this can be devastating, but we’ve seen that they can also bring out the best in people. The way our community came together to support one another in the aftermath of the tornado was truly inspiring, and it serves as a reminder that we are all stronger when we work together. As we move forward from this tragedy, let us continue to support one another and work towards building stronger, more resilient communities not only in Iowa, but across the country. #wintersetstrong

XX Jenn and Adam