Tornado destroys dozen or more blocks in Iowa town

[marmar]

By GRANT SCHULTE, Associated Press – 32 mins ago


MAPLETON, Iowa – Jamy Garden's house began to rumble with the approach of a tornado that at one point measured three-quarters of a mile wide. Then the windows shattered, spraying her with glass. Using her cellphone as a flashlight, she fled to her basement and called her grandparents in tears.

On Sunday, she returned home, wandering her backyard in a blood-splattered hooded sweat shirt, her right hand and left knee wrapped in gauze. Around her lay a tangle of tree branches, twisted siding, broken glass and a canoe that wasn't hers.

The tornado that struck the evening before damaged more than half of Mapleton, a town of 1,200 in western Iowa, Mayor Fred Standa said Sunday. He estimated about 20 percent of the town was "almost flat."

The huge, centuries-old trees the town was named for had been pulled out of the ground and wrapped around houses and tossed on top of cars, Standa said. In one case, a huge motor home had been flipped on its side. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110410/ap_on_re_us/us_iowa_tornado

[MineralMan]

1. How horrible for those poor people!

Uff da!