Bleacher Voice: Wadena tornado may have ravaged town, but not our spirit

Heartbroken. Sickened. Devastated.

 

Words alone cannot describe the range of emotions I was experiencing minutes after the tornado ripped through the heart of Wadena at approximately 5:09:37 p.m. Thursday night.

 

Just seeing the level of destruction was heartbreaking, it still hunts me, although we were one of the many that escaped nearly unscathed. Save for a few downed trees and shingles that were blown off and shifted in the back end of our house, we cannot help be thankful to still have a home.
 

However, it makes me sound selfish to say that, especially when numerous friends no longer have anything, just memories that were scattered across the horizon with the wind.
 

The tornado of June 17 had forever changed the landscape of our beautiful town.

 

One can be forgiven if they thought that something like this cannot happen here. It is something that happens to someone else, a glimpse of devastating consequences of a tornado that is usually reserved for the nightly news broadcasts, in a different town or a different state.
 

But it did, for Mother Nature made her presence know for nearly a minute, and the town I have grown to love was violently altered, forever.
 

Walking through the aftermath was like going through a war zone. It was eerie seeing some homes that suffered little damage, but stood an empty spot next door that served as a reminder of a broken family. Trees uprooted, shattered and scattered throughout the 10-block radius. A silent witness to the fury of the howling winds that blew through with such a force, it left one puzzled to the strange sights among the debris.
 

There was a medium-sized brown teddy bear sitting upright at the edge of a curb of a home ransacked. It was like Mother Nature took great pains to see that this stuffed animal would be there to comfort the child whose home she decided to destroy. Funny that this bit of symbolism shone like a beacon of light amid the obvious destruction it was placed in. The bear was wet and dirty, surrounded by insulation, broken branches and boards with nails protruding from the home that once showed it love.
 

I continued on, taking the care to step over downed power lines, and debris that littered my path. I saw sights of marvel, especially a moving van that was punctured like a porcupine with two by fours. There was a home that was damaged so severely, although the clothes in the second floor closet remained untouched and neatly arranged on hangers.
 

My heart broke when I saw the high school, which was badly damaged. The roof of the destroyed community center wrapped around one side like a piece of tinfoil. To the east of the high school, the tornado had taken part of the community center roof, crumpled it like a cannon ball and proceeds to use it to level a house across from the elementary school. It was unreal.
 

Numerous cars, parts of a semi-truck trailer, and fertilizer trailers were picked up and used to batter the high school with devastating results. The gymnasium roof, where I spent years covering the Wolverines for a newspaper, and now for this website, was peeled back like it was a sardine can.
 

I stood for the longest of time staring at the community center. It had become a second home for our family during those long, cold winter months. Our son spent countless hours, nay—years—playing hockey. He devoted all his hopes, dreams and passion into a game he truly loved, only to see it gone in a blink of an eye.
 

Likewise, I thought when I saw the ravaged little league field by the technical college. I could recall the dedication of a young high school baseball coach who spent countless hours re-establishing the youth baseball program. All that hard work that was put into fixing up the field, only to be destroyed in seconds. It saddens me greatly.
 

But out of the darkness of the devastation, came stories of heroism and hope.
 

A lifeguard at the community pool just across the road from the high school got nervous about the approaching storm and gathered her crew and a few children. They ran to her parents house a few houses down and huddled in the safety of the basement. The tornado leveled a direct hit on the pool. However, her parents home now resembles a doll house, and the maintenance building where the pool occupants were suppose to take cover was completely demolished. Imagine what would have become of those poor souls if they decided to seek safety there instead. I cannot, and I will not.
 

Our mayor, after huddling in the safety of his basement with his daughter during the storm, quickly sprung to action with the aid of his four-wheeler to help direct the emergency response teams. The sight of him scooting about with rescue personnel inspired me.
 

The large contingent of law enforcement and fire departments from a wide swath across the state that quickly converged into Wadena to help with the aftermath also inspired me.
 

I must applaud our city department heads for their calm demeanor in keeping our town functioning even though we were seriously wounded. The ability of each and every one of them to work together to get the job done inspired me.
 

Our fire department worked tirelessly through the aftermath and beyond, as well as our police and medical crews. I am proud of my wife, after working an eight-hour shift earlier in the day, didn’t hesitate to rush back to the hospital immediately after the tornado ravaged the city to help her co-workers besieged by the many injured patients.
 

There are others—too many to mention—from the Salvation Army to the Red Cross volunteers; to our city workers and the many utility workers that worked tirelessly to make sure we were safe afterwards. They provided many services, whether it was housing and food; attacking the many gas and water leaks that sprung from the destruction to restoring power in town.
 

It was a well-coordinated effort on everyone’s part, and I join my fellow citizens in saying thank you. Teamwork like this can inspire you to greater things.
 

I pitched in when I could. I lent a hand to a group of firefighters struggling to move a downed tree so that a trapped family may escape. I walked with another group of firefighters conducting a search and rescue operation through the cemetery. Honestly, I was praying that any poor soul was actually resting peacefully six feet under and not above when I did so.
 

The sight of our beautiful city cemetery with all the twisted trees scattered and broken among the toppled headstones broke my heart. Later, I would find pieces of tombstones deposited among the debris in yards surrounding the cemetery. I even found a large headstone near the pool area. Unbelievable.

 

Another odd sense of humor from Mother Nature was observed at the high school. I noticed a strange pattern of rocks and gravel scattered in artistic, semi-circle waves around the school parking lot. It was after a few minutes before it registered to me that it came from the railroad tracks.

 

In all her fury, the tornado sucked up the rocks when it tore across the tracks to hit the school bus garage and county fairgrounds. When the wind died down, all the debris settled earthward. I could only imagine what it would look like from the air—the strange patterns remnants of the earthly, artistic canvass.
 

But my strongest observations were that of my fellow citizens. I saw neighbors helping neighbors, strangers helping strangers to show the reassurance of our human spirit in time of need.
 

I witnessed an elderly lady, who after emerging from her ravaged home, uttered ‘everything’s gone’ and collapsed in a sobbing heap on her front step with friends and family rushing to her side to comfort her.
 

At another house, a young man showed me how he and his mother managed to reach safety by huddling under a cabinet in the kitchen. That was the only area that survived unscathed as the house imploded around them. Both were thankful to be alive, but were more worried for family and friends in town.
 

Our spirit may be wounded, but its resilience and determination to rebuild started immediately. Chainsaws were buzzing everywhere, as citizens started pitching in to clean up. Yes, our town may be half gone and our lives forever altered on that day.

 

But I truly believe that Wadena will emerge from the devastation bigger and better than ever before. It’ll take some time, but that’s okay—we’re a stubborn bunch, we are Minnesotans, but most of all—we are Wadenans.