Aug 27, 2006 1:07 pm US/Central
LeSueur County Neighbors Help Recover, Rebuild
by Jason DeRusha
LeCenter, Minn. (WCCO) ―
In south Minnesota's LeSueur County, government and police officials said the clean-up following Thursday's devastating tornadoes is going so well that they won't need outside volunteer help until this weekend, Sept. 2-3.
However, homeowners there appear to be reaching out and helping neighbors rebuild what the storms destroyed.
For example, Mike and Deb Zimmerman of LeCenter own a farm, which -- to them -- has always been something of a hotbed of activity. But never more so until after the tornadoes ripped through their crops.
"A lot of guys just with hands picking up helping; friends who brought bobcats, chainsaws -- just continuously cleaning and picking up," Mike Zimmerman said. "You can do a lot of work."
Much of that work resulted in several large piles of lumber and damaged crops. It's not a pretty sight, but it is a vast improvement to what the Zimmerman farm looked like on Thursday night.
Zimmerman plans on applying to the Department of Natural Resources for a permit to burn the debris.
Jon Voelkel, a childhood friend of Mike's, brought his two young daughters to help clean the field. Amid the damaged corn fields, they were picking downed power lines. "It's real tough work on some of this when it's been all tangled up," he said.
Under Saturday's midday sunshine, Zimmerman thinks back to the craziness of Thursday night. "As the tornado was coming in we knew it was coming. Then [my] ears popped, and about the time my ears popped we could hear the roof come off."
Mike, his wife Deb, and their two children huddled into a basement bathroom. While Mike shielded his daughter with his body, and Deb doing the same to their son, the tornado struck.
It literally sucked their Dodge Durango out of the garage, and dismembered the upstairs bedrooms from their house, sending debris flying across the street.
"This is the worst thing that's happened to me in my life," Mike Zimmerman said.
That was then. But on Saturday, as he looked around his farm, Zimmerman saw how the worst of nature can bring out the best in his friends, neighbors and family.
"My plans are to get this mess cleaned up and then rebuild here," he said.
LeSueur County officials estimate Thursday's F-3 tornado caused at least $13 million damage and destroyed, or severely damaged, 47 homes.
The county's Emergency Operations Center has set up a volunteer hotline at (507) 357-8211. The hotline will be staffed from Monday to Friday, Aug. 28 to Sept. 1.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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