We had a ton of pictures from our photolink files. We also had several that came our way through the 13 WarnMe app for smart phones.
Eric Kline had this view from his home in Ames.
Roger Rielly is one of our photojournalists and was out taking video of storms and had the time to capture this wall cloud.

Shane Swalwell had hail from quarter to golf ball size in Maxwell.

In Winterset… Dan Virgin’s nephew took this amazing shot of the storm as it moved toward Des Moines.

This in one of my favorite. Zion United Church of Christ in Hubbard Iowa, taken by pastor Renault. Let’s use this one to remember those in Moore, OK who are still trying to find the missing in today’s tornado outbreak.

Here is the seven day forecast.

Moore, OK coverage continues tonight. Our sister station KFOR is still on the air covering the rescue and recovery of tornado victims in Moore. http://kfor.com/on-air/live-streaming/

And then you can tell by trees. Missing from yards, the birds not chirping as loudly.

When you know what to look for, you can still spot clues that an ef-5 tornado leveled nearly half of Parkersburg five years ago. But, according to Chris Luhring, the town is bouncing back.

“We don’t have and old town and a new town, we have one Parkersburg, we always have and we always will.”

Luhring, the police chief at the time of the storm and now the City Clerk, says it’s important to remember everyone suffered. Even though it looked like half the town was spared, damage was inflicted everywhere.

“One of the hardest things was for our downtown businesses to be told, “well you weren’t destroyed, you’re probably doing alright. Probably between 700 and 1,000 people were homeless. They couldn’t live here. So they weren’t shopping downtown, they weren’t visiting those establishments. Everybody hurt.”

Everybody hurt, even if you can only see the scars on the south side of town.

But the transition from older Parkersburg, to the newer, rebuilt side of town is just a visual contrast. In the case of the mayor, Perry Bernard, he has a lifetime of contrast.

Bernard’s family rode out the ef5 storm in the basement. While his home blew apart around him, his neighbor’s home was caught on this security camera footage. Amazingly, Bernard also rode out category 5 hurricane Andrew in 1991.

“I’ve been in the eyes of hurricanes and I’ve been through high winds, category 5 hurricanes, category 3, I’ve been through several of them, and nothing can compare to an EF 5 tornado.”

Just two months before the storm Bernard says he and his family had decided against building a new home across town.

But after being forced into building a home, they were even more determined not to move.

“It wasn’t an option. This is home. You clean up and pick up and rebuild,” Bernard says.

Bernard wasn’t alone. Luhring says 20 of the 22 businesses lost rebuilt, many in their same spots, as did most residents – and the homes they built are better than ever.

“Ultimately a community is a long-term investment,” says Luhring. “You have to trust your citizens.”

Perhaps the most symbolic investment came at Aplington-Parkersburg high school. With the building ripped apart, superintendent Jon Thompson says it was important to let everyone know the Falcon’s would rise from the ruins.

“Rumors started flying around that we’re going to have to go to school in other districts and maybe the school won’t recover, so we made a conscious decision, right away to get the word out that not only were we going to rebuild our high school, that we were going to do it in one year’s time and we’re going to build it on the exact location where it stood previously.

“We were going to come back strong.”

Strong indeed, the concrete re-enforced underground wrestling room doubles as a storm shelter, with enough room to house the student body twice over.

Just before the storm, residents had passed a bond measure for a state-of-the-art 621-seat auditorium at the high school. The school gave back, by adding a 24/7 fitness center and auxiliary gym, for the community.

And even after all the loss, the district is growing again.

“It looks like a new suburb type of community so there’s all kinds of positives, but our enrollment, which in rural Iowa is rare has gone up by 68 students,” says Thompson. “In a district of right around 900 students, that’s significant. We’re proud of that.”

Being proud of what has been rebuilt here, along highway 57 is a common theme… and it spurred Bernard to run for mayor.

“How fast everybody dug in and took accountability and wanted to rebuild, it can’t make you feel more proud of a town.”

That proud feeling also tops Thompson’s best memories.

“For me, 20 some years in Aplington-Parkersburg, that year following the tornado was my favorite year, ever, in the communities and in education because the town which was close to begin with and so proud of what we had, became closer. Their work ethic was on display”

Parkersburg is certainly proud to be back, but hasn’t forgotten those lost, or the many that helped along the way.

“I can never talk to anybody without just thanking all the volunteers, all the church groups, all the civic groups, all the folks from thought the united states that came here to help us,” Luhring says. “Parkersburg is Iowa’s town. We’re proud to say that. Parkersburg’s strong citizen’s and the support of Iowans, regular Iowan’s, have made Parkersburg successful”

There will always be reminders, the sign that the late Ed Thomas insisted would be left untouched, now overlooks the field that bears his name.

The crosses over the Methodist church that leaned, but never failed, still stand as they did immediately after the winds calmed.

And the trees. Well, they’ll take a while. But the people of Parkersburg have proven they’ll still be here when they do regrow.

In a resilient Parkersburg

“Everybody has pride here”

Brett McIntyre, Channel 13 News.

Photo of Oklahoma tornado courtesy of KFOR/NBC in Oklahoma City.

It’s been hard to get work done. Or anything done. The pictures and videos from Oklahoma are devastating. Heartbreaking. It all happened so quickly, though thankfully, not without warning. One person dead is one too many. The death toll has reached 51 and counting, but when you see the destructive path the two-mile wide tornado left behind, you’d think thousands must have died. Early warnings by meteorologists using advanced weather equipment, and the heroic actions of teachers and first responders, kept a terrible day from being even worse…

The power of the tornado really comes through in this video…

Photo of Oklahoma tornado courtesy of KFOR/NBC in Oklahoma City.

Can you imagine what it’s like to climb out of the storm shelter? This family recorded video…

Here in Iowa it was another day of sirens and tornado warnings, though thankfully we weren’t hit hard. Parkersburg forever serves as a reminder that it can happen. Many of you sent in stunning photos of the abnormal sky…

May 20th at 7:23 P.M.taken from 47th and Michael Drive. Lowering and rotation of clouds.

Ed Wilson and the storm team did a superb job. It was nice to see all the tweets and emails from viewers who really appreciate that, especially after seeing what just happened in Oklahoma. Occasionally, we do receive complaints from those who just want their favorite program back on channel 13. In this case, The Voice. I understand getting into a show or game and not wanting to miss a minute. Happens to all of us. However, please understand our first responsibility as a local television station is to keep you safe. We should, and do, err on the side of caution.  A common complaint is the information is being repeated. As long as there is a tornado warning in Central Iowa, we can never make the assumption that all of our viewers have been watching the entire time. We live in an age when people are constantly multitasking. Right now, I’m watching our 10 p.m. news, KFOR’s feed in Oklahoma, and typing this blog. So on behalf of people like me, thank you for your patience and understanding…

I had a few thoughts on sports and pop culture, but after seeing the apocalyptic scene in Oklahoma, I should wait…

Pray for Oklahoma…

Keith

]]> http://whotv.com/2013/05/20/murphys-law-pray-for-oklahoma/feed/ 0 murphys_law_400 whomurphyk TORNADO TORNADO KFOR May 20th at 7:23 P.M.taken from 47th and Michael Drive. Lowering and rotation of clouds. http://whotv.com/2013/05/20/city-council-mall-plaza-row-house-move-forward/ http://whotv.com/2013/05/20/city-council-mall-plaza-row-house-move-forward/#comments Tue, 21 May 2013 03:43:45 +0000 Andy Fales http://whotv.com/?p=139554 ]]> It was a busy night for the Des Moines city council on Monday.

Tax Increment Financing or “TIF” has brought a wave of new development to the area around Merle Hay Mall, and the city will use more of the same to help the mall itself.  An eight-theater cinema is planned thanks to $400,000 a year of TIF money.

“The investment that they’re putting in, they’re getting a rebate on their taxes in the future,” said city councilman, Halley Griess, ”so it’s not that the city is hiding them a check.”

One of Des Moines’ last standing “row houses”, Norden Hall, looks like it WILL be spared the wrecking ball.  The plan is to move it from its spot on the Capitol grounds to the corner of East 4^th and Grand in the East Village.

“It will add to the character of the East Village,” said councilman, Brian Meyer, ”I mean a lot of that stuff was built in the same time period.”

Council set a hearing for June 24^th to move the plan forward.

Nollen Plaza will also see new life and get a new name.  It will be called “Cowles Commons” named for the family of Gardiner Cowles, who guided the Des Moines Register to prominence.  It gets new landscaping, new artwork and an all-new water feature.

City councilwoman, Christine Hensley, says such an important, central hub needs to look good.

“I just think it has tremendous opportunities and possibilities for additional activities and interests in the community.”

Construction on the new Cowles Commons should begin this summer.

“It can be tough at times. There are a lot of demands obviously. Not only from citizens but also city officials and getting things coordinated. But like you said, we have been through this before. The residents of Charles City are resilient,” said Charles City Fire Chief Eric Whipple.

Residents spent the day filling and laying sandbags along homes and businesses. Furniture and other belongings were moved from lower levels, to prepare for the predicted rising waters. Many roads were shut down, and some neighborhoods even evacuated.

One of the assisted living homes in town was also evacuated: “We made the decision about 3:00 p.m. that if residents needed services those services would not be able to get to the residents because the roads on both sides of the building were flooding,” said Susan Ayers.

The residents were moved to other facilities further into town or are staying with family.

In 2008, the river hit 25.5 feet.

Photojournalist Roger Riley caught a wall cloud on video near State Center.

He was able to take shelter with some stranded motorists who say the funnel came close to hitting the ground.

“You could see it touching. We just took pictures of it as it went all the way around us.  We knew we shouldn’t have been out, but I wasn’t too far from my mom’s basement,” Laura Castell laughed.

No damage was reported in the area.

Check out Laura’s pictures below.

According to police a 15-year-old and 12-year-old accepted a ride from a stranger in a big red truck while they were standing at their bus stop near Dayton just before 4 p.m.  One of the girls was able to escape and run to a nearby farm house.

The owner of that farm house told Channel 13 the girl came running up to him barefoot, crying and covered in cuts. She told the farmer she had been kidnapped and taken to a nearby hog farm. The farmer then called police.

The 15-year-old girl is still missing, she is identified as Kathlynn Shepard.  She was last seen wearing a gray sweatshirt, blue jeans and a Minnesota Vikings hat.  She has blonde hair, blue eyes and stands 5’6″ tall and weighs 160 pounds. Authorities are asking residents in and around the area where Boone, Webster and Hamilton counties meet to keep an eye out for Kathlynn.

Authorities say an Amber Alert has not been issued because the abductor is no longer at large. According to authorities he killed himself at some point this evening.

This story will be updated as more information becomes available.

Rivals Recruiting released its top 100 high school football players on Monday. Urbandale’s Allen Lazard ranks the 25^th best player.

Lazard is a 6 foot 5 inch, 200 pound deep threat with great hands. Last season he averaged 23 yards a catch, with nearly 1,000 yards overall.

At times, he looked like a man playing with boys.

Lazard verbally committed to Iowa State, where his dad used to play and his brother is now.

But Cyclone fans know schools keep coming after Lazard. He told Channel 13 he receives 50 to 60 letters a week.

“It really means something to me and shows my hard work has paid off,” Lazard said.

Notre Dame recently offered Lazard a scholarship, and he accepted an invitation to visit South Bend.

Should cyclone fans worry? “I don’t think they should be worried at all. I’m committed to playing at Iowa State and I plan on signing with them in February. I’m just going there just to see what they have,” Lazard said.

Lazard also mentioned he’d like to hear from Alabama’s Nick Saban, because it would be cool.

She stayed on an exhausting schedule of appearances ever since, but told Channel 13 two weeks ago, she’d soon return to Chow’s Gymnastics in West Des Moines to resume training.

And Gabby didn’t lie; she was back in the gym Monday afternoon.

Chow did not allow cameras inside, and said no interviews just yet.

Douglas previously told us she’ll go for more gold in Rio in 2016.

Wind speeds of more than 70 mph can trigger the sirens too.

Each county decides when the sirens should go off.

Polk County Emergency Management’s A.J. Mumm says there’s no harm in over warning residents. “It`s a balancing game between over warning and under warning and if we get people the information they can make the best decision for them and their family.”

The sirens are primarily used to alert those who are outside to seek shelter indoors.

Polk County Emergency Management sounded 97 of its 130 sirens on Sunday.

Kirsten Anderson served as communications director for senate Republicans and said senators were among those who made inappropriate comments about her body and clothing.

Anderson sent a memo to her staff supervisor expressing those concerns the day she was fired. Read the full memo here.

Branstad said, “I think it should be investigated by the senate. It’s a separate branch of government. So I think they have the right procedures in place and they should investigate and determine whether or not…whether those allegations are true or not.”

But Branstad pointed out several times the legislative branch is separate from the executive branch and that it is the senate’s jurisdiction to look into the claims.

You could call Sami Strain a super senior. She says, “That’s what Ms. McKibben would say.”

She already graduated but remains a part of Urbandale High School’s Severe and Profound Special Education class. Teacher Julie McKibben says, “This is a classroom for students who need more supported learning that are here to learn more functional life skills.”

McKibben started redesigning the classroom three years ago. The focus is teaching school skills that translate into the real world. She says, “In this program we’re really just thinking outside of the box, evolved those academics into something where our kids can leave here when they turn 21 or whatever their parents agree to, and have skills in the community.”

Eight students are in the program. They work with nine teaching associates on their individual education plans. Each student has an office where they work on their goals. They practice life skills in various labs, like making a bed and cooking food. Students also learn job skills like filing and typing. Strain says, “I’m doing my job application.”

And, there is the grocery store where students can shop for pretend food, bread, produce and other items. They use their pretend debit cards to check out. They also work in the store, which means they have to “clock in” for each shift. McKibben says, “They actually stock shelves, front shelves and really learn that skill to get them a job in the community.”

The store also teaches the students about money and how to pay with things like a debit card. McKibben says, “I think Special Ed is really starting to evolve, and the thought process behind how to educate students with intellectual disabilities is changing.”

The ultimate goal is for students like Strain to get hired in a job they enjoy. Sami says she would like to work at a grocery store. She says, “Probably do the sacks or something. Put stuff in sacks. It’s going to be awesome.”

Most of the classroom items are donated, so the redesigned program didn’t really cost more money. The Northwest Rotary Club is honoring McKibben with a Hero in Education award for her work on the program.

“You can sit here in the summer and eat your lunch,” says Jim Carroll.

That’s what kept Carroll coming back for the last 20 years.  He says over time, the crowds at the once packed plaza have dwindled.

“It’s typically like this.  Four or five people and that’s about all ,” say Carroll.

A new look and a new name are designed to draw people back.

“I want to share with you the new name for this space and that is Cowles Commons,” says Des Moines Performing Arts Board Chair Mary Stier.

It’s named for the Gardner and Florence Call Cowles Foundation.  Their support has helped raise $11 million for the project so far.

“Thank you for the honor of the naming of this facility and I  just can’t wait to see when it’s all pulled together and we have a new town hall square,” says Charlie Edwards with the Gardner and Florence Call Cowles Foundation.

The new design includes filling in the sunken part of the plaza and putting a red carpet area in its place.

“This is the symbolic rolling out of the red carpet for them and that red carpet is a multi-use, flexible space for events and activities,” says landscape architect Ken Smith.

Plans also include a new fountain, benches, a new art sculpture and more green space.  In all the changes, one thing will stay the same.

“We’re also preserving the Crusoe Umbrella.  One of the things we hear in the chatter is the Des Moines community loves the Oldenburg umbrella,” says Smith.

Once complete, the hope is that more people will become regulars at Cowles Common.

“It is the final puzzle piece for our beautiful city,” says Stier.

The city named the plaza after brothers Henry and Gerard Nollen.  The pair was honored for contributions to the insurance industry in Des Moines.  The City Council will vote on changing the name to Cowles Commons at Monday’s meeting.

Crews will break ground on the project in June.   Construction is expected to last for the next 12 to 14 months.

The first happened at 6:30 PM Sunday night. It was an EF0 tornado just southwest of Adel.

Fifteen minutes later, an EF1 one tornado touched down four miles southwest of Dallas Center.

The third tornado was an also an EF1 packing winds of up to 90 MPH. The storm touched down two miles southeast of Slater.

For surveyors, tracking weaker storms can be a difficult task.

“What we do in these surveys is try and take the EF scale and try to see what the damage was and correlate it with the wind,” said Brad Small, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

The tornado that touched down near Adel hit near the home of Matt and Stacy Eischeid.

They noticed debris flying through a field just south of their property.

That’s when they took cover.

“We could hear it in the basement. You could hear the trees hitting the house and hear the hail,” said Stacy Eischeid.

No injuries or fatalities were reported in any of the three tornadoes.

Here’s a look at how storm surveyors determine the strength of a storm.

If you’re not already a homeowner, you can visit the Finance Authority website to see what affordable mortgage and down payment assistance programs you might be eligible for.

Police say a heavy-set white man in his 30’s walked into the West Bank on East Euclid around 1:30 p.m. and demanded money at gunpoint.

The teller complied and the robber made off with an undisclosed amount of money. Police say while he was running across the parking lot he dropped about $2,000 in cash.

The suspect then left in a black two-door Pontiac.

No one was hurt during the incident.

Anyone with information is asked to call Polk County Crime Stoppers at 515-223-1400.

According to TheIowaRepublican.com, the main focus of the investigation stems from alleged campaign finance violations.

Milo Republican Kent Sorenson is accused of accepting pay for his work on Michele Bachmann’s presidential campaign in 2011.

Bachmann’s former chief of staff says Sorenson was paid by a third party to skirt the Iowa Senate rule that forbid senators from getting paid on presidential campaigns. Sorenson is also accused of illegally taking a database of homeschooling contacts and using it for the Bachmann campaign.

Sorenson denies both charges.

SHAWNEE, Oklahoma (CNN) — Tornadoes destroyed homes and tossed trees around like toothpicks as powerful storms ripped through Oklahoma and the Midwest on Sunday and Monday.

And the destructive weather, which killed at least two people, isn’t over. Baseball-sized hail, wind gusts and tornadoes could pummel parts of the central Plains and Midwest through Monday.

“Today could be potentially as dangerous as yesterday,” CNN meteorologist Indra Petersons said Monday morning, pointing to a wide swath of the country spanning from Texas to Michigan. “We’re talking about 500,000 square miles under the gun for severe weather.”

As they braced for more possible storms, residents in the hardest-hit areas were combing through rubble where their homes once stood.

“My mind is, like, blown, completely blown,” said Jessie Addington, 21, who found that few pieces of her childhood home in Shawnee, Oklahoma, were still standing Monday.

Addington, who now lives in a nearby town, said her mother huddled in the mobile home’s bathroom when the storm hit. But the tornado still tossed her around like a rag doll, leaving her bruised and battered.

When Addington arrived, she was shocked to find the neighborhood where she had lived for 17 years reduced to ruins.

“I’m feeling cheated, to be honest,” she said, “like, it’s just all gone.”

An estimated 300 homes were damaged or destroyed across Oklahoma, Red Cross spokesman Ken Garcia said.

Viewed from the air, the extent of the damage was staggering, said John Welsh, a helicopter pilot for CNN affiliate KFOR in Oklahoma. “Like you took the house, you put it in a gigantic blender, you turned it on pulse for a couple minutes and then you just dumped it out.”

For Justin Dunsworth, watching a large twister head toward homes in Shawnee on Sunday was a deeply personal experience. Three years ago, a tornado destroyed his house. This time around, he saw a tornado plow toward a mobile home park a quarter-mile away from where he lives. On Monday, he sent videos he recorded of the large, gray twister to CNN’s iReport.

“There’s a sense of fear while looking at the massive funnel not knowing whether it was going to turn towards us, as unpredictable as they are,” he said. “Your adrenaline is so high, just knowing that it’s tearing into other homes and possibly injuring people, or worse.”

Oklahoma resident: “It’s just devastating”

Two men, both in their 70s, were confirmed dead as a result of a tornado that hit Shawnee, said Amy Elliott, a spokeswoman for the state medical examiner’s office.

When Kimberly Graham returned to the spot near Shawnee where her mobile home once stood, her 7-year-old son’s orange bicycle was one of the only items that remained.

“Home, cars, garage, everything — gone,” she told CNN on Monday. “It’s just devastating. Everything that you’ve worked for. Everything that you’ve built.”

As many as 28 tornadoes were reported in Oklahoma, Kansas, Illinois and Iowa, according to the National Weather Service, with Oklahoma and Kansas the hardest hit. Some of those reports might have been of the same tornado.

Early Monday morning, a tornado touched down in Golden City, Missouri, and tore through two counties, Barton County Emergency Management Director Tom Ryan said. The number of injuries and extent of damage were not immediately clear.

In Oklahoma, the storm left highways littered with debris, smashed cars and flipped over semi trucks. An 18-wheeler blew off an overpass on Interstate 40 and was practically flattened.

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin declared a state of emergency after tornadoes tore through 16 counties in her state Sunday. Twenty-three people were injured, she told CNN.

The governor surveyed damage throughout the state Monday, including a street where one of her own staffers lost her home.

“She was cooking dinner, and one of her neighbors texted her and said, ‘You’d better hurry right now down the street, because we see the tornado coming.’ So she left the kitchen and ran out, left her dogs in the house,” Fallin told CNN.

When the staffer came back to the property several hours later, the dogs were there, Fallin said, but her house had been destroyed.

“It’s totally devastating here, massive destruction,” the governor said. “We’re just very fortunate that we didn’t have more loss of life in this area.”

A stark landscape where homes once stood

Ethan Mignard, who works in Shawnee, told CNN’s iReport that the stark landscape in nearby Dale, Oklahoma, after the storm passed looked like something he’d only seen before on TV.

Large, rectangular patches of dirt were all that remained where mobile homes once stood. Cinder blocks were scattered across the ground like children’s toys. Twisted metal and pieces of insulation filled the trees. At the site of one home, all that remained were the front steps.

“It looks so out of place. … To think that you would have taken these stairs to enter a home,” he said, “but instead, you look around from up there and you see total destruction everywhere.”

More tornadoes were spotted in Iowa, near Earlham, Huxley and east of Dallas Center, according to the National Weather Service.

The agency also confirmed a twister in the northwestern Illinois county of Carroll.

A combination of factors — including strong winds and warm, moist air banging against dry air — means severe weather could continue sweeping across a wide swath of the United States for days, Petersons said.

“Keep in mind we have all the ingredients out there that we need,” she said.

Several of the states pummeled by weekend tornadoes could see more trouble Monday.

Tornado watches are in effect for portions of southeastern Kansas, western and central Missouri, northwest Arkansas, central and eastern Oklahoma and northwestern Texas until 10 p.m. (11 p.m. ET).