Madison County Strong: Survivors recount their experiences during Winterset tornado

Every community has its warriors on their streets, in hospitals, preparing for the unthinkable. 

"The deputies that were off that day, they called in here. And they didn't hesitate," said Angela Henry, a dispatcher with the Madison County Sheriff's Office.

But no one on the ground in Madison County could have prepared for what would occur on March 5, 2022. 

"The day before at work, I was just having a bad day..." said Theresa Houg. "And I put on a post on Facebook that said, 'What is everybody going to do this weekend, I'm going to win the lottery.'"

What happened that weekend wasn't a lottery anyone wanted to win: A supercell that spawned the longest-tracked tornado in Iowa in nearly four decades came alive. 

"I want to say about 3:30 or 3:45, I got a phone call from the Weather Service letting us know that there's a tornado that's possibly going to hit Macksburg," said Diogenes Ayala, director of Madison County Emergency Management.

It would end up being the deadliest tornado in the state since the Parkersburg EF-5  in 2008. All six deaths from the tornado occurred in Madison County.

"We did know for several days that it had a good setup for severe weather," said Rod Donavon, senior meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Des Moines, who issued the Winterset tornado warning. "Certainly there was tornadoes were potential as well."

At 4:15, Henry recalls getting her first alert from the National Weather Service. 

"And then 15 minutes later, about 4:36, the tornado was on the ground," she said. . 

After rapidly intensifying, the tornado weakened to an EF-2 as it hit the southern suburbs of Des Moines, Norwalk and Pleasant Hill.

"Staying on the ground for over 70 miles and for 94 minutes," Donavon said. "It's just extraordinary, especially up here."

Finally, at 6 p.m.,  the tornado lifted just north of Newton. But although the storm was over, parts of Madison County would remember it as hell on earth. 

"The next thing I know, I thought I moved my car under the garage in case it hailed, and I can I can hear the rain coming down the road," said Don Houg, who survived the tornado. "And that's when I knew the tornado was coming."

And with it, a path of devastation spanning four counties and causing nearly a quarter-billion dollars in damage, the costliest tornado in the U.S. in 2022.

"By the time I got back in the basement looked back out, I seen all the trees take off," Don said. 

On that fateful Saturday at 4:30 p.m., the tornado was gearing up to touch down in Pammel Park. 

"I just started scanning the skies looking for any kind of rotation in the clouds," O'Neal said. "And that's when I saw it starting to form off the distance. I saw the cloud rotation and saw it drop out of the sky."

At this point in the afternoon, a trained spotter had visually confirmed a large tornado just southwest of Winterset. 

"I was expecting to see like, some little wispy thing and the thing was massive," said Wendy Burkett, who survived the tornado. "It just stopped you in your tracks. It only took a couple of seconds to realize that's not moving one way or the other. The roar was getting louder, that it was coming towards us." 

Survivors of the tornado can still remember the feeling of panic and anticipation. 

"That feeling of waiting and knowing that it's coming and it's going to hit us, it's the most frightening thing I've ever experienced, just not knowing what's going to happen, not knowing if our house is going to get sucked up off the foundation and blown away and if we're going to be able to live. Really, really scary," Jenn O'Neal said.

Don Houg compared the sound of the tornado to coming out of the car wash, when the air is hitting your car with the powerful blow dryers. 

"You felt your face being sandblasted," Theresa Houg added. 

As the tornado moved across town, residents waited in terror. 

"We heard our house getting ripped apart just over our heads," Burkett said. "It only took about 30 seconds. Lots of screaming and you can even hardly hear yourself scream because it was so loud." 

When the tornado passed, all that people could do was survey the wreckage. 

"Adam went up first, I think he was upstairs for about 10 minutes and he yelled down at us," Jenn O'Neal said. "'You know, Jenn, you need to come up and take a look at this.'" 

But when Adam and Jenn looked out their back door... "I saw it was gone," Jenn said. "Everything was gone." 

"I lost it a little bit," Jenn went on to say. "You know, I was trying to be brave for the kids but at that point, that's when I lost it a little bit." 

As more people emerged from their homes, they were shocked by the amount of debris around them. 

"We've had other storms... but nothing, nothing like that," Henry said.

Even as Madison County residents surveyed their surroundings, there was no time to linger on what had been lost. 

"Right about that time, the emergency room called and said, 'Hey, we're gonna need some help,'" said Dr. Joseph Kimball, doctor at Madison County Hospital.

The community's heroes sprang into action. 

"There was complete devastation, like a bomb went off," Ayala said. "There was just people everywhere, debris all over the road, trees all over." 

And as the calls began coming in, the reality of the situation came into focus. 

"The first phone call came in," said Brittany Garrison, a nurse at Madison County Hospital. "It was one of the first paramedics on scene to Carver Road. And when I answered the phone, I heard lots of sirens in the background. And he just shouted, 'This is bad. There are fatalities and you need to get help right away.' And then the phone call ended."

In the aftermath, lives changed forever.  

"At this time, we can confirm that we have six fatalities, including four adults and two children under the age of five," Ayala said at a press conference following the tornado.

After two decades of service at the Madison County Hospital, Kimball knew that this disaster was like none he'd handled before. 

"Without question, [it was] the worst," Kimball said. 

Emergency calls continued, and hospitals braced for the worst.

"When the casualties started coming in, and we were trying to identify them and having to have those difficult conversations with the family members, you know, you don't forget those things," Garrison said. 

Ayala remembered some of the things he saw as the people of Madison County faced their new reality.

"On one side of Carver Road, there's a house on the corner that was completely gone, [and] people that were running. There were some people bleeding. It was a lot of lot of stuff in the air, a lot of debris. I wound up crossing over to the other side of Carver Road, where we ran into our first fatality," he said. 

A 911 call from Don Houg, who lived on Carver Road, was one of many made that day. 

"[My name is] Don Houg ... A tornado just came through. I think my neighbors passed away. Their house is gone, my house is gone," Houg said.

As a dispatcher, Henry was on the receiving end of her community's cries for help. 

"When the deputies were going out and they were giving us the reports it was it was very overwhelming," Henry said. "I myself I have I've heard about the damage that was done on Carver Road. I've never went out there." 

For those on the ground, the heroes' work was just beginning.

"I remember specifically being in that house, doing what we were doing. And I looked over my shoulder. And I've gotten to know him pretty well. He's a volunteer firefighter from Earlham, which I think from here is like 13 or 14 miles away. So he's never paid. And now he's not even in his own town. He was here behind me inside this house. And that was that was powerful," said Ryne Little, Madison County deputy sheriff.

Little said it was inspiring to see everyone come together in an effort to help those in need.

"Pretty amazing to see people coming together who don't always interact with each other. But we had a mutual goal to achieve," he said. 

The medical community rose to the occasion just as readily.

"It seemed like about 3/4 of the hospital came in. People were called to come in, people came in on their own, people from the community came in," Kimball said. "There are some providers that weren't affiliated with hospital, they came in to help out." 

The night wore on, but restlessness took over. For many, Saturday's events left no room for peace of mind.

"I tried to go to sleep. I couldn't go to sleep. And I think I might've laid down for 10 minutes. And I kind of got back up and went out to Carver [Road]," Ayala said. "It was dark, it was quiet. There was no one around. And that's kind of when I realized that wasn't a dream, right? Because when you see stuff like that, you think it's a dream, or it can't be real."

Standing among the wreckage, the reality of the disaster was evident.

"But that's when it really sank in for me was that, when everyone was gone, and it was dark," Ayala said. "And you can kind of see the destruction, that really, that was something that I realized this was real."

Before the sun came up Sunday, recovery was already well underway.

"The day after the tornado, the first person showed up at 7 a.m.," Jenn O'Neal said.

The outpouring of aid across the affected area was incredible. 

"I went home on Sunday early to get some breakfast, take a shower and come back. It's probably 7 or 7:30 a.m.," Kimball said. "I was coming back in and I had to wait at my driveway because so many trucks and trailers and skid loaders and people are going towards town."

Gov. Kim Reynolds shared a message that Sunday about the people flocking to Madison County for relief efforts. 

"Over and over. The response was: 'We're Iowans. And that's what we do. We show up, we take care of our family, we take care of our neighbors and we take care of our community," Reynolds said.

That care was felt by many in the community.

"It was just amazing how many people came and showed up," Don Houg said.

At PepperHarrow Farm, the O'Neals were flooded with help.

"We ended up with 150 to 200 people out here on the farm" Jenn O'Neal said. 

Henry and other dispatchers were taking calls from far and wide, all looking to assist. 

"Oh, my gosh, I worked the next day. And we were getting calls from all over the United States. What do you need? Where can I help? We had people from other states bringing in chainsaws, big machinery, dump trucks and just they were coming from everywhere." Henry said.

People from every walk of life chipped in. 

"Whether you have a badge on or you have a fire truck or a police car, or you're just a everyday citizen helping out, everyone's got the same kind of hands," Little said.  "We can all work together to get the job done."

The turnaround following the storm didn't go unnoticed by those in the community.

"It's very inspiring. And you think about on Saturday, we had a tornado on Monday, we had a snowstorm, right? But people still stuck it out to volunteer." Ayala said. "About 1,000 volunteers I showed up in those first 120 days."

Since that fateful Saturday, slow but continual progress has been a constant on the horizon. 

"It doesn't seem like it's been just a year ago. But it's amazing what people have done, what people have gone through and what they're still going through," Kimball said.

Sometimes, it's the little things that bring back memories for the O'Neals.

"We still have a lot of work to do. We're still missing some of our farm infrastructure," Adam O'Neal said.

"It's not until you get to the thing you don't have, and you're like, 'Oh, we don't have this, we don't have that," Jenn O'Neal said.

 Survivor Wendy Burkett knows exactly what that feels like.

"I'll go and make a soup and realize that the stockpot's gone. And so then that you put that on the list," Burkett said. "That's another thing to order. There were lots of people that were in that same boat."

Burkett has had more luck dealing with insurance than some others in the community, but that doesn't mean she has it all figured out.

"The most challenging that we've had is really talking about the contents portion of our insurance policy," Burkett said. "What was in that room? And then you're having to look up, you know, what's the replacement costs for every single thing that is in your house. It is overwhelming, and time consuming."

Long after the devastation of the storm, frustration lingers.

"There's kind of a common theme of frustration, and it sometimes hinders that recovery process," Burkett said. "I've got another neighbor, and their insurance company wanted to prove, have them prove that they even owned it. Well, where's the receipts? Well, the receipts are in the timber."

The Hougs have also struggled with putting a number to their former lives.

"My only frustration with the insurance is all of the itemization of your contents. That's hard to come back with what you had where you bought it when you bought it, what you paid for it, what it's going to take to replace it," Theresa Houg said.

For some, the loss was felt in both personal and professional capacities. 

"Insurance doesn't cover, you know, both the cleanup effort and actually buying new trees." Jenn O'Neal said. 

"Thank God that people supported us and donated because we would not be where we are without people's help," Adam O'Neal added. 

And that is what it all comes back to. 

"My biggest takeaway from this was the community effort," Little said. "Very fortunate to work down here and live down in this community. We're Madison County strong here."

Every step of the way, members of the Madison County community have rallied and supported each other. 

Ayala shared his vision for the future with the public just 10 days after the tornado hit. 

"We're going to come back from this and we're going to be stronger together. We're a small community, but everyone's here to help each other out," he said on March 15, 2022. "It's one of the greatest things I've seen in my life."  

As part of the area's emergency management crew, Ayala wanted to see the community come back stronger than it was even before March 5, 2022. 

"And you know, for me, that's the drive is to continue to see that happen," Ayala said.

The O'Neals have seen firsthand what rebuilding looks like.

"It was a tragedy. But the way people came together was absolutely amazing," Adam O'Neal said. 

"People reaching out, [saying] 'How are you doing? I'm going to drop a meal off,' you know. That just that meant a lot," Burkett added. 

Though Madison County has made incredible leaps forward, there's still healing to do. 

"We're getting closer to being back to where we were, but we still have a long way to go," Ayala said.  

The Hougs had structural walls of their house blown down that day, but at least one cocktail glass survived. 

"I was having a mixed drink before the tornado as we were watching the weather and left it sitting on the table when we got the warning and afterwards that was found down the hallway still. I guess at least still not broken looks like there was stuff in it," Theresa Houg said.

Discoveries like that happen also happen at PepperHarrow Farm as construction continues even now.

"We still have nails coming out, we still need to finish the inside," Jenn O'Neal said. "But we're basically like one step at a time. The next thing that we'll do is we will insulate the inside and finish out the walls. But it'll be a while."

"Every speck of money that we have has just been poured back into this farm," Adam O'Neal added.

For Burkett, it was special to see people show up for her following the tragedy: "One of my coworkers, it was a fellow teacher that came by, and said, 'Hey, the school put together some gift cards and gave it to me, and I want to give it to you. And I it was the first day back, and I just broke down crying."

Humans weren't the only ones affected by the tornado that day. 

"Afterwards, I thought, 'Oh, gosh, our cats are gone.' And two days later, we were out there and we heard meowing, and they were out where the house was, and they were walking around," Burkett said.

The O'Neals had nine cats outside when the tornado approached. 

"And we had seven of those cats actually come back to the farm," Jenn O'Neal said. "The seventh cat came back a week after the tornado from the direction that the tornado had gone. So, we literally think that she had gotten carried away, potentially with the tornado, survived and came back. We don't know! The stories these animals could tell." 

"Each one that showed up, it just felt like like a success and a victory and a happiness, something that we could celebrate together as a family," she added. 

The Madison County family bonded together over tragedy. 

"It really made you feel good. There's a lot of really good people out there, and everyone really stepped up to help out," Kimball said. 

Little is proud to be a sheriff in such tight-knit area: "I'm really proud to be down in this community."

And he's not alone.

"Thank you so much to our family and our friends and the community and you guys and, you know, our builder and just everybody," Theresa Houg said. "People randomly still call and just say, 'Hey, how are you? How's it going? Just thinking about you.' So just a big thank you to everyone."

Now and forever, they are Madison County strong. 

"One thing that has stuck with us is that any sort of tragedy or event like this, people come together and are there for each other," Garrison said. "And it's just a reminder that maybe we could all do that every other day of the year, not just when something bad happens."