PLEASANT HILL, Iowa — The community is stepping up to help each other out in the aftermath of Friday night’s tornadoes.
It's a giving spirit the Local 5 news crew is thankful for, as we're not sure how we would've gotten through Friday night's storms without it. We owe a big thank you to the people who gave us shelter and a ride during a moment of crisis.
It’s safe to say that Friday night was chaotic for pretty much everyone in the Pleasant Hill area, including the news crews.
Because of all the power outages, the drive to Pleasant Hill was dark. Once Local 5 got there, due to roads being blocked off, our crew was on foot for the most part, cutting through woods and fields, careful to avoid downed power lines.
We saw trees snapped in half, branches strewn across roads and driveways, and chairs that looked like they had been flung from people’s yards.
Once it got to 11 p.m., we pretty much thought our night was over: we'd just finished our live shot and gotten a lot of footage. We were getting a couple more shots and were talking to locals who'd been impacted when the tornado sirens started going off.
At that moment, we were at least a 10-minute walk from the news car and cops were telling everyone to take shelter. Our crew didn't know what to do so we did what everyone else outside was doing. We started running.
The siren seemed to get louder and louder. We were scared for our lives. Reina, who you usually see covering sports as our sports director, called our news director and I frantically asked the people in front of us to let us take shelter at their house.
As it turns out, they were far from home too.
We then continued towards the school in hopes of it being open.
We were ready to start knocking on people’s doors when we found a family that let us stay in their basement. Their house served as a safe space for friends, family, and the Local 5 news crew.
They had had quite a day too.
“Our youngest though and our oldest she was like 'I feel like I’m going to pass out like what just happened?' You could tell her anxiety was through the roof. He cried so hard he got sick," Samantha Schminkey said, motioning towards the child in her arms.
Once it was safe to leave the house, Reina and I thought our night was over. Turns out, finding the car was the next part of our journey.
With a malfunctioning GPS, a camera light, no streetlights and several close calls with downed power lines, we knew we had to ask for help.
Thankfully, a police officer was willing to pack us up in his backseat and drive us to our car. After a long night, it looked like we were going to make it back to the station after all.
A huge thank you to the family that took us in and the police officer that helped us on our way back.