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One year after tornado, rebuilding continues at fairgrounds

2020 Floyd County Fair expected to go on as scheduled

  • The Floyd County Fairgrounds lost five buildings last Memorial Day when a tornado ripped through the area. Today, three structures are back up and running, which house livestock, the Little Hands Farm Exhibit and a picnic shelter area. The goal is to have the brick food stand building up by 2021. (Press photo James Grob.)

  • The Floyd County Fairgrounds lost five buildings last Memorial Day when a tornado ripped through the area. Today, three structures are back up and running, which house livestock, the Little Hands Farm Exhibit and a picnic shelter area. The goal is to have the brick food stand building up by 2021. (Press photo James Grob.)

  • A tornado caused heavy damage to several buildings at the Floyd County Fairgrounds on Memorial Day 2019. (Press photo James Grob.)

  • A tornado caused heavy damage to several buildings at the Floyd County Fairgrounds on Memorial Day 2019. (Press photo James Grob.)

  • A tornado caused heavy damage to several buildings at the Floyd County Fairgrounds on Memorial Day 2019. (Press photo James Grob.)

  • An EF-1 rated tornado with 110 mph peak winds blew through the Floyd County Fairgrounds at 12:22 p.m. on Memorial Day 2019, destroying five buildings at the site and leaving massive amounts of rubble to clean up. (Press photo James Grob.)

  • A tornado caused extensive damage to buildings at Floyd County Ag Center, just across the highway from the fairgrounds on Memorial Day 2019. (Press photo James Grob.)

  • Members of the Christian Disaster Relief group help clean up and burn trees and structures on Tuesday that were damaged by a tornado that went through the area of 195th Street and Wandering Acres Drive northwest of Charles City on Monday. Press photo by Bob Steenson

  • The back wall of the kitchen, most of the roof and the garage were ripped off the Doug and Lorrraine Hoeft home by a tornado on Memorial Day 2019. Press photo by Bob Steenson

  • An EF-1 rated tornado with 110 mph peak winds blew through the Floyd County Fairgrounds at 12:22 p.m. on Memorial Day 2019, destroying five buildings at the site and leaving massive amounts of rubble to clean up. (Press photo James Grob.)

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

This year it’s COVID-19 restrictions. Last year, it was a tornado.

“One year, we’re going to have a fair that’s back to normal,” said Floyd County Fair Board President Amy Staudt.

Staudt was actually working at the fairgrounds one year ago around noon on Memorial Day, when an EF-1 tornado smashed through the Floyd County Fairgrounds, taking down several buildings and damaging others.

“The devastation was unreal,” Staudt said.

Staudt told the Press a year ago that she was at the Youth Enrichment Center at the fairgrounds, cleaning up and checking in after a rental, when she heard loud noises coming through.

“I popped my head out and glass started shattering, so I went into an interior room, waited for the noise to subside, and when I came back out we had destruction with a lot of buildings that weren’t there anymore,” she said.

In addition to the extensive damage at the fairgrounds, eleven properties in the 155th Street area in the northeast part of the county reported damage, and four homes needed to be completely rebuilt. Property and homes along 195th Street and Wandering Acres Drive northwest of Charles City were also affected.

The National Weather Service confirmed that an EF-1 rated tornado with 110 mph peak winds had blown through the area beginning at 12:22 p.m., traveling a path about 9 miles long and 60 yards wide, beginning west-southwest of the Floyd County Fairgrounds and ending north of Charles City.

The cleanup and rebuilding began almost immediately, and through hard work and determination, the fairgrounds was able to host a fair last July. Rebuilding has continued since that time.

“We lost five buildings in total,” Staudt said Monday. “We have three structures back up and running, which house all our livestock, our Little Hands Farm Exhibit and a picnic shelter area. Our goal is to have the brick food stand building up by 2021.”

Staudt said that even with COVID-19 restrictions, there will be a Floyd County Fair again this July. The fair is currently scheduled to run July 15-19.

“We are planning to have the fair as normal,” Staudt said. “Obviously, we have to wait to see the what the restrictions are, so there may be a change to what our fair looks like.”

She said the fair board was working on different ideas, as to how it can change things if not allowed to have the fair at full capacity.

“We’ll work with our public health and emergency management,” Staudt said. “We will make sure we follow the protocols and restrictions, whatever they may be.”

Staudt said she really couldn’t estimate the cost of the devastation from the tornado in dollars yet. She said the lost buildings were insured up to replacement value, and some of them hadn’t been updated in years.

“The dollar amount on those hasn’t come to completion,” she said. “We had good insurance coverage, and we’re still working on the total funding numbers.”

She said she was thrilled by local volunteers who have helped through the cleanup and rebuilding process.

“It was great to see the community pour out their time and effort, and dollars as well,” Staudt said. “We had a lot of people donate to help cover what insurance didn’t cover.”

Staudt said that she still has people asking her how they can help with the rebuilding process, and it should be another year until the fairgrounds have everything back from the loss.

The Charles City tornado was one of several reported in the northeast Iowa on Memorial Day a year ago. The National Weather Service confirmed a tornado near Elma and another near Lime Springs on the same day. Officials said the Lime Springs twister caused home and tree damage.

That same day in southeast Iowa, an emergency manager in Houghton reported a tornado destroyed two barns. In Cantril, a trained spotter said a tornado damaged two houses. Another trained spotter reported a tornado in eastern Des Moines County.

“Last year we had the tornado, and this year we have the COVID,” Staudt said. “It’s just another hiccup in our road.”

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