Tornado sirens did not sound in Creston before Saturday’s twister struck, which injured a half-dozen people and caused heavy damage in the southwest Iowa community. Union County Emergency Manager JoAnn Duckworth says she’d been watching the storm develop on radar and had seen nothing particularly threatening for her area until the EF-2 tornado dropped from the sky.

Car flipped onto its roof in the Creston hospital parking lot (B. Lewis)

Creston tornado damage (Courtesy Brandon Lewis)

“In just a few seconds, the whole situation changed,” Duckworth says. “We weren’t able to get out to sound the sirens, there just was not time. When the storm was coming through, nobody would have heard them.” Strong winds came ahead of the storm, knocking out power and knocking radio stations off the air — so no warnings came on the radio either. Cell phones were also knocked out. Duckworth says residents had been told to be on the lookout for severe weather.

“We knew this system was coming in, we’d been planning on it for 48 hours and we tried to urge people to please be aware and to have those emergency plans in place,” she says. Unfortunately, all the preparing in the world can’t stop the actual storm from coming.”

Structure wiped off its foundation in Creston (Brandon Lewis photo)

Damage in Creston is widespread, including to the town’s only hospital and to Southwestern Community College. Six people were injured in Creston, one critically. The town of Thurman was also slammed by a tornado the same day, causing wide damage to dozens of homes.

(Brandon Lewis/Radio Iowa, Creston)

Officials with the American Red Cross and the Southern Iowa Regional Housing Authority (SIRHA), are asking landlords in Adair and Guthrie Counties to call SIRHA if you have any housing vacancies. Residences are needed for persons in the Creston area who were displaced by Saturday’s tornado.

SIRHA is working to get families placed in homes as quickly as possible. Only landlords are asked to call if you have properties available. Please call Brenda at SIRHA, 641-782-8585, ext. 10.

Members of the CAM Community School District’s Board of Education will meet this evening, in Anita. During their 7-p.m. session, the Board will act on: Open enrollment applications; Approving the 2012-2013 Master Contract; Resignations and Contracts; the 2012-2013 School Calendar; and matters pertaining to Conference affiliation.

The meeting takes place in the Media Center at the CAM High School.

The Griswold Community School District’s Board of Education is expected to act on passing a resolution during their meeting this evening, pertaining to Redistricting on Director Districts, District Maps and the Method of Election. The discussion leading up to tonight’s vote was made necessary following the results of the 2010 census.

If the Board votes to re-district, there would be four geographical districts and three board members elected At-Large, instead of the current seven different districts and one person from each district on the board.  In other business, the Griswold School Board will act on executing a service agreement with Piper Jaffrey, and set May 1st as the sale date for Public Bonds. The bonds would allow the district to borrow against the penny sales tax revenue into the future, on approximately $2.2-million, so that the money is available for current and future projects.

The Board will also act on approving the list of 2012 graduates, garage door bids, and the setting of bid specifications for buses. The meeting begins at 5:30-p.m. in the Central Office Board Room at the Middle School/High School Building.