Neighbors, school district come together to clean up community after last week’s storms

By Kayla James

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    WHITE OAK, Iowa (KCCI) — People living in White Oak continue to clean up areas around their property following a tornado that came through the northern Polk County community last Tuesday.

According to the Elkhart Fire Department, about a dozen homes experienced moderate to severe damage. Elkhart’s fire chief also told KCCI that about 20 more homes had damage that is likely repairable in the near future. The fire department says there were two injuries from the tornado, but they were not life-threatening.

“I just remember being downstairs and hearing the downstairs sink,” said Sully Woosley, who lives in White Oak with his family. “It sounded like someone hit the garbage disposal, so we knew the tornado was coming.”

The 17-year-old told KCCI his ears were also popping, another sign of the tornado that came close to their home. Woosley says he and his family came upstairs from the basement two minutes after the tornado hit.

The house is mostly fine.

“There’s a couple windows broken on the other side, but really, that’s it,” Woosley said.

Their barn, which happened to be just feet away from their home, however, is destroyed. There were no livestock animals in the barn, but it did house a few things, like a basketball hoop Woosley used when it was too cold outside.

Woosley says a trailer they had was stripped down to the axles and was carried by the storm across the street until it wrapped around a tree.

Woosley believe cleanup would have been more difficult for people in the community, if not for the more than 300 students with the North Polk Community School District who came out to help last week following the tornado. According to Woosley, 5th graders and his brother’s baseball team came out to help.

The district’s communication director says more than 300 donations of food and water, plus more than $2,300 in gift cards from the community, were distributed to families.

“Once something like this happens, you really realize a lot of people are here for you,” said Woosley, who is grateful for his school district.

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