NEOLA, Iowa (KMTV) — It's the end of the school year for the Tri-Center students and teachers who went through the Miden tornado. Many will spend the summer living with relatives or in rental homes. The school community has worked together, including the superintendent who drives from Minden to Carter Lake to pick up students who were displaced by the storm.
- "Well, I'm most happy about moving into a house because I don't want to live in a hotel anymore," said 4th-grader, Easton Haggerty.
- "Being with the kids has actually been a very positive thing for me. I'm a little nervous next week, you know," said social studies teacher, Gene Johnson.
- "I'm really grateful that everybody came together and helped everybody through this," 11th-grader, Lauren Arnold said.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
It looks like a typical end-of-the-year here at Tri-Center Community Schools and in a lot of ways it is, but there's more going on under the surface.
I'm your southwest Iowa neighborhood reporter, Katrina Markel, and I'm here because this is where a lot of the kids who were displaced by the Minden tornado go to school.
Sno-Cones and pizza were on the menu for the last day at Tri-Center. But, for the students and staff who went through the Minden tornado, it's going to be a different summer.
I sat down with faculty and students to check-in, four weeks after the storm.
Ten-year-old Easton Haggerty loves baseball but the Minden ballfields are gone.
Katrina Markel: "What are your plans this summer?"
Easton Haggerty: "Moving into a new house, going to the Creighton Blue Jays baseball game, playing with friends. Well, I'm most happy about moving into a house because I don't want to live in a hotel anymore."
Michelle Huber, the school counselor, and Gene Johnson, the social studies teacher also lost homes.
"I feel like our kids are super resilient and probably handle it most days better than I do," said Huber.
"Being with the kids has actually been a very positive thing for me. I'm a little nervous next week, you know," Johnson said.
Superintendent Angela Huseman says now is when it gets harder.
"We're looking at, every time you go into Minden you see all the houses with tarps on the roofs, and you see trees that have no leaves and ... now you're looking at the long haul," said Huseman.
And speaking of long hauls, she’s been driving to Carter Lake – approximately 40 miles – to pick up Easton and his brother for school.
“We’re one big family.”
It's stressful for the kids, too.
"I've lived in Minden my whole entire life, so everything that's been there, it's all just destroyed," said Quincey Schneckloth, an 11th-grader.
"It's just kind of like, guilt that some of your friends don’t have, like, aren’t living there anymore, but your house was still okay," Candace Carlson, an 11th-grader, said.
But this day, the pain is put aside, and this community can smile before they get back to work.
"I'm really grateful that everybody came together and helped everybody through this," 11th-grader, Lauren Arnold said.
At Tri-Center Jr-Sr. High outside Neola, I'm your Southwest Iowa neighborhood reporter, Katrina Markel
