April 11--The people of Fairdale returned to what's left of home Saturday morning for the first time since Thursday's devastating tornado.
Stepping down from the buses that brought them back, they walked slowly down Main Street, clutching each other, looking out on the mounds of debris that used to be their homes.
At about 7 a.m., the town was silent save for the whine of a wood chipper and the honking of geese flying by. Carefully, the residents began to pick through the piles, searching for lost pets, valuables, important legal documents and items of more sentimental value.
For many of them, it was hard to recognize the town of their childhood memories.
"I could tell you the whole history of this town, but I don't have time today," said Kevin Johnson, 61. "A lot of memories."
Kevin and his wife, Deb Johnson, dug through the wreckage of their apartment searching for Deb's purse and the urn carrying her brother's ashes. Some 40 years ago, they had been married in the building when it was a social club, before it was rebuilt as a four-unit apartment building.
Kevin Johnson, a 64-year-old truck driver for Nestle, rushed home from work after hearing of the tornado. Deb and their 2-year-old granddaughter had been huddled in the basement.
The streets were impassable Thursday night, he said, but when he eventually made it home at around 7:15 p.m., he saw his wife and granddaughter emerge from a police car.
"It was the happiest day of my life," Johnson said. "You don't know how fortunate you are until you see them come out of that car."
Johnson's grandparents had built his mother's house, located just down the street and untouched by the tornado. He went to school at the former elementary school in town and recalled trick-or-treating in the streets as a child.
Now, he's close to retirement and pondering moving to the South.
Nearby, Charlene Roach, 82, stood on the front steps of the house that her husband, Ray, had built in 1960. Ray, a farmer and, in younger years, a firefighter, had dug out the basement and outfitted the house with plumbing and electricity, she said.
"He did everything but the plastering," Roach said.
The house could be a loss. Though still standing, the roof was severely damaged and remained under the weight of several fallen trees.
"My front room looks fine. I thought we could fix it," she said. "But I don't think so."
Charlene had not been home during the tornado; she was at bingo. Ray was home, unharmed but unable to get out of the house, according to their son, Ron Roach.
His parents have another house in Wisconsin, but the loss of their Fairdale home is traumatizing for the whole family, Ron Roach said.
"This is their whole life," said Ron Roach, 61. "It's just heartbreaking how 30 seconds or a minute can impact a whole town."
He pointed to an old cottonwood tree that used to be the most stately tree on the block, now snapped in half. Most of the trees in the neighborhood were damaged, if not completely uprooted.
"The trees are what you lose," Roach said. "You watch it on TV, but it's different when you have a connection to it."
