Marshalltown

Northside Hawk said:
We are absolutely talking about the same storm. September 28, 1972. It was one of the first times I remember a weather bulletin interrupting TV programming. Legendary WMT meteorologist Conrad Johnson, with that deep baritone of his, cut into the equally legendary Max Hahn and his "Dr. Max" after school children's show. Before we knew it the sirens were going off all over Dubuque and you could hear tree branches snapping.

The trailer park you mentioned and the Supre 20 Drive Inn movie theater were severely damaged, for the second time in two years. The original Super 20, located near the present day Shopko store, was destroyed in 1970 and moved to a new location only to get hit again.

The tornado path accompanying your post was very long and wide for an Eastern Iowa tornado. It damaged or destroyed a lot of agricultural interests. Trees were down all over Dubuque, but there was no tornadic activity in the city proper and the path of the storm shown in your post verifies this. However, it was a very near miss, it did hit the outlying south and west parts of the metro area where you would have lived, and what difference does the nature of the winds make when they approach 100 miles an hour. Tornadic or not they will create a lot of damage.
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The only reason I say it definitely was a tornado is that several people in the park actually saw it coming (including the first-class father and husband who abandoned his family to run outside and jump in a ditch...). That's also consistent with the sporadic nature of the damage. Three trailers were destroyed, but trailers right next to them were undamaged (including ours which wasn't even tied down yet after just moving in). I ended up on the local news standing next to one that was destroyed when a news crew came out to film that evening.

Dr. Max? Wow, that brings back some memories. Like many Iowa kids, my routine was to get home from school and watch the "magic board" on Dr. Max. I even met Dr. Max and Mombo at an event one time when I was about 6 or so. I still recall an episode where Mombo all of a sudden was on his own and he explained that Dr. Max wasn't feeling well. It turned out later that Max showed up drunk to the set.
 
#1DieHardHawk said:
The only reason I say it definitely was a tornado is that several people in the park actually saw it coming (including the first-class father and husband who abandoned his family to run outside and jump in a ditch...). That's also consistent with the sporadic nature of the damage. Three trailers were destroyed, but trailers right next to them were undamaged (including ours which wasn't even tied down yet after just moving in). I ended up on the local news standing next to one that was destroyed when a news crew came out to film that evening.

Dr. Max? Wow, that brings back some memories. Like many Iowa kids, my routine was to get home from school and watch the "magic board" on Dr. Max. I even met Dr. Max and Mombo at an event one time when I was about 6 or so. I still recall an episode where Mombo all of a sudden was on his own and he explained that Dr. Max wasn't feeling well. It turned out later that Max showed up drunk to the set.
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Wasn't Max Hahn a real estate agent or something like that?

I worked for OnMedia Advertising from 1991-2002. Around 1995 or so Mombo was a guest for our own children's show that we produced for Public Access TV. He was in his eighties at the time, very nice man and unbelievable stories about the glory years of after school children's TV.

I remember a Friday episode where a frustrated Mombo couldn't get a magic trick to work. They opened the following Monday's show with Mombo still in the studio, making it look like he spent the entire weekend struggling with that magic trick.

I have no doubt that the tornado hit your trailer park. The path verifies that. That same tornado would take out many homes and businesses on the south edge of Dubuque if it were to travel the same path today.
 
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One more follow up on Dubuque tornadoes.

In the late 1970's the Dubuque County fair was trying to book an attraction, might have been Pure Prairie League but that's a wild guess. They declined because they were concerned about recent tornadic activity near the fairgrounds, which was hit or near missed in 1970, 1972, and twice in 1974. While there are valid concerns about severe weather in the summer months, which has been borne out with the stage and scaffolding collapses in recent years, odds would have been pretty good about their concert going off without a weather hitch. The Statler Brothers, for one, played that fair at least five times.

If it was PPL, the story takes an even more ironic twist. They were scheduled to take the stage at 9:30 for Dubuque's America's River festival three or four years ago and high winds cancelled the performance. They finally played the next year. That same festival was threatened by lightning this year and Night Ranger, Steppenwolf, and Pat Benatar all had shortened sets.

EDIT: It wasn't Pure Prairie League. It was the similar sounding Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.
 
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thedukeofearl said:
Northside, you are an absolute wealth of information.....

Good work.....

:cool:
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Its easy when you can Google things.

I've always like to read however. And I love history, which I believe is becoming a lost art. And my roots are in journalism and broadcasting. When I post I always try to give a good sense of time and place the way many of my favorite authors, writers, and musicians do.

I'm sure I'm off base occasionally. My memory isn't that good. Posters on these boards have caught me with my undies in a bundle more than once.
 
^ History a lost art you say? Some of the bipeds around you can't even find their own country on a map. Their sail foam tells them where to go. Anything beyond that is unnecessary information which would take up very limited space in their brains.

 
MoseSchrute said:
Yah big wuss. A true Iowan goes outside and watches the sky to see what is going on when the clouds are green and black. Last year, I watched a tornado travel at least 20 miles along and parallel to the road I live on, and fortunately pass by the house a little to the north. You can duck into the cellar at the last moment if you really need to.

JK a little bit of course, but I do like to watch storms if I can. The farmstead I speak of was actually wiped out by a huge tornado 54 years go.
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I used to like going out during storms. Then, during Hurricane Irma, a radio tower toppled over about 10 feet from my car at my office just before I was going to try driving home. Glad I stayed inside for THAT one!
 
okeefe4prez said:
Absolutely senseless. No reason to go out there. The captain and other representatives of the company who allowed that need to be charged with manslaughter.
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The driver of the duck boat is dead. He drowned. I feel bad for his family just as much as anyone else.
 
hawkeyebob62 said:
I used to like going out during storms. Then, during Hurricane Irma, a radio tower toppled over about 10 feet from my car at my office just before I was going to try driving home. Glad I stayed inside for THAT one!
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Hurricanes are a different beast. You are typically dealing with a ten to twenty foot storm surge with those. If there's only one way out and it gets washed out by flooding or blocked by falling debris one could be in serious trouble.
 
Northside Hawk said:
Hurricanes are a different beast. You are typically dealing with a ten to twenty foot storm surge with those. If there's only one way out and it gets washed out by flooding or blocked by falling debris one could be in serious trouble.
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We're inland enough that surge isn't the issue, just high winds and possible flooding (usually not flash flooding). Tornadoes can come out of nowhere. At least with 'canes we have days to prepare.

Not sure why in hell I thought it would be safe to drive during the early height of the storm!
 
Ozhawk said:
The driver of the duck boat is dead. He drowned. I feel bad for his family just as much as anyone else.
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I suppose now you’re going to bitch about the Hawkeye FB players not going down there and helping out somehow, while you’re sitting on your couch eating Cheetos and watching the Flintstones.
 
I was born/raised/graduated in Marshalltown and my parents still live there. Luckily everyone is alright. My Facebook feed has just been nonstop videos of the tornado and the aftermath. Its been pretty crazy.

That tornado will have more of an impact on that town than I think most people realize. Lennox, one of the main employers in Marshalltown, had their factory wrecked badly and are currently closed down. They said that they would still pay employees thru the end of the month, but they haven't released anything else yet. Its been rumored for awhile that Lennox wanted out of Marshalltown and this gives them the perfect out...collect the insurance money and rebuild elsewhere. If that happened you'd be looking at 1,500 less jobs. I don't think it would cripple Marshalltown quite like Maytag leaving did to Newton, but it would still be devastating.
 
mopkins said:
I was born/raised/graduated in Marshalltown and my parents still live there. Luckily everyone is alright. My Facebook feed has just been nonstop videos of the tornado and the aftermath. Its been pretty crazy.

That tornado will have more of an impact on that town than I think most people realize. Lennox, one of the main employers in Marshalltown, had their factory wrecked badly and are currently closed down. They said that they would still pay employees thru the end of the month, but they haven't released anything else yet. Its been rumored for awhile that Lennox wanted out of Marshalltown and this gives them the perfect out...collect the insurance money and rebuild elsewhere. If that happened you'd be looking at 1,500 less jobs. I don't think it would cripple Marshalltown quite like Maytag leaving did to Newton, but it would still be devastating.
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Let's hope they rebuild in Marshalltown. That would be devastating to a lot of people. 1500 Wow!
 
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