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A small Iowa town rebuilds 8 months after a deadly tornado

A wooden sign says, "Welcome to Minden, est. 1875. The main part is blue, with yellow lettering and a ridge of white trim. The sign is stick into white rocks and there is grass and trees in the background.
Sheila Brummer
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Iowa Public Radio
Minden was hit by a destructive EF4 tornado back in 1976. The twister in 2024 killed one person and injured a few others.

Progress is slow and steady after an EF3 twister struck Minden on April 26, 2024. Even with some concerns about insurance payouts, the mayor is optimistic about the future.

Colleen Haggerty considered her family lucky after a tornado hit her home in Minden.

“It was stormy. My daughter was here,” Haggerty said. “She was looking out the door and says, ‘It looks like the tornado is coming.' And she turned around and then looked back. I said, 'Oh, it's going the other way.' And then she turned back around and says, 'It's coming.' We ran around the corner there — and it hit.”

Fortunately, Haggerty, her daughter and two grandchildren endured the storm without physical injuries.

The front of a house that was hit by a tornado. The beige building is still standing, but missing a front deck and there is missing siding and a 2x4 sticking out. Several windows are broken too.
Colleen Haggerty
Storm damage at Colleen Haggerty's home near downtown Minden. Houses across the street were destroyed.

“The whole east wall, you could see daylight around the top and down the sides, the roof,” Haggerty said. “I lost my garage, my patio, shed and I had stuff come through the kitchen windows.”

Across the street, a different image played out.

"There's people that had it worse,” Haggerty said. “One, two, three houses right across the street, a couple more down. You can see where they're rebuilding. Those are all being replaced.

Picture of a blue water tower between trees without leaves. The water tower says "Minden" in black letters
Sheila Brummer
/
Iowa Public Radio
Minden is located about 25 miles northeast of Council Bluffs and the Omaha metro.

Mayor Kevin Zimmerman says the twister destroyed 50 homes and 90% of businesses. Getting back to normal is more of a marathon than a sprint.

“We're still working on rebuilding," he said. "Attitudes seem to be real high. There are a few that moved away, but a few that want to come back, so we'll just keep plugging away.”

A man wearing a vibrant blue shirt that says Zimmerman. He has a mustache and a little bit of thinning brownish hair, blue eyes and a friendly smile.
Western Iowa Development Association
Kevin Zimmerman is a lifelong resident, business owner and long-time mayor of Minden.

Progress continued as several construction crews could be seen in the community of 600 people in Pottawattamie County.

“The community is pulling together, and I just hope all the business losses and stuff doesn't ruin the town, you know?” Zimmerman added.

Zimmerman said the community sustained an estimated $12 million in damage. One of his top priorities is rebuilding the water treatment plant, which still needs $500,000 in funding. He hopes to start bidding for the project by next spring, with construction wrapped up by the summer of 2026.

The town also lost its community club, city park and baseball diamond. Zimmerman admitted that restoring everything back to normal could take a decade.

“We’re going to try and work on a lot less time than that, but it just takes time to fill out all the paperwork and keep the ball rolling,” Zimmerman said. “We’re going to come back stronger than ever.”

Zimmerman said some residents saw setbacks as they struggled with insurance claims, which delayed some rebuilding.

“The big thing is you have insurance; the house is gone," he said. "You have insurance for X amount of dollars. Why are we arguing about it? Just pay the damn money!”

Zimmerman personally took a hit from the storm. It destroyed nine of his 13 properties.

“I ordered everything within a few weeks of the storm, I didn't wait for insurance. A lot of people can't do that, you know,” he said. “I didn't get paid for probably three months, but I'd already spent $500,000 rebuilding. “There's still people waiting, still people working on it, still people working with SBA and FEMA.”

A home is to the right. To the left is a mess of wood and doors where a garage used to stand. Looks like construction work is being done.
Sheila Brummer
/
Iowa Public Radio
Colleen Haggerty's home was repaired and she moved back to town in October. Her garage still needs to be rebuilt.

A spokesperson with the Federal Emergency Management Agency said it has provided almost $150,000 in individual assistance in Minden and is working with the city on public assistance projects.

Colleen Haggerty returned to her home in Minden right before Halloween, after spending months living in Council Bluffs while she waited for repairs to her property.

“I just hope nobody ever has to go through that," she said. "My grandkids are still traumatized.”

Sheila Brummer is IPR's Western Iowa Reporter, with expertise in reporting on immigrant and indigenous communities, agriculture, the environment and weather in order to help Iowans better understand their communities and the state. She's covered flooding in western Iowa, immigrants and refugees settling in Iowa, and scientific partnerships monitoring wildlife populations, among many more stories, for IPR, NPR and other media organizations. Brummer is a graduate of Buena Vista University.