'Where are my kids going to stay?': Storm damage leaves some Coralville families homeless
Unattea Wiseman was at work when she received a frightening text from her 17-year-old daughter, who was at home with her three siblings.
It felt like their apartment in Coralville was shaking, that something went right through their home, her daughter said.
Wiseman’s children were huddled in the bathroom when a tornado swept through Johnson County Friday evening and took the roof off their apartment building in Coralville. Much of the destruction stretched from Highway 6 to Boston Way before the storm made its way to Solon, according to Johnson County Emergency Management Coordinator Dave Wilson.
Wiseman, a preschool teacher at the Handicare child care center in Coralville, rushed home. Although she's spent all her life in the Midwest, until now, the closest encounter she’d had with a tornado was watching the 1996 movie “Twister.”
Wiseman's apartment has a few broken windows, but she and her family won’t be able to live at their home until the roof is fixed. And that’s causing a lot of worry for the single mother of four.
More: 9 possible tornadoes tallied in eastern Iowa Friday from 'strong and unusual storm system'
“Where are my kids going to stay?” Wiseman said. “What's going to happen? That landlord doesn’t know at this moment what they're going to do, and I'm terrified because I'm like, 'I have children.'”
She and her family planned to stay at a hotel Saturday evening. Beyond that, it’s hard to tell what’s next, she said, including possibly moving.
On Saturday, the destruction from Friday night's storms was especially evident in the neighborhoods near the intersection of 23rd Avenue and Ninth Street in Coralville. Insulation covered lawns like snow. Metal, shingles, siding and broken tree branches lined sidewalks as community volunteers spent the morning trying to remove debris. They included Iowa City Community School District board member J.P Claussen and Coralville Mayor Meghann Foster.
“We have a lot of people that want to step up and help,” Foster said.
One of the nearly destroyed buildings off Ninth Street was the apartment that Angla and Robert Manning called home. But their losses are far less than what could have been.
Normally, Angla would have been home with her granddaughter at the time the storm struck. Instead, she’d had to drop her husband off at work and then stop at Walmart, where she sheltered in place.
“These are unexpected things,” she said. “Not only that, this is life. Whatever you go through, it's going to make you weaker or it’s going to make you stronger. That's the main thing.”
Updates: Tornadoes wreak extensive damage in eastern Iowa; disaster proclamation issued for 12 counties
Eight Johnson County residents spent Friday night at the Coralville Recreation Center. They included Mamie Kahulumbanda, who sat at a table to eat breakfast with her son, two daughters, husband and younger brother.
The Coralville Rec Center was quiet, save for the hum of a TV in the corner of the room and conversations between Red Cross volunteers.
The Kahulumbandas have lived in Coralville for seven years. Mamie Kahulumbanda had seen tornados whip across the land on television shows, but this tornado wasn’t behind the screen. It destroyed their Coralville home.
The family is traumatized, daughter Precieuse, 13, said.
She and her brother, 15-year-old Madry, spoke on behalf of their mother, father and uncle, who are from the Congo and spoke in French.
“We hope that it never happens again,” Precieuse said.
They have nothing except for their car, she said. But all the things they lost can be replaced, Madry said.
“We want to thank God for keeping us safe,” he said.
Paris Barraza covers entertainment, lifestyle and arts at the Iowa City Press-Citizen. Reach her at PBarraza@press-citizen.com or 319-519-9731. Follow her on Twitter @ParisBarraza.
This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: 'Where are my kids going to stay?': Storms damage eastern Iowa homes
