To The Rescue

This has been a very volatile spring with lots of rain and severe weather.  My daughter, who lives in Iowa,  reports that there have been several tornadoes and lots of storms in her area too.  She has discovered that in the plains states you take weather warnings very seriously.  There is something about the fact that there aren't any mountains to slow the winds down that makes their area truly part of "tornado alley".  While we may sleep through a storm or two they are often up all night checking the weather minute-minute on the computer. 

Last week they had one of these storms come through.  However since they had only been back in their home after their remodeling for a couple of days, their computer wasn't hooked back up yet.  Taking no chances, they bundled the girls into the basement and settled down to spend the night checking the weather on their phones and camping on the couch.  At one point they heard a noise upstairs. When her husband went up to look,  he discovered the wind had blown open the garage door, the dog had come in and was so scared she had crawled to the back of their closet to hide. Soon the dog joined the girls in their basement camp out.  Early the next morning, the girls and dog woke their bleary eyed parents from their fitful doze in the chairs.

Daddy immediately jumped up and decided he would go out and check to see what damage had been done.  In just a few minutes he called the house to tell my daughter to grab his chainsaw and hurry to the farm in the "curve".  (When you live in Iowa, a road with a curve in it becomes a major landmark!)  She grabbed a movie for the children, a sack of doughnuts and hustled the girls into the car.  Grabbing the chainsaw from the barn she took off.  By the time she arrived at the "curve" there were already several pickup trucks that had answered the call for help.  All were getting out their chainsaws and beginning to start them up. 

The "curve" farm was where they had a field for the last few pregnant cows to pasture.  In the field was an old barn that had seen better times.  For some time they had talked about the need to go on and tear it down.  Well, they didn't have to worry about that any more, since the barn was flat on the ground.  The problem was all the cows had taken refuge from the storm inside.  So they now had a pile of broken lumber with eight pregnant cows underneath.  The men circled the rubble with anxious faces, hoping for signs of life but fearing the worst.  Then they nodded, started their chainsaws and approached the mess.  They attacked that pile of wood like a swarm of termites.  Soon chunks of timbers were being cut free and thrown out of the way.

The first cow they reached was pinned to the ground with rubble over her legs.  She was moaning and wild eyed but they didn't see any major injuries.  So they started working on setting her free.  Within minutes they had her uncovered and she was trying to sit up.  Then with a lurch she staggered to her feet and was clear.  With a nod of satisfaction they moved on to the next animal.  Cow by cow they worked to free them from the wreckage of the barn.  Miraculously, each time the cows would stagger to their feet and with a little assistance would move out of the area. At one point a little shout of surprise alerted everyone.  One of the chainsaw wielding farmers turned with his arms laden not with his saw but a new born baby.  One of the cows had decided to deliver during the storm and the little one was alive and well.

 Finally they were down to the last cow.  She was flat out under the ridgepole of the barn.  She hadn't been moving and they had little hope that she had survived, but they determinedly began to cut her free.  When the last piece was removed they stepped back and surveyed the situation.  To their surprise, she lifted her head and looked back at them.  After a few minutes she tucked her legs up and tried to roll into a sitting position.  The men rushed to help her.  Soon she was sitting up and checking out all the mess with a look of mild surprise.  With a heave, she pulled herself up into a standing position and took a step forward.  Step by step she walked out of the remains of the barn to the cheers and encouragement of her rescuers.

Unbelievably all eight cows and the new baby had survived with no major injuries.  Cut, scratched, stiff and sore, but alive.   With a few handshakes and shoulder pats the friends left to go back home or to help others. All had left their own farms, chores and clean-up to rush to the aid of a neighbor in need  As one man laughed when he left, "Now, I guess I can't put off  tackling that tree that fell on my mother-in-law's house any longer".