A Belmond man is helping his daughter clean up after her house was damaged by the tornado that ripped through Mapleton on Saturday night. Ken Robbins’ daughter Natalie is an art teacher at the high school in Mapleton and was on her way home from Sioux City when the twister hit the town. The tornado caused a tree to fall onto her home, causing some water damage.

Ken Robbins says the streets are clear now, but parts of the downtown and the southwestern side of the community suffered the most damage. He says he saw a lot of broken windows downtown, with the largest damage to a hardware store and a car dealership. A golf course on the southwest edge of the community also suffered damage with most of the trees on the course being brought down.

Robbins says one of the things that didn’t get hit was the community’s grocery store, which he says is a big help in getting people to move forward with the clean-up effort. He says the one big grocery store in Mapleton didn’t get hit, and the store had a back-up generator which allowed them to stay open since electricity won’t be available to the parts of town hit by the tornado.

Robbins is no stranger to tornadoes, as he experienced a tornado that went through Belmond in 1966.

By Bob Fisher, KRIB, Mason City