Wind damages Adam and Kim's

Adam and Kim Jerdee's home in West Des Moines was apparently hit by strong winds or a tornado over the weekend. They're fine, but we hope to hear from them when they get things straightened out. In the meantime, we got this email from Becky Rolfsrud Jerdee, Adam's mother. Dave and Amy Underwood are Adam's brother-in-law and sister, Hunter and Blake are his young nephews. We're hoping for the best outcome possible.

Becky writes: Adam and Kim suffered tornado activity this weekend... blackouts and fearsome winds... they were just plain scared. When we arrived at 1443 the next morning, their beautiful trees were in ruin and the workload looked insurmountable.
Adam was out buying a new chain for his chainsaw and asking for help. Indeed, there was tremendous damage but we all pitched in (Dave literally tore huge limbs out of the trees with his bare hands--not to mention biceps). Three hours later our labors resulted in a mountain of timber laid out on the curb, ready for the refuse guys to shred. The good news is that the winds had been high, clipping over the houses and ripping off the tops of trees and pulling up weaker limbs. Sort of a natural pruning...

Cute story: Before Adam's call for help, Amy had paid Blake and Hunter 50 cents each to clean up the twig litter the storm left in the Underwood yard. She offered them another 50 cents if they'd go over to Adam's and pick up his twigs. On arrival at 1443, the boys jumped out of the truck to check everything out.
They came running back to the truck where Amy was still sitting... "Mom," Blake said, "those are big twigs!!! This is bigger than 50 cents!!"
Those little guys worked like horses, dragging branches for three hours and loving every minute of it. MEN and TREES and three CHAINSAWS (we helped Anita and John, too)--pretty darn exciting stuff!
Kim gave Hunter and Blake $5 each.
Becky