Lacie Smith, her husband, Antonio Banderas Jr. and their children are doing what many north Marshalltown families are doing: adapting to damage done by the tornado three months ago.

“We don’t want to move to a different location. We would like to rebuild where we are at,” Smith said. She said the tornado destroyed most of their 309 Bromley Street home, ripping off the second story and flinging it across the street.

When insurance officials shared the amount of money the family would get to rebuild, Smith said a dispute arose between the resident family members and a family member who holds the house’s title.

The dispute arose when the house owner wanted to use the insurance money for purposes other than rebuilding the family’s house, Smith said. She said she and her husband had been paying for homeowner’s insurance and the mortgage while they lived in the house.

T-R PHOTO BY ADAM SODDERS - Lacie Smith and her daughter Ireland Banderas take in the remains of their home.

“It’s like we have no say,” Smith said. She said it felt like “getting kicked in the teeth when you’re down.”

Smith said the situation soured even more when the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced there would be no individual assistance funds for Marshalltown tornado victims.

“It would definitely have helped us, at least on the down payment on the loan to help us rebuild our house,” Smith said. “I told my family ‘Why do we even have FEMA if they’re not going to help people?'”

She said her family has received some help from Mid-Iowa Community Action, but said they still don’t have enough to move forward and rebuild. For now, at least, Smith said she and her family have a place to stay thanks to friends letting them rent a house.

“It’s just so unfamiliar to me and my family, we just want to go back home,” she said.

T-R PHOTO BY ADAM SODDERS - The lower level of the Bromley Street home sits exposed after the tornado and demolition took place.

The sting of the damage to the house was made worse by the fact that Smith and her husband had invested time and money into home improvements just a month before the storm.

“We’re not a high-income family, so when we get stuff, we work hard for that,” she said.

The family’s children have lost more than just their home. Favorite toys, trinkets and keepsakes were also lost in the storm.

Smith’s oldest son, Antonio Banderas III, is a collector. One of his proudest collections included all of the quarters with U.S. state symbols etched onto them – those coins now look to be lost forever.

One small memento that survived the storm was the first page of a baby book that belonged to Antonio III. His baby picture went missing, but the dates and signatures remain on the front page of the book, the only page recovered from the storm.

T-R PHOTO BY ADAM SODDERS - Antonio Banderas III holds one of the few mementos the tornado left behind, the first page of his baby book.

Smith said a family friend found the tattered book page near the Lennox Industries plant, several blocks from the Smith-Banderas house.

As the family deals with the reality of the tornado’s aftermath, the memories from the afternoon of the destruction still linger.

Smith, her daughter Karina Garcia and son Jacoby Banderas were lucky to make it through July 19 alive.

Garcia was at home with 4-year-old Jacoby when her phone and the tornado sirens sounded several times. They rushed to the basement, only to re-emerge when Smith got home from her job at Walmart. Just before the tornado hit, the three got in a their car to head to a friend’s house.

“The second street past Rogers, that’s when it really hit; we started seeing trees fall, limbs, everything is falling,” Smith said. “We were right in it.”

T-R PHOTO BY ADAM SODDERS - The majority of the Smith-Banderas family sits on the steps of their destroyed home. Top row: Antonio Banderas III, Karina Garcia, Lacie Smith. Middle row: Ireland Banderas, Yessenia Banderas. Bottom: Jacoby Banderas.

She said she remembered thinking this would be the end. She pulled the car over, at one point feeling it lift a little off the ground.

Smith, Karina and Jacoby got out of the car and raced toward the nearest house, and were slapped by debris along the way. After yelling for help and banging on the door, Smith found a side door and broke it in.

“Luckily, it went straight to their basement,” Smith said.

The three took cover until the storm passed and immediately reported their desperate action to the police. Smith said she later called the homeowner as well.

When they emerged from the basement, a different Marshalltown greeted them.

T-R PHOTO BY ADAM SODDERS - Ireland Banderas unchains her bike, one of many keepsakes she found while looking through the rubble of her house.

“We didn’t realize it was a tornado, we thought it was just a wind storm or something,” Smith said.

Then she got a call that sent ice through her veins. A friend said that she had driven by the family’s house and saw extensive damage.

With trees blocking all the roadways around them, the family walked several blocks back to their house. When they were about to round the corner of North Third Avenue and Bromley Street, Smith said what she saw caused her to panic.

“Right when we came up to Casey’s, we saw it was destroyed, and the house across from there with three stories was now two stories,” she said.

Smith said her house was just out of sight from the corner, and seeing the destruction nearby was further cause for dread.

Finally, the trio came up on what was left of their home. What had been their white-colored top level was blown away, leaving only the remains of the brown-shaded bottom level.

“My husband was there and we both just cried,” Smith said. “We didn’t know what to do, we’d never been through anything like this.”

Smith and Garcia said the storm left not only physical damage but had psychological consequences as well. Even Jacoby shows signs of trauma when the wind picks up or when tornado sirens sound.

“The 4-year-old, he covers his ears and says ‘tornado,'” Garcia said.

She said he often huddles near an adult at times like that.

“He just gets so scared.”

Smith said she and Garcia have been working through their trauma.

“Now, me and her are noticing that when the (tornado) sirens go off, I get anxiety really bad,” Smith said. “If it starts getting windy and rainy, we start freaking out.”

They said they have not sought professional care for their trauma.

As they work through the demons of the tornado’s aftermath, Smith said she and other victims need the help of Marshalltown leaders and community members.

“It’s great to see people with this whole ‘Marshalltown Strong’ thing, but … I don’t want it to be empty words,” Smith said.

She said the City of Marshalltown and other entities should concentrate less on spending money on non-essential renovations and instead focus on relief efforts for families.

“Try to help us out, by any means possible,” Smith said.

Bundling up for winter

Officials said help is coming to those in need of a safe place to live in Marshalltown, even as the winter approaches.

In September, the City of Marshalltown began a placarding program for structures deemed by FEMA to be destroyed or have major damage. Officials put red signs on houses and buildings in the tornado-impacted area warning of danger to inhabitants of the structure.

“The placarding program is kind of coming to a close,” said Joyce Brown of Marshalltown Housing and Community Development.

She said about 75-80 properties were placarded since the program began and that the city can still send structural engineers to inspect properties that may need to have a sign placed on them.

She said City Administrator Jessica Kinser and Housing and Community Development Director Michelle Spohnheimer are set to meet with FEMA officials on Oct. 31 to discuss residents’ needs.

One major need identified so far is for damaged dwelling places to be ready for winter. The Gov. Kim Reynolds administration and city officials announced Friday the Voluntary Agencies Leading and Organizing Repairs (VALOR) program is coming to Marshalltown to winterize homes.

That program has never before been used in the continental United States. It was used in Puerto Rico in response to hurricane damage.

“It’s a kind of temporary emergency program to get people bundled up for winter,” Brown said.

Another agency working on winter preparations is the Region 6 Planning Commission.

“if you have unmet needs, we really want to make sure that you contact us or contact someone and become identified,” said Region 6 housing specialist Mark Newberg. “If it’s possible for someone to help you, we’re going to make that happen.”

He said the first priority of Region 6 has been to help tornado victims with roof repairs. Earlier this week, Region 6 officials sent 76 letters to households which may still be in need of help.

“We sent those letters out just so that people would know that we’re here and we have the ability to help them out,” Newberg said.

Now, Region 6 is readying for the next phase of helping impacted residents. That will involve fixing up siding, windows and other parts of the house to insulate it from the outside world.

“Leaking roofs create environmentally unsafe conditions all on their own,” Newberg said. “Wintertime especially is bad for respiratory illnesses and when you have mold growth in the home any any kind of respiratory illness, it definitely compounds the problem quite a bit.”

He said it is also important that Marshalltown tornado victims have a warm place to live in the cold months.

Newberg said Region 6 still has “very stable” funding available for helping those impacted by the tornado in Marshalltown.

To contact the Marshalltown Housing and Community Development Office, visit https://www.marshalltown-ia.gov/183/Housing-Community-Development or call 641-754-5756. For more on the Region 6 Planning Commission, visit www.region6planning.org/assistance-for-marshalltown-tornado-victims/ or call 641-752-0717.

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