One year later, McGregor nearly recovered from devastating tornado

MONONA — Thursday marks the one-year anniversary of a day many McGregor residents will never forget. On July 19, 2017, an EF-1 tornado wreaked havoc on much of the community, destroying two buildings, one of which had been listed on the National Historic Register, as well as countless trees both in the community and on the north side of the adjacent Pikes Peak State Park. Countless other structures received damage from the storm.

One year later, you would hardly know that the community was hit by a tornado.

“We are so lucky,” City Administrator Lynette Sander said of the storm. “It could have been so much worse.”

Cleanup operations commenced immediately after the storm and continue to this day, mostly in the form of cutting down damaged trees. 

“Debris removal is going on on the retention dams and there’s a couple of areas along city street storm sewers that the debris is being cut and hauled up to the city quarry for disposal,” Sander said. “Otherwise we have just a few smaller things we’re finishing up. City signs, the entry signs, will be here next week and we have a flagpole to put back up, but I think most of the city buildings have all of their work completed.

Read more in the Wednesday, July 18, 2018 edition of The Outlook.