During the storm, the town's volunteer fire department lost their new building they spent years fundraising for.LINEVILLE, Iowa — Right around 9 a.m., Lineville residents saw the extreme effects of a Thursday morning thunderstorm.Shortly after the storm swept through the small Iowa-Missouri border town, Jeff Landrum, the assistant fire chief of the Lineville Volunteer Fire Department, received a call from his chief, saying, "You better get to town ... we've had some major damages."When he arrived, the bui...
During the storm, the town's volunteer fire department lost their new building they spent years fundraising for.
LINEVILLE, Iowa — Right around 9 a.m., Lineville residents saw the extreme effects of a Thursday morning thunderstorm.
Shortly after the storm swept through the small Iowa-Missouri border town, Jeff Landrum, the assistant fire chief of the Lineville Volunteer Fire Department, received a call from his chief, saying, "You better get to town ... we've had some major damages."
When he arrived, the building that they started putting together four weeks ago was completely destroyed.
"We've been, about five to six years, gathering up the money, writing grants, taking donations, and we finally got things put together," he told Local 5.
In his 55 years in Lineville, Landrum has never seen storm damage this significant. Right now, he's most concerned with making sure everything gets repaired.
"When something like this happens as an emergency responder, you just get in and do your job," he said. "You don't really think about anything until your job's over. And we're not completed with our job yet."
He said the difficult feelings will arise a few days from now when things start to calm down.
Just down the road over the state line sits S&P Smokehouse, a bar and grill established in 2024. Their entire roof was blown off by the storm, and owner Shawn McNelly said his friends came to the rescue.
"Friend of mine, Chuck, called me, he says, 'What can I do?' I said, 'Whatever you want, bud.' I come back, it's pouring down rain, and there's Chuck and five other guys on the roof putting tarps on the roof."
He says more people came to town after that, and soon enough, anywhere from 50-100 people were spotted helping each other out. Later in the afternoon, caterers set up at the fire department to provide meals to those assisting.
Those who would like to make donations to the fire department are asked to make checks payable to the Lineville Fire Department Building Fund through the First Interstate Bank in Corydon, IA.