The devastating tornadoes that ripped through Parkersburg, New Hartford, Dunkerton and other communities hit home for so many people.

All three communities have very close ties to the Cedar Valley. Many of the residents drive to Waterloo and Cedar Falls to work, or have family nearby.

This week has been an especially tough one for the Courier. Two employees lost their homes in the tornado - Dennis Magee and Steve Burns. Another employee, Alaina Flater, lost her grandmother, and her grandfather is hospitalized with serious injuries. We had a Courier retiree lose his home, and family members of other employees were greatly impacted.

At the same time, we've been working to cover this breaking news story for the newspaper and our Web site. Courier employees have been holding in-house fundraisers for the two who lost their homes, and a crew of employees went to help Magee, the Courier's regional editor, clean up his property in Dunkerton.

We all feel we could be doing more, but our concentration must be on the important story to be told.

The timing of this massive storm was both good and bad.

It came on a holiday weekend, so kids weren't out at after-school sports practices. A lot of people were out of town. The crops are barely in the ground, so that damage was kept minimal.

But because it was a holiday weekend, we had a skeleton news crew Sunday evening. We were settled in for a quiet evening of preparing Monday's paper. (On holidays, we deliver a morning paper.) Our planned front page stories were about Memorial Day and an expanded bike trail plan.

I had been at my son's graduation at Wartburg College in Waverly and was traveling home on Highway 218 toward Cedar Falls about the time of the tornado. My plan was to head into the office later to allow Magee to leave and get home to his family. I'd asked him to go into the office for me for a few hours so I could attend the graduation.

As my family and I drove south, our vehicle was hit by hail near Janesville, and as we approached Cedar Falls, Black Hawk County Sheriff's Office squad cars raced past us going north.

I called the office to see what was going on. No answer. I tried other numbers. No answer. Finally, I got a hold of Dave Martin on our copy desk. He said Magee was out with our photo intern Morgan Hawthorne, and they were chasing a tornado.

I'll be right in, I told him.

The first few hours, staff writer Andrew Wind and I tried to get our arms around this story. I knew there was some damage in Parkersburg, and then I began hearing on the police scanner about bodies being found and requests for more ambulances.

Magee called into the office and told us he had great pictures from the tornado. I told him to head for Parkersburg. About five minutes later he called back with ominous news.

"My house has been hit," he told me, after receiving a call from his wife. "I have to go."

Magee took Hawthorne with him to his house north of Dunkerton. I sent newsroom assistant Kim Forbes toward his home to retrieve Hawthorne and get the disc with the tornado photos. We gave Forbes a video camera to record what she saw along the way. Her video was the first up on our Web site and shows the incredible force of the tornado as she crossed northern Black Hawk County into Dunkerton.

In the meantime, another staffer, Jeff Reinitz, called in, and we put him to work. Editorial page editor Terry Hudson called in with the name of someone who had witnessed the scene in Parkersburg. That person put us in touch with Dan Summerhays, who talked of being trapped in the bathroom of the Pizza Ranch.

Courier online editor Michelle Gebhardt was at her Cedar Falls home. She headed for the newsroom to get video equipment and then set out for Parkersburg. There, she shot compelling video of people in the early hours after the tornado. With their homes leveled all around them, survivors showed Gebhardt the tiny spaces where they'd huddled and survived.

Photo editor Matthew Putney and staff photographer Rick Tibbott were at a movie - the new Indiana Jones show - when Magee called prior to learning that his house had been hit, telling them to head to Parkersburg. Their pictures showed the utter devastation that had taken place. While they tried desperately to send their pictures to the Courier from Parkersburg, the lack of cellular and wireless services forced them to get us the pictures the old-fashioned way - by driving back to the office.

It was an unforgettable day for so many. It's been an emotional week as we cope with all that has happened. With heavy hearts for all of those impacted by this storm, we will continue to tell and show the stories and pictures from this wrath of Mother Nature.