DUNKERTON - Three women, their friends and families roll up their sleeves and start helping people. Using their mobile home north of town as a base, they deliver hot meals, water and ice to people who survived an F5 tornado but whose rural homes and farms did not. They round up semi-trailers and provide dozens of pairs of gloves. And the women are chastised for not following procedure.

Something is wrong with that picture.

I will tell you up front I do not know all that transpired after the savage storm May 25. And I don't know what protocol is. It is my first disaster as a participant rather than observer.

Are victims supposed to go somewhere? Or wait for a government vehicle to roll into the driveway?

While my farm was hit by a tornado, I was in no mood to be a victim. Judging by what I saw at my neighbors' properties in rural Dunkerton, neither were any of them. With the help of many, many volunteers, they did what was needed when it was required.

Those with excavators, backhoes and skid loaders - like Cory Best and Kenny Kuenstling - fired up the big iron and started pulling debris off houses and downed limbs off buildings. Church ladies started making sandwiches and sticky sweet treats. Pastors started making the rounds, and congregations organized their efforts. Decent people - like Johnny Fisher of Lawler - showed up with chain saws and a sense of urgency to make things right.

Again, I don't know what protocol is.

But I can tell you asking people to show up at a command center - people who are scrambling to nail down tarps or retrieve belongings from rain-soaked homes or rescue hogs from collapsed buildings - is an unreasonable expectation.

We would have survived without lunch and supper for a couple of days. And in all likelihood, most of the helpers who showed up at my farm could probably stand to lose a few pounds, myself included. But I can also testify that on Wednesday and Thursday, when most of us were soaked from the inside with perspiration and from the outside by rain, the warm food tasted pretty darn good.

My family appreciates everyone who helped in whatever way they could. In particular, we thank those who helped without being asked and who showed up before being invited. They deserve at least that much from us.

But then I don't know what protocol is.

Contact Dennis Magee

at (319) 291-1451

or dennis.magee@wcfcourier.com.