WAVERLY - Story hours in towns hit by disaster are targeting young people affected by the tornado in May and floods in June.

Project Recovery Iowa, a coalition addressing related mental health needs, is coordinating with area libraries to help kids cope.

Mandy Gesme was in Shell Rock on Wednesday to lead activities designed to prompt discussion and elicit emotions. Gesme is a children's services coordinator for Project Recovery in Black Hawk, Bremer, Buchanan and Butler counties.

The group read light-hearted books: "Aunt Minnie and the Twister," by Mary Skillings Prigger, and "Come a Tide," by George Ella Lyon. "A Terrible Thing Happened," by Margaret M. Holmes, on the other hand, delved more deeply into the character's emotions, Gesme said.

"We're going to read about a twister, which is the same thing as a tornado," Gesme told the nine 3- and 4-year-olds. "Your neighbors over there in Parkersburg and New Hartford got hit pretty hard by the tornado."

Few of the kids had experienced the tornado or flooding firsthand, but they were well-aware what happened.

Jacob Deike, 4, was camping with his family in Allison the day the twister ripped through, and one couple in his party suffered damage to their Parkersburg home.

Jacob shared what he saw in Parkersburg while driving through town with his grandparents a month later.

"Everything was damaged," he said. "The windows were broken, too. Very, very broken. We saw the man fixing up the house."

Indy Epley's great-grandma, Mildred Ulfers, now lives in Cedar Falls. The tornado claimed Ulfers' Parkersburg home.

"It breaked," Indy, 3, recalled about her great-grandma's blown-out windows and flattened garage. "It went crash. God saved her, and she has a new house."

Indy has also been keeping tabs on the progress to repair her flooded church, First Baptist Church in Waverly, said her mom, Emily.

Later Gesme of Project Recovery held up pictures of facial expressions, asking kids to mimic what they saw.

"We did this Simon Says feeling game, so we went through these different faces and how you make a scared face, how you make a sad face, how you make a happy face," she said. "Then we talked about times when they felt happy, sad, mad - that kind of thing."

Violet Haddock says she always feels happy. A Hello Kitty birthday party once surprised Miranda Janssen. And it makes Ashton Hinderaker mad when his mom won't let him go to Chuck E. Cheese's.

Gesme said story hour participants sometimes discuss the future.

"We talk about hope and what they're hopeful for themselves, hopeful for the community," Gesme said.

The programs may also include activities, such as decorating rainbows, which are made into refrigerator magnets. In Shell Rock the kids colored paper fish to hang from wooden dowels like a fishing pole, a reminder of flooding in their town.

Waverly and Parkersburg libraries were among the first to host the story hour program, also set for libraries in Aurora, Clarksville, Greene, Janesville, Lamont, Plainfield and Sumner. Sessions were recently added in Parkersburg because of a high need.

Coloring books with related themes that kids can take home are intended to encourage children to share thoughts with their parents. Attached is a list of five things an adult can do to support a child, along with the number for the Iowa Concern Hotline, (800) 447-1985.

"It can bring up feelings of anxiety and things," Gesme said.

For information or to book a session, call Gesme at (319) 352-2064.

Contact Tina Hinz at (319) 291-1484 or tina.hinz@wcfcourier.com.