PARKERSBURG - Standing atop the rubble of her home, Sue Hennings calmly recalled taking refuge in the basement with her husband and feeling the house shake, certain it would collapse.

"We just held each other and said, 'I'll see you in just a minute in heaven.' Because I just knew what was going to happen," she said.

While the Henningses survived, the life they built in Parkersburg did not. The couple plan to rebuild elsewhere, perhaps in Waverly or Cedar Falls.

As Hennings told her tale of survival, her voice didn't stop until she talked about the close relationships she formed. When she mentioned the friends she will leave behind, her lips trembled; her hand covered her mouth.

Her son, Jon Hennings, jumped in to explain.

"It's the friends. They're good friends with the mayor and his wife, with people from across the street," he said. "There's six couples together; they get together and have barbecues, travel, drink wine. That's the hard stuff."

Parkersburg felt like home from the beginning, Sue said. On the day she moved in nearly five years ago, the woman from across the street brought her home-baked cookies. The woman's house is gone now.

Sue works as a development director for the Salvation Army in Waterloo. With a chance to start over, she and her husband decided to move closer to work.

If she were younger, she said, she could envision herself building again in Parkersburg, but further off the highway. Their home used to sit on the corner of Iowa Highway 57 and Third Street.

Despite their decision, Sue believes the town she grew to love will recover.

"It will breathe new life into community. I really do believe that. People will rebuild, and businesses will rebuild," she said.

But for the Henningses, it is time to say goodbye.

The couple survived Hurricane Andrew in 1992 when she worked for the Salvation Army in Florida. Even that hurricane - the most damaging in U.S. history until Hurricane Katrina - can't compare to the devastation wrought by the Parkersburg tornado.

"This is so much worse, so frightening, so scary - so final," she said.

Contact Jens Manuel Krogstad

at (319) 291-1580 or

jens.krogstad@wcfcourier.com.