GREENFIELD, Iowa — The Greenfield community here is honoring those who died, and helped with emergency rescue the day the tornado struck here one year ago on May 21. A granite marker was put up in town to serve as a reminder of the tornado, and all who helped with the rescue.

The day long event will have a gathering on the courthouse square. There will be people offering citizens help with finances, construction, and mental health services.

“We’re calling it our commemoration, we don’t want it to feel like a celebration as much as we have some great things that have happened,” Stacie Eschelman with Greenfield Chamber of Commerce, and Main Street said. “Our community experienced loss, we lost peoples lives, but we, we’ve lost so much about our daily lives and recognize everything that we’ve been through and how far we have come.”

Many homes and some businesses have been rebuilt. One is Griff’s Auto Repair Shop. Dave Griffith remembers the day the tornado hit. He closed his car shop early when word got out about the incoming storm.

“Got to my house and then when I got there, I got a phone call and then a young man used to work for me, he was looking for me, and when I answered the phone it kind of shocked him, and I said what’s wrong, and he said ‘your place is gone’,” said Griffith. “I just couldn’t even wrap my head around that, you know, when I happen to look to the south, I stood on my patio and I looked to the south and I saw windmills broke off and smoke. I knew that it was you know it was real.”

Griffith was able, with insurance, to buy a new plot to rebuild a much larger repair shop. People have told Griffith what a blessing the storm was.

“No, it’s not a blessing, a person has more debt, then you know insurance gets higher and you know where maybe you didn’t have a mortgage payment before you have a mortgage payment now, so it’s not true blessing,” said Griffith. “I mean it’s a blessing that we didn’t lose more lives than we did.”

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