'Truly a miracle' that no one died in tornado that hit Vermeer

Kevin Hardy | The Des Moines Register

Show Caption Hide Caption Vermeer Corp. tornado damage Aerial view of extensive torndo damage at Vermeer Corp in Pella, Iowa.

PELLA, Ia. — The scene quickly transforms while driving along Vermeer Road, a mile-long stretch of factory buildings, offices and event spaces on the rural outskirts of Pella that manufacturer Vermeer Corp. calls home.

The glass windows of the corporate offices are intact. But some production buildings appear totaled after an EF-3 tornado unexpectedly ripped through the area Thursday afternoon.

Pieces of metal roofing were left crunched up like aluminum foil, coiled around light poles and launched into cornfields across the street.

Cars and trucks were tossed about, some even stacked three high in the parking lot.

The facade of one Vermeer building is entirely missing, revealing the pallets of supplies inside like the backside of a dollhouse.

“Truly, truly just a miracle that we had no fatalities,” said Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds after touring the damage.

Full coverage: What we know about Thursday's 'catastrophic' tornadoes

The construction and agricultural equipment maker, which employs 2,700 workers in Pella, had about 400 customers on site during the storm for a customer appreciation event.

The governor saw photos of the destruction Thursday night, but said she was still stunned by the sight Friday afternoon.

“I don’t think until you actually see it you can comprehend the amount of damage that was done,” she told reporters. "I don’t know if you can really put into words what you see. It’s devastating. And it really, really reinforces how lucky we were that nobody was hurt or killed.”

Seven Vermeer employees suffered minor injuries from the storm, but all were released from a local hospital Thursday evening.

First responders lauded the strict safety protocols in place at Vermeer for protecting lives. And now that all the company’s employees are accounted for, the CEO says he's committed to getting people back to work.

“As we have done for seven decades, the Vermeer team is not only going to survive, we are going to thrive,” he said. “We are going to be back on our feet soon.”

'I started to panic'

Cody Henderson hadn’t even started his shift when the tornado sirens activated.

The storm came in the middle of a shift change, and Henderson was attending his daily meeting with a manager to go over the day’s tasks and stretch hands and legs for the work ahead.

“We didn’t even get our stretches complete,” he said. “A tornado siren went off, and we all took shelter.”

An assembler in Plant 7, Henderson has worked at Vermeer only since May. But the tornado protocol is hammered into the staff during orientation and in occasional safety drills. The same is true for fire and other potential disasters.

When the sirens went off, everyone in the building crammed into a concrete shelter, thinking nothing would come of it, he said. But employees began watching the weather radar on their phones.

The moving red blob on the screen foretold the approaching disaster.

The lights flickered and then went off completely. And then employees heard the tornado as it peeled off the roof and tossed around hoses, pipes and parts inside.

“I started to panic a little bit, and my heart started to race because that was my first time going through a tornado,” Henderson said.

When they left the shelter, employees expected to enter the darkness of the factory. But they saw the sun.

The roof had vanished.

“Stuff was everywhere,” said Henderson, 24. “The wind was so strong it was just throwing everything everywhere.”

While he saw devastation inside and later documented the crunched-up cars and building materials on Facebook, he said the shelter that housed him remained intact.

“Nothing came apart on the shelter,” he said. “We were all very safe, thankfully."

‘We are going to come back stronger than ever’

Large swaths of the usually humming Vermeer campus were abandoned Friday as all work had halted in the factories.

Electric and gas utility workers and cleanup crews began filing in before dawn, and local police who guarded entrances to the so-called Vermeer Mile put in orders for McGriddles sandwiches and breakfast burritos from the local McDonald's.

Jason Andringa, Vermeer’s president and chief executive officer, later pointed out the cruel irony of the storm: Many of the products Vermeer makes are used by first responders, he said. Brush chippers, skid steers and horizontal drillers are frequently used in natural disaster recovery.

“Now the unthinkable has happened to us,” Andringa said. “The process to rebuild starts now. And I am confident we are going to come back stronger than ever.”

Andringa said all production buildings on the campus include at least one storm shelter.

First responders, who were on site before employees even left their shelters, were impressed with Vermeer's management of the emergency.

"The Vermeer employees did a fabulous job," said Marion County Sheriff Jason Sandholdt. "Their safety team was getting the injured out as we were meeting them. They told us where to go. I can’t stress enough the great job that team did."

Andringa said he hopes to relaunch some production by early next week and be running at least half capacity within a week. But two plants suffered devastating damage, which could take months to rebuild.

"It likely will be awhile before the Vermeer Mile is back to what it was as of a couple days ago," he said.

It’s unclear how many employees could be out of work and for how long. Andringa said the human resources team was assessing options and planned to inform employees of the plans Friday afternoon.

"The HR team, the communications team will do the best that they can to make sure our employees know what opportunities there are for them to come back," he said.

Company officials were also working on plans to allow employees to return to retrieve cars in the parking lot or other personal property like cellphones left behind in lockers. No one was being let onto the campus as of mid-afternoon on Friday.

Iowa Workforce Development opened a temporary office in Pella to aid displaced workers. It’s located at the Well Resource Center, 419 E. Oskaloosa St., and is open on weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Eligibility for unemployment benefits will depend on an individual's previous 18 months of wages, said Cory Kelly, spokesman for the workforce development agency.

"Essentially, each case is treated individually," he said.

'Everybody knows somebody who works at Vermeer'

While Pella isn't a one-company town, Vermeer still stands out as one of the city's largest and best-known employers.

The family-owned company has been headquartered in Pella since Gary Vermeer founded it on his farm seven decades ago.

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Jason Andringa is the third generation of the family to run the company. His mother, Mary Andringa, a previous CEO and current board chair, stood behind him as he spoke to reporters Friday afternoon.

“Everybody knows somebody who works at Vermeer, whether it be a friend or a family member,” said Karen Eischen, executive director of the Pella Area Chamber and Economic Alliance. “Their reach really extends not only throughout our community but to the region.”

She has no doubt that the company will overcome the destruction.

"They're a very strong company and a very longstanding company," Eischen said. "I'm very confident that will continue long into the future."

While Pella was spared of the residential destruction wreaked on Bondurant and Marshalltown during Thursday's storms, Eischen said there likely will still be a need for aid in town.

"There are some people that lost vehicles, and that may be their only means of transportation. And there are some that may not be able to report back to work for awhile," she said. "Thankfully, we don't have that loss of homes, but there’s still going to be that need."