With the help of neighbors and friends, it took Mick and Mary Olson less than a year to rebuild the buildings they lost in last summer’s storms. Mary added her own personal touch to the new pole shed by adding a barn wood porch, repurposing the wood from the barn that was destroyed by the storms.
One year later: Olsons rebuild after devastating storm
By Meagan Molseed
mmolseed@thefayettecountyunion.com
“It’s gone, everything is gone!” Those are words Mary Olson will never forget hearing from her husband, Mick, on the afternoon of July 19, 2017.
“Mick never gets excited about anything,” she said quietly as she remembered the moment she was finally able to connect with him via cell phone after a series of devastating storms blew through the area.
Fear rose in Mary’s heart.
“What about Molly?” she asked, thinking of her beloved horse that was left at home in the couple’s barn.
“I don’t know,” Mick said. “The barn is gone.”
It was a warm and sunny July day when Mary Olson left her home just outside of Clermont to attend her regular Bible school meeting at St. Peter’s Church in Clermont.
“It was really a beautiful day for the most part,” she recalled. “I think I knew they were predicting some storms, but it’s July in Iowa. That really wasn’t unusual.”
The sky was beginning to darken as Mary settled down in her chair during the meeting.
“I remember I kept looking out the window, and it just kept getting worse and worse. All of a sudden our cell phones started going off with severe weather warnings,” recalled the longtime Bible school teacher. “I thought, ‘This is not something to ignore,’ and we all decided to go low and take cover.”
