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Winds whip Muscatine ... again

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By Cynthia Beaudette | Monday, July 21, 2008 |

(Beth VanZandt/Muscatine Journal) Buy this Photo

MUSCATINE, Iowa — Jeannie Terry said she doesn’t cry easily, but there was nothing easy about the high winds and heavy rains that whipped through Muscatine early today.

Terry, who co-owns the Coffee Cup located in the parking lot of the Southend’s Western Mall with her husband Ron Terry, opened the drive-through service window early this morning to hand coffee to a customer and was greeted by wind and rain that slammed her in the face. She said she told the customer to take the coffee and pay her later before she whipped the window shut. Water had poured into her small business in the short time the window had been open and she could feel the small mobile unit trembling. She took cover in the bathroom, pressing her foot against the door to help ensure it wouldn’t fly open. Then she ducked her head and began praying.

She heard loud crashing going out outside and later learned it was the roof that had flown off the main building of the Old Western Mall.

“I don’t cry easily,” said Terry. “But I was so scared, I started crying.”

Out in the parking lot, Muscatine attorney Terrence Mealy, owner of the Old Western Mall, stood amid a growing group of curious onlookers surveying the damage. He said he plans to replace the roof as soon as possible, and he wondered aloud when the series of severe weather events would end in Muscatine. Since June 1, 2007, the area has endured a major tornado, a high wind event, two floods and a number of storms.

“All we need is a hurricane,” said Mealy.

Inside the Western Mall, Dee Rivera, owner of Twin Oaks restaurant, was being encouraged by members of her staff.

Rivera said the kitchen was flooded and, as with much of Muscatine, there was no power.

Rivera’s employee, Alta Koehler of Illinois City, said this is the second time in a year the roof has blown off the Western Mall and it’s affected profits due to lost days of business.

Employee Sheryl Mercer held up a poster board she had put together that displayed photos of the damage the fallen roof had caused in August 2007 when high winds — much like those that occurred this morning — damaged the business.

‘This morning, we could hear it, the roof, peeling off the building like the lid from a tuna can,” said Koehler.

Rivera, who has owned the restaurant for 15 years, said her customers showed up around 5 a.m. to have breakfast before going to work, and many of them couldn’t take their own cars to work because their vehicles were buried under the roof. The customers called other people for rides.

Rivera and Koehler could relate. Their vehicles were completely covered by huge parts of the roof. The back window of Koehler’s Toyota was crushed. The two women said they have insurance, but they would have to wait to see how things would be covered.

Rivera said she’s hoping the next roof Mealy puts on the building stays in place, and Mother Nature isn’t as merciless in the future, because she’s having a hard time dealing with the damages.

“It kills my business,” she said. “I can’t afford this again.”