WESSINGTON SPRINGS - Jerry and Kathy Voorhees had to leave town.
More than two months after a tornado changed Wessington Springs forever, and after construction crews tore down what was left of their gas station and repair shop on Aug. 28, the couple took a vacation.
It was a belated honeymoon for the couple, married for two years.
For the all of the difficulty the tornado caused, it gave Kathy one thing she always wanted.
"I always joked with Jerry that it would take an act of God to get him to clean up his shop," she said. "And it did."
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Their business, Jerry's Motor Clinic, is back in Wessington Springs, and in some ways is better than ever. It has been open since Dec. 2 in a larger, white building with sleek, red trim that leads to customer compliments. In the back, there's more room for repairs and storage. Out front, there's bright LED lights positioned over the gas pumps.
"Almost a half year unemployed," Jerry said, standing under a vehicle he was fixing. "First time in a long time that we've been back to normal."
The word normal has a different definition to different people in Wessington Springs.
"We're going to have a new normal," said Connie Barber, who along with her husband, Ward, lost their home in the tornado. "But it's not going to be the same as it was."
Home and business owners know that the long haul continues for Wessington Springs, which, on Thursday, will mark six months since the June 18 tornado tore through the city.
Somewhat surprisingly, no one was injured in the tornado, which measured an EF-2, the third most severe rating on a scale from EF-0, the lowest rating, to EF-5, the highest rating.
Wessington Springs Mayor Melissa Mebius said progress to rebuild the town is going to be different for everyone, but especially the 77 people who were displaced from their homes.
In the days following the tornado, Mebius described the immediate cleanup as a sprint. Rebuilding the town will be a marathon, she said.
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She reiterated that point Friday in an interview with The Daily Republic.
"We are establishing that new normal," she said. "Life as we know it on June 18 at 7 o'clock is gone, and life is different now. You're always going to have those memories, and it's hard to move to where we need to go."
'You can really see progress'
Building progress has been slow.
City Finance Officer Linda Willman said there are 10 new homes that families are fully moved in to, including Ward and Connie Barber. Four more homes are scheduled to be occupied by Jan. 1. There are also four families not returning to town, and a number of residents that have moved into existing homes in town or are in the process of building new, Willman said.
A cold snap in November and a mild December have made for off-and-on construction in the city.
Cory Mohling, along with his wife, Joy, and their four children, lost their home in the tornado. He's eager to see progress next summer, when a full construction season can occur.
"Even now, it's coming along to the point where you can really see progress," he said.
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One of the reasons for the slower-than-hoped movement is because of the lack of contractors who have been able to commit to Wessington Springs work full time. Many were already scheduled for the summer when the storm hit.
The city has received $313,000 in Federal Emergency Management Assistance funds to help with storm-related costs in Wessington Springs. Those funds cover items like the labor of bringing extra electric crews into town and the emergency services needed, rebuilding damaged electrical equipment and the removal of storm debris. FEMA covers 75 percent of reimbursement, while the state of South Dakota provides 10 percent, leaving the city with a 15 percent share. Willman said that amount was collected through the middle of October, and doesn't count infrastructure repairs recently completed, such as the operation of 36 street lights coming back online in damaged neighborhoods.
Wessington Springs has been working on plans to improve its Main Street and Dakota Avenue, both of which serve the city's primary business district. In November, the state awarded $200,000 for the project -- the maximum that can be awarded to a city in a Community Access Grant -- for its $1.4 million Main Street project. It's possible the city won't be able to conduct Main Street upgrades in 2015 because of an increased need to improve residential streets, which took a beating from large equipment cleaning up from the storm.
"Main Street has been a priority since well before I was on the city council, and it needs work," Mebius said. "We're going to have figure out what's realistic for us, as far as what can be accomplished."
For as thankful as they were in the hours and days after the tornado that nobody got hurt, that feeling of gratitude hasn't gone away.
"I know it's been said, but we're really lucky nobody got hurt," Willman said.
Becoming home
The Barbers moved back into their home about six weeks ago in mid-October. The home was built by Custom Touch Homes, of Madison.
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"It was nice because we didn't have to do anything, other than hook the water up and sewer," Ward said.
On that day, their new house was nothing more than a foreign home in a familiar place. Each day since then, it's felt more like home, they said.
"It's going to feel different until you have a few family gatherings, a few Christmases in it," Ward said, sitting in his recliner in the living room, the only piece of furniture saved from the damaged home. "The house, I think it has to become a home. I don't think you can just come in and say you're home."
Up the hill, the Mohlings have a family friend who is leading the construction of their house.
"I guess we're doing as well as we could," Cory Mohling said. "Once we got past the point where everyone was scrambling around, things have gone well."
The Mohlings are about a month away from moving into their new home, and Cory Mohling said there's been a lot to juggle, especially after the tornado when he moved in with family living in town.
"Between your jobs and your kids, you go home and you've got six more people living in a house that usually holds two," he said. "That gets stressful for everyone."
Mebius and her husband, Kevin, and their three children have purchased another house in town. While they're making changes and renovations to the new house -- which they hope to move into next month -- she's thankful to have family that has been willing to take them in and help them.
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"It's going to be hard in a way to leave them, too," she said. "They've been such a blessing and have been there for us in a way to get things back into a routine."
In business again
Kathy Voorhees remembers walking up Dakota Avenue toward the location of Jerry's Motor Clinic in the immediate aftermath of the tornado.
Jerry's Motor Clinic was able to pump gas for a little more than a month after the tornado, but the storm did too much damage to the building, forcing the business to be torn down and rebuilt. While that was hard, Kathy said it was a big moment to open for business again.
"That was a big step, to be able to plug in that 'Open' sign again," she said.
A shortage of contractors made things difficult, requiring the Voorhees to bring in a crew from De Smet to construct their new building. She said people would stop them in the grocery store and ask about the business and how things were going.
"There'd be people who would see us at church and leave a gift card to the grocery store," she said. "Just things like that showed people in the community wanted us back."
On the corner of the primary entrance into town, Lawrence Caffee felt he had little choice but to try rebuilding his business.
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"I didn't want to let the town down," he said. "I did it because it's needed and it's the only car shop in town."
Caffee has become all too familiar with destruction. A fire took his car dealership in January 2012, when it burned at its old location in the center of town. Once again, everything was gone.
"The only thing that went through my mind was, 'Not again,' " he said. "I didn't sleep that much that night, but I kept saying 'I'll do it again.' "
He never closed his business, operating out of a camper for a while. There's still work being done, finishing off interior walls and floors, still electrical and plumbing to be finished, but he's ready to make a deal.
At age 76, he said he just couldn't imagine doing anything else.
"It's just another day," he said. "We're going and everything is staying the same."
Near the end of the Main Street businesses is the temporary home of the Prairie Lounge and the American Legion. Together, the two entities were located together on top of the hill on Dakota Avenue before the storm.
While there's other establishments in town that serve alcohol, the Prairie Lounge is the only place that is foremost a bar. The Hideout Bar and Grill, which was also in the path of the tornado, is not planning to rebuild.
"People have adjusted to the changes pretty well," said Marci Schimke, the Prairie Lounge's manager. "It's the only true bar in town, and I think people are glad we're in business."
In question are the futures of the Prairie Lounge and the American Legion, which were connected and often used together.
Plans for a new building are being drafted among the American Legion's members.They include having the Legion and the lounge attached again, and the blueprints on the bar's wall show what it could look like.
There's no timetable for construction, and fundraising for the project is not yet clear, Schimke said.
Regardless, there is hope that the new place would include a restaurant and a bar, and a separate room that could host graduations and wedding receptions. Schimke said that part of the building is missed.
Plans are in motion for a poker run in May to raise money for a new building.
"We know we have people who want to see this going at full force again," she said.
She, along with other Wessington Springs residents, want to see the town make a full recovery.
"Everybody says it and it's such a cliché that it's small town South Dakota, but it really is," Mohling said. "Everyone helps everybody. And I think any town would do the same thing."
