Saturday, May 31, 2008

Parkersburg Tornado




The Parkersburg tornado that caused so much destruction this past Sunday was a little too close to home.  River Run's Marc  Reifenrath and his wife and dog were in the basement of their Parkersburg home when the tornado went directly through there house. Just 45 seconds they were looking at the sky. 

Shaken, with a few less belongings, but glad to be alive.

I went out yesterday to shoot footage for Farm Bureau Insurance and couldn't believe the destruction from the tornado. I've been through a major California earthquake and a Florida hurricane but they don't compare to the force the first EF5 rated tornado to hit Iowa in 30 years..




  

Monday, May 19, 2008

What Happens in Postville...



What happens in Iowa is apparently broadcast to the rest of the world.

Most people in Iowa have never been to Postville, Iowa and would have trouble placing it on a map. But one week ago today it became a little more well known as it became the place of the largest immigration raid in US history. We received a call from Univision Network in Miami to shoot some interviews and b-roll in Postville.



Postville is about an hour and a half north east of Cedar Falls. It's an interesting place with a mix of the original settlers of German and Norwegian decent mixed with those from Mexico, Guatemala and the Ukraine who work in a meet packing planet run by Hasidic Jews from Brooklyn.

It's an interesting enough place for Univ. of Iowa professor Stephen Bloom to write a book on the town. In "Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America" Bloom writes, “I look at Postville as a social laboratory to test the limits of diversity, tolerance, and acceptance.”


The families of those arrested in Postville found refuge at Saint Bridget's Church and awaited news on what was going to happen next. Meanwhile I used an ABC satellite truck to do an uplink with Univision so the footage I shot could find its way on their news broadcast later that night.

Is there any doubt that immigration will play a roll in the Presidential elections at the end of the year?



Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Sign of the Times



We had a white winter and a rainy April but the signs of spring are finally here; Warm weather and blue skies.

Speaking of signs, Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare has a new billboard up in Cedar Falls featuring a photo we took. The photograph was originally used for a commercial and print ad, so it was a nice surprise to see it up on the billboard.