Greenfield man released from hospital after tornado ripped him from his home

DES MOINES, IOWA — Larry Vanderpluym has a lot of stories to tell. His latest one tops them all. On Tuesday he stood on his back porch in Greenfield watching the storm.

“There’s like a co-op south of me. I could see the silos and I could kind of see, like the rain blown around. “when I seen it look like rubbish flying in the air, then like a two by four, or something. And that’s when it almost put me in shock like, Oh, this can’t be good. And I walked in, like I said, my kitchen and it just like BOOM! And it was that quick.”

He woke up a block away from his house in a pile of tree limbs and lumber and called for help. Broken bones and a brain bleed sent him to the hospital in Des Moines. He knows it could be much worse.

“I try to think positive and quit worrying about the material things. You know, I’m lucky to be alive. I feel really blessed because I know we lost people. You know, like, why me? what makes me special?”

Surviving the tornado has changed Larry’s perspective. “Yeah. I’m thinking he’s not done with me? Yeah. There’s something about me.”

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