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• Once the National Guard, Highway Patrol and other state resources arrived on the scene, the long process of cleanup began.
• Meanwhile, in Union County, we finally got some good news. The river crested earlier than expected, and the waters did not reach the projected level. As a consequence, we were able to avoid much of the flooding damage that was feared.
• Those are the facts of the weather disasters we dealt with that week. Let me tell you though, what else I saw.
• In Wessington Springs, I saw first responders, equipped and ready to go, at nearly midnight on the night of the tornado. Earlier, they had knocked on door after door to warn people to find shelter. After the storm hit, they went back to every home that was damaged, to make sure that people were safe. Many of those first responders suffered damage to their own homes. But they weren't asking to take the night off. They weren't asking to go back and start picking up the pieces of their own property. They were asking what they could do next.
• Wessington Springs Mayor Melissa Mebius was just elected last month, but she asserted herself, took command of the situation and is leading the community in recovery. It wasn't until the morning after the storm that she even bothered to mention to me that her own home was uninhabitable because of the storm.
• In Union County, we also saw the local leaders step up. Having experienced the massive Missouri River flooding three years ago, these officials knew what they were doing and they were ready to respond. Volunteers around the McCook Lake

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