MINDEN, Iowa — The EF-3 tornado that ripped through Minden, Iowa left the community reeling and many families without homes.
The Runge family had their entire home destroyed by Friday's tornado, a house full of memories lost in minutes. All that is left of the home is a pile of rubble.
"It looked like a war zone," Andy Runge told Local 5.
The streets of Minden are now quiet, with only crews and volunteers left picking up the pieces of the small town.
"Where you normally park your car there was nothing to look at but a little pile of rubble that was left," said Ariel Quinn, Runge's sister. "And that's what we dug through."
All that the Runge family could salvage were a couple boxes of clothes and one box of pictures.
"It didn't feel real when we came out here Saturday," Quinn said. "When we were digging through the rubble, trying to find anything of their lives to be able to save it just feels so surreal, and not like it's our lives."
With no family heirlooms and barely any physical memories left, Runge described his journey over the past week as "rebuilding ours and our kids' lives pretty much."
A town of nearly 600 people turned to ruins, leaving streets full of rubble.
"There's over 50 families that lost their homes, so it's hard-to-find housing even in the neighboring towns, this is a bunch of smaller towns around," Quinn said.
The Runge family will have nowhere to go in 11 days once their temporary housing is up. They say affordable places don't accommodate their family of six, along with pets.
Leaving the past week full of questions.
"What's gonna happen? You don't know where you're gonna live, you don't know where your next anything is gonna come from," Quinn said.
However, the family is looking at the glass half full and focusing on what they do have.
"Counting our blessings and knowing like, their okay that's all that matters and we can rebuild and move on from this as a stronger family," Quinn said.
Emphasizing that things can be replaced, but family and people can't. The Runges are grateful they are still alive.