Helping hands

The Iowa State football team showed up in stormravaged Marshalltown to help residents clean up two days after a destructive tornado swept through the city.

The entire Cyclones roster traveled from Ames to Marshalltown, making quick work out of a number of tasks Saturday before catching a breather at a local schoolyard, The Marshalltown Times-Republican reported.

Players cleared tree limbs and debris, raked yards, removed furniture from damaged homes and businesses, and moved remnants of houses, rooftops and garages.

“I don’t have words for it, you know what I mean?” redshirt freshman offensive lineman Colin Newell told the Times-Republican. “You just put yourself in that position for a second and you’re like, ‘Wow.’

“We had some guys come up here [Friday] and help out, and they said we’ve got to get more guys up here and do what we can to help out. We’ve got a lot of people with us, so we can bring a lot of manpower with us and get out here and help these people out.”

One of the group’s first undertakings Saturday was to help a family move its car out of the driveway and a truck out from under a garage that had fallen on it. A tearful owner offered hugs to any Cyclone football player who crossed her path. Some affected by the storm pledged their fandom to Iowa State, even if only for a day.

Both Newell and redshirt freshman offensive lineman Alex Kleinow have dealt indirectly with flood damage to their own hometowns, but that was nothing compared with what Marshalltown experienced during the tornado.

“This is really eye-opening,” Kleinow said.