Below is a message copied from the Yahoo Group for the Iowa racing series:

Many of you have seen or heard the news that Indianola was hit by a tornado last
night about 8:10 - 8:15 p.m. . Unfortunately, my house was one of the houses
that got struck and there was an injury to a person in my house in the basement
in the aftermath of the tornado. My wife, myself and my children are all fine.
However, we are dealing with the damage - roof, shed, fences, debris, fallen
trees, flooded basement and all of the clean up. We were to have headed out on
RAGBRAI today with Team Simpson, but we obviously had to cancel that. 4 inches
of rain fell within in 20 minutes just after the tornado hit compounded matters
for a 2 block area in my neighborhood where the tornado touched down. Stuff we
can replace, our friend who was injured is demanding most of our attention at
the moment.

On to the bike race...

Before the tornado last night, I had met with the ranger out at Lake Ahquabi to
assess the damage from the rain the past few months. He told me to take a lap
on my bike to see for myself. It was only the 2nd lap I was able to do at
Ahquabi all year long, and I only made it 1/2 way around it was so bad. There
are sink holes, fallen trees, gulleys, wash outs and it is still so muddy the
DNR cannot get their equipment back out on the trails to do any repair work.
That was before the big storm hit last night which just added more insult to
injury. Based on the ranger's recommendation, I am officially pulling the plug
on the August 15th race date for Lake Ahquabi. We discussed some possible
alternatives about doing the race in the fall (perhaps October) even though it
may conflict with a Cyclocross event in the eastern part of the state.

I will wait for feedback from everyone if a fall classic mountain bike race
would be worth doing. If enough people are game for a possible October race and
things dry out by then, it could be a very ideal and picturesque time to be
riding for the fall colors and the cooler temperatures. And I will have to
assess my own situation as I move forward this week dealing with insurance,
contractors and most importantly our friend who was injured.

BB