Not OK.

“OK.”

When have any two letters together been so misleading? Search crews spray painted them on crushed cars and splintered homes. “OK” alerted other searchers that there was no one inside.

Greenfield, Iowa and its 2,000 residents are not OK. The EF-4 tornado that tore through the heart of town Tuesday afternoon killed four people, injured at least three dozen others and damaged or destroyed nearly 200 homes, businesses and other structures.

(One of the worst hit neighborhoods following Tuesday’s tornado in Greenfield, Iowa.)

A tornado this powerful makes it look like the town exploded. Since I’ve lived in Iowa, the only tornado damage comparable to this to me was the one that hit Parkersburg 16 years ago today (May 25, 2008).

(Remnants of century-old trees litter lawns in Greenfield.)

It is numbing to walk around a neighborhood damaged this badly. I watched two women sweeping part of their driveway. Their house was no longer there. All I could think of was that they didn’t know what else to do.

Another man and his son were walking through debris. The man’s mother had been in the house when the tornado hit. She was in a Des Moines hospital undergoing surgery. They recovered a ceramic animal that somehow survived. They didn’t find much else.

(Greenfield residents will search for direction after a tornado sliced through a section of town.)

Another woman told me that her 6’4” son hid under his bed as the tornado picked apart their neighborhood. Their home’s windows got blown out but the house remained standing. Their garage did not.

(The tornado sheered off trees in this Greenfield neighborhood.)

There is so much to rebuild and so many questions.

There are nails, screws, glass and debris everywhere. How can they get all this removed?

Where will they find all the crews necessary to repair and rebuild so many structures?

Where will dozens of families live until that happens?

How does someone overcome the trauma?

How does a family mourn a lost loved one, deal with losing a house, find somewhere to stay, still go to work and survive until a new home is ready?

Greenfield is not OK.

There is always something that I notice when I cover disasters like this one: kindness. Strangers brought bottled water, diapers, food, clothes, lumber and so much more.

Many more brought their helping hands, aided by work gloves, to assist in whatever way they could.

There were church groups, high school football teams, groups of friends, civic organizations, volunteers from nearby states and other people just showing up by themselves.

Inspiring. Maybe I was wrong earlier. Maybe Greenfield will be OK after all.

(Hours after the tornado ravaged Greenfield, I saw this rainbow painting the sky with hope.)

WATCH THIS: This is what it looked like to drive into Greenfield after the tornado hit.

NEIGHBORHOOD DESTROYED: And this is some of the worst damage that I saw driving through neighborhoods.

HELP FROM A FRIEND: I’m thankful to my former colleague and longtime friend and journalist, Paul Yeager. A last-minute cancelation left me without a guest for the American Farmland Owner podcast this week.

Paul, the host of “Market to Market” on about 20 public television stations across the country joined me to share what he tries to do each week and why it’s so meaningful to him. See our conversation here.

Thanks for reading, watching, listening and caring.

I write Dave Price’s Perspective as part of the Iowa Writers Collaborative. Our diverse group keeps growing. Rachelle Chase is one of the newest writers. Check out her thoughts, “Don’t delete your social media accounts.”