Iowa (RI) — Perhaps the worst damage in Iowa from the severe weather in the past day happened early this (Friday) morning in Storm Lake.
Aimee Barritt, the Buena Vista County emergency management coordinator, says thousands of MidAmerican Energy customers in Storm Lake are without power after a severe thunderstorm hit about 1 AM.
The Storm Lake Police Department is releasing a series of photos showing toppled concrete walls, flipped semis, and heavy damage to apartment buildings and stores.
She recommends residents who can stay home from work or school to do exactly that as the roads are covered with debris and power lines.
Damage is also being assessed in north-central Iowa’s Wright County, where more than two thousand homes lost power in this morning’s storms. Wright County emergency manager Jarika Eisentrager is surveying the destruction to farmsteads.
National Weather Service meteorologist Craig Cogil says severe weather also hit southwest Iowa last night.
The tornadoes were reported near towns including: Oakland, Essex, Randolph and Tabor. In south-central Iowa, Taylor County reported wind gusts of 76 miles an hour.
Golf ball-sized hail was reported near towns such as Hampton and Waverly.
Some areas report more than two inches of rain. Cogil says the forecast calls for cooler, calmer weather today, but storms are likely to return on Easter Sunday.
(Thanks to Ryan Thompson, KAYL, Storm Lake and Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City)
KIWA Staff Photo
