The storm that battered much of Nebraska on Tuesday with torrential rain, strong winds and large hail also spawned a violent tornado in Iowa, caused extensive damage and an unknown number of injuries in at least one rural town, and generated winds of up to 250 feet (76 meters) in several locations, blowing winds that could blow away turbines.
Iowa State Patrol Public Affairs Sgt. Alex Dinkler said multiple people were injured and there was extensive damage in Greenfield, a town of about 2,000 people about 55 miles (88.5 kilometers) southwest of Des Moines. He did not know the extent of his injuries.
Tornado hits suburban Omaha
Des Moines, Iowa, television station KCCI-TV reported that at least three wind turbines were knocked down by an apparent tornado in southwest Iowa, and at least one was set ablaze with black smoke billowing from its bent structure. Ta.
Adair County Health System Hospital in Greenfield suffered damage in the storm, but Mercy One spokesman Todd Misener said he did not have further details. The hospital is affiliated with Mercy One, and authorities were on their way to Greenfield to assess the damage.
This image provided by JJ Unger shows hail surrounding a vehicle on Monday night, May 20, 2024, in Yuma, Colorado. Residents in a small northeastern Colorado city were cleaning up Tuesday after hail the size of baseballs and golf balls fell in the area. , heavy construction equipment and snow shovels were used to remove knee-deep hail the night before. (JJ Unger via AP)
Mary Long, owner of Long’s Market in downtown Greenfield, said her business, located in the area’s historic town square, weathered the storm and largely escaped damage. Long said there appears to be widespread damage on the east and south sides of town.
“I heard the proverbial freight train roar, and it had just finished,” she said.
Camille Blair said the Greenfield Chamber of Commerce office where she works closed around 2 p.m. before the storm. She emerged from her home, where she described extensive damage and scattered debris.
“We’re finding that some homes have quite significant roof damage and will require a completely new roof,” she said. “And from my house, I could see it heading straight down the road.”
In southwest Iowa, video posted to social media showed a tornado touching down just northwest of Red Oak, and further east and north, the National Weather Service issued multiple tornado warnings for areas near the towns of Griswold, Corning, Fontanelle and Guthrie Center.
Iowa was already bracing for severe weather after the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center announced severe thunderstorms with the possibility of strong tornadoes were likely across much of the state. Des Moines public schools closed classes two hours early and canceled all evening activities ahead of the storm.
Residents west of Omaha, Nebraska, awoke to blaring sirens and widespread power outages early that morning as torrential rain, strong winds and large hail pounded the area. Thousands of customers lost power and more than 5 inches (12.7 centimeters) of rain fell in less than two hours, flooding basements and submerging cars. Television station KETV showed footage of firefighters arriving to rescue people from vehicles.
In Illinois, the dust storm forced authorities to close two interstates due to poor visibility, and wind gusts of 35 mph (56 kph) to 45 mph (74 kph) were reported in the McLean area, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Chuck Schafer.
State police posted on X (formerly Twitter) that “sometimes visibility goes out.”
The storm came after days of extreme weather that devastated much of the central part of the country. High winds, large hail and tornadoes tore through parts of Oklahoma and Kansas late Sunday, damaging a home and injuring two people in Oklahoma.
A second storm hit Colorado and western Nebraska Monday night, leaving Yuma, Colorado, covered in hail the size of baseballs and golf balls and turning roads into rivers of water and ice. Residents used heavy equipment and snow shovels Tuesday to remove knee-deep ice.
The storm in Yuma shattered car windshields, slammed into the sides of buildings and broke many windows. It also dumped heavy rain on the Nebraska city of about 3,500 people about 40 miles (64 kilometers) west, stranding several cars on the roads. Curtis Glenn, a trustee of the Yuma Methodist Church, which was hit by flooding and hail damage, said the hail was still about half a foot (1.83 meters) deep as of Tuesday morning and that a front-end loader was being used to move it.
Glenn, the insurance claims adjuster, said the combination of hail, rain and wind sounded like “a gun going off on a train.”
“This is something I never want to see and never want to see again,” he said of the worst storm he has seen in his years working in the insurance industry.
Last week, severe storms battered the Houston, Texas area, killing at least seven people. Thursday’s storms knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people for days, leaving Texans in the dark and without air conditioning in hot, humid weather. The hurricane’s strong winds reduced businesses and other buildings to rubble and shattered glass on downtown skyscrapers.
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Tuesday’s storm is expected to bring similar strong winds, heavy rain and large hail to parts of Minnesota, Illinois and northern Missouri, said Bob Oravec, chief forecaster for the National Weather Service.
He said the weather is expected to turn south on Wednesday, bringing more severe weather to parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and southern Missouri.
