Five people lost their lives and at least 35 were injured when strong tornadoes hit Iowa. One tornado caused a lot of damage in the small town of Greenfield. Officials announced this on Wednesday.
The Iowa Department of Public Safety reported that four people were killed by tornadoes in the Greenfield area on Tuesday. The Adams County Sheriff’s Office also said that a fifth person, a woman whose car was blown off the road, was killed by a tornado about 25 miles away. 46-year-old Monica Zamarron passed away in a car accident on Tuesday, according to officials.
Authorities did not share the names of the victims in the Greenfield area because they were still telling their families.
On Wednesday, the Iowa Department of Public Safety said they think that more people might be hurt.
The Greenfield tornado destroyed many homes, trees, and cars in the small town of Greenfield, which has about 2,000 people. It is located about 55 miles southwest of Des Moines. The tornado also destroyed big wind turbines that make electricity outside the city.
Kimberly Ergish, 33, and her husband searched through the wreckage of their home to find family photos and other things they could save. She admitted that there wasn’t much left.
“She said we can’t save most of it. ” “We’ll take what we can get. ”
She doesn’t fully realize that her house was destroyed in just a few seconds.
She said, “If I didn’t have all these bumps and bruises and my bones didn’t ache, I would think it never happened. ”
The storms on Tuesday also hit Illinois and Wisconsin hard, leaving many people without power in both states. The bad weather moved south on Wednesday. The National Weather Service warned about tornadoes and flash floods in Texas. There was also a tornado watch in parts of the state, including Dallas.
The National Weather Service thinks there was a strong tornado in Greenfield, but they need to check more to be sure. It might be even stronger than they first thought.
The tornado seems to have traveled on the ground for more than 40 miles (64 kilometers), according to Jon Porter, the main weather expert at AccuWeather. A picture from a satellite made by BlackSky Technology shows where the tornado made a nearly straight path of damage through the town, just south of Greenfield’s center square.
The dangerous tornado happened during a very bad tornado season in the US, when climate change is making storms worse everywhere. April had the second most tornadoes ever recorded in the country.
Until Tuesday, there were 859 tornadoes confirmed this year. That’s 27% more than usual for the US, according to NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma. Iowa has had the most tornadoes, with 81 confirmed.
On Tuesday, the National Weather Service got 23 reports of tornadoes. Most of them were in Iowa, and there was one in Wisconsin and one in Minnesota.
The tornado in Greenfield was the worst thing that could happen in Iowa, just like the weather forecasters were worried about, according to Porter.
“Rubble was thrown high up in the sky and landed in a different area far from Greenfield. ” Porter said, “This shows how strong and dangerous the tornado was. ”
People who lived 100 miles away from Greenfield posted pictures on Facebook of their family photos, yearbook pages, and other things that were taken up into the sky by the tornado.
Nicole Banner found an old page on her garage door after a storm, about 90 miles away in Ames, Iowa. The page said it belonged to the Greenfield Community School District.
“She said we were surprised it had traveled so far. ”
Karine Jean-Pierre, who works at the White House, said the head of FEMA will go to Iowa on Thursday. The White House is also talking to state and local officials. She said they were “asking for help for people who sadly died” and hoping those hurt get better quickly.
The small Greenfield hospital with 25 beds was damaged, and at least twelve injured people had to be taken to other hospitals. The hospital will stay closed until it’s checked again. It could take weeks or months to fix everything. The hospital and other providers are opening a clinic at a school to help kids with their health on Thursdays.
On Monday, the streets in the neighborhood had nice trees and pretty homes. But by Wednesday, everything was broken and messy. A lot of the homes’ basements where people hid were open and the front yards were messy with things like furniture, toys, and Christmas decorations.
Dwight Lahey, a 70-year-old man who used to drive trucks, went from a town near Des Moines to Greenfield to help his 98-year-old mom. She hid from the twister in her basement, then went to a store after her garage was damaged.
“I don’t know how she made it through that difficult situation,” he said. His mom was at a hotel, not sure where she will go now that their home is gone, he said.
Roseann Freeland, who is 67 years old, hurried with her husband to a concrete room in her basement at the last minute. A few seconds later, her husband opened the door and they could see daylight. “I just went crazy. ” I completely lost control.
Severe weather on Tuesday caused flooding and power outages in Nebraska, tornado damage in Wisconsin and Minnesota, and dust storms in Illinois that closed two interstates.
The damage in Iowa happened after bad weather hit the middle of the country, including Oklahoma and Kansas. Last week, very strong storms hit Houston, and at least eight people died. Many people lost power in the area.