Powerful storms that crossed the Midwest spawned multiple tornadoes, including a violent tornado that killed several people in a small Iowa town on Tuesday, carving a dark landscape of destroyed homes and businesses, torn trees, broken cars and debris widely scattered and causing an unknown phenomenon. number of injured. The storms also hit much of Nebraska with torrential rain, high winds and large hail.
At a news conference Tuesday evening, Iowa State Patrol spokesperson Sgt. Alex Dinkla said several people were killed when a tornado ripped through Greenfield, a town of about 2,000 about 55 miles southwest of Des Moines.
“We can confirm that there were fatalities from this tornado,” said Dinkla, who added that the exact number of weather-related deaths was unclear.
“At least a dozen” injured people were transported to area hospitals, Dinkla said.
“We just want to make sure our search efforts – obviously this tornado devastated a good portion of this city and this community – and with so much damage, we want to make sure we do our due diligence and cover this area,” Dinkla said. “We’ve already done a lot of research, but we want to make sure we do it even better.”
In the aftermath of the storm, parts of Greenfield appeared devastated. Mounds of broken wood, branches, car parts and other debris littered the lots where homes once stood. Cars were smashed and bent while damaged houses stood lopsided against the gray, overcast sky. The trees were – barely – devoid of branches or leaves. Residents helped each other salvage furniture and other belongings from piles of debris or barely standing homes.
Dinkla said a curfew was in effect in the city.
The Adair County Health System hospital in Greenfield was damaged in the storm, but Mercy One spokesman Todd Mizener said he had no further details. The hospital is affiliated with Mercy One and officials were traveling to Greenfield to assess the damage.
Several tornadoes were reported across the state, and one apparently also destroyed several 250-foot wind turbines. CBS affiliate KCCI-TV in Des Moines, Iowa, showed at least three wind turbines toppled by an apparent tornado in southwest Iowa, and at least one was on fire with black smoke billowing from the curved structure.
CBS News obtained dramatic video captured by a tornado chaser in Adams County, Iowa, that showed a home destroyed by a tornado, with debris swirling.
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As of Tuesday evening, more than 41,000 Iowa homes and businesses were without power, according to the utility tracking site PowerOutage.us.
In far southwest Iowa, video posted to social media shows a tornado just northwest of Red Oak. Farther east and north, the National Weather Service issued several tornado warnings for areas near the towns of Griswold, Corning, Fontanelle and Guthrie Center, among others.
Iowa was already prepared for severe weather after the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center gave most of the state a high chance of seeing severe thunderstorms with the potential for strong tornadoes. Des Moines Public Schools ended classes two hours early and canceled all evening activities ahead of the storms.
Earlier today, residents in west Omaha, Nebraska, woke up to blaring weather sirens and widespread power outages as torrential rain, strong winds and large hail hit the area .
More than 10,000 customers lost power in and around Omaha early Tuesday, and the deluge of more than 5 inches of rain in less than two hours in some areas saw basements flooded and cars submerged in the low areas. That downpour, combined with rain earlier in the night, brought the total to 8 inches in the area, according to the National Weather Service.
Television station KETV showed video of several vehicles being overtaken by water on a low-lying street in north-central Omaha and firefighters arriving to rescue those inside.
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Although authorities have not confirmed the presence of tornadoes in the area, reports have confirmed hurricane-force winds, said weather service meteorologist Becky Kern.
“We measured a 90 mph gust in Columbus,” Kern said. Columbus is approximately 87 miles west of Omaha.
Chris Bruin, a meteorologist for The Weather Channel, said the storms would likely intensify as the night progressed and produce “more destructive tornadoes.”
Tornado watches were also in place in southern Missouri and Arkansas, but Bruin predicted that Iowa would likely see “the bulk of the worst conditions.”
Parts of Illinois and Minnesota were also at risk of severe weather, with conditions expected to worsen Tuesday evening as well. The Chicago metro area could experience wind gusts up to 75 mph, with possible tornado activity, according to David Yeomans and Albert Ramon, CBS Chicago meteorologists.
A dust storm near Bloomington in central Illinois forced Illinois State Police to close portions of Interstate 55 and Interstate 74 earlier Tuesday, CBS Chicago reported. Anyone caught in the storm was advised to stop and turn off their lights.
The weather service also issued tornado warnings for parts of southern Minnesota. CBS Minnesota meteorologist Joseph Dames predicted that eastern Minnesota, including Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area.
The storms follow days of extreme weather that ravaged much of the center of the country. High winds, large hail and tornadoes swept through parts of Oklahoma and Kansas Sunday evening, damaging homes and injuring two in Oklahoma.
Another round of storms Monday night swept through Colorado and western Nebraska and saw the town of Yuma, Colorado, covered in hail the size of baseballs and golf balls , transforming the streets into rivers of water and ice. Residents cleaned up Tuesday using heavy construction equipment and snow shovels to remove knee-deep ice.
The storm in Yuma shattered vehicle windshields, hit building siding and shattered many windows. It also brought heavy rain to the town of about 3,500 located about 40 miles west in Nebraska, stranding some cars on the streets. The hail was still about a half-foot thick Tuesday morning and front-end loaders were used to move it, said Curtis Glenn, a trustee of the Yuma Methodist Church, which was damaged by flooding and hail .
Glenn, an insurance claims adjuster, said the combined sounds of hail, rain and wind sounded like “a gun going off while you’re on a train.”
“It’s not something you’d ever want to see or see again,” he said of the storm, the worst he’s experienced in his years working in the insurance industry.
Last week, Deadly storms hit the Houston area in Texas, killing at least seven people. These storms on Thursday knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people for days, leaving these Texans in the dark and without air conditioning in hot, humid weather. Hurricane-force winds reduced businesses and other structures to debris and broken glass in downtown skyscrapers.
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