GREENFIELD, Iowa — Powerful storms ripping through the Midwest spawned several tornadoes, including a fierce twister that ripped through a small Iowa town Tuesday, leaving a desolate landscape of destroyed homes and businesses, downed trees, smashed cars and widely scattered debris, and causing an unknown variety of injuries.
Iowa State Patrol spokesman Sgt. Alex Dinkla said several people were injured in Greenfield, a town of about 2,000 people about 55 miles southwest of Des Moines, and there was extensive damage within the town. He didn’t know the extent of the injuries.
After the storm, parts of Greenfield seemed to be destroyed. Mounds of broken wood, branches, automotive parts and other debris littered the lots where homes once stood. Cars lay broken and bent while damaged houses stood askew against the grey and overcast sky. The trees had hardly any branches or leaves.
Multiple tornadoes were reported across the state, and one also appears to have brought down several 250-foot-tall wind turbines. Television station KCCI-TV in Des Moines, Iowa, showed a minimum of three wind turbines toppled by an apparent tornado in southwest Iowa, and a minimum of one was on fire with black smoke billowing from the bent structure.
Wind farms are built to resist tornadoes, hurricanes and other strong winds. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, turbines are designed to shut down when winds exceed certain thresholds, typically around 55 miles per hour. They also lock and feather their blades and switch into the wind to attenuate stress.
The Adair County Health System hospital in Greenfield was damaged by the storm, but Mercy One spokesman Todd Mizener said he had no further details. The hospital is connected to Mercy One and officials were en path to Greenfield to evaluate the damage.
The city describes itself as “the friendly wave as you walk,” with tree-lined streets — before the storm — and “the bang of fireworks or the twinkle of lights” on special holidays. Greenfield also calls itself the “perfect place to grow” and prides itself on being a town where business owners know their name and neighbors help their neighbors, in response to its visitor page.
Mary Long, the owner of Long's Market in downtown Greenfield, said she rode out the storm at her store on the community's historic town square, which was largely spared damage. Long said there appears to have been widespread damage on the east and south sides of town.
“I could hear this roar, like the proverbial freight train, and then it was just over,” she said.
Camille Blair said the Greenfield Chamber of Commerce office where she works closed before the storm around 2 p.m. She left her house to explain the extensive damage and debris lying around.
“There is pretty significant roof damage on several homes that I know will need completely new roofs,” she said. “And I can see from my house that it was kind of straight down the street.”
In far southwest Iowa, a video posted on social media showed a tornado northwest of Red Oak. Further east and north, the National Weather Service issued multiple tornado warnings for areas near the cities of Griswold, Corning, Fontanelle and Guthrie Center, amongst others.
Iowa was already prepared for severe weather after the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center gave many of the state a high likelihood of severe thunderstorms with the opportunity of strong tornadoes. Des Moines public schools ended classes two hours early and canceled all evening activities prematurely of the storms.
Earlier within the day, residents in west Omaha, Nebraska, woke as much as sirens blaring and widespread power outages as torrential rain, strong winds and enormous hail hit the realm. The deluge of greater than 5 inches of rain in lower than two hours flooded basements and swamped cars. Television station KETV showed firefighters arriving to rescue people from vehicles.
In Illinois, dust storms forced authorities to shut sections of two highways on account of poor visibility. Wind gusts between 35 mph (56 km/h) and 45 mph (74 km/h) hit the McLean area, in response to National Weather Service meteorologist Chuck Schaffer.
“There is no visibility at times,” the state police posted on the social media platform X.
The storms followed days of maximum weather that devastated much of the central a part of the country. Strong winds, large hail and tornadoes swept across parts of Oklahoma and Kansas late Sunday, damaging homes and injuring two in Oklahoma.
Another round of storms ravaged Colorado and western Nebraska on Monday night, seeing the town of Yuma, Colorado, covered in hail the dimensions of baseballs and golf balls, turning streets into rivers of water and ice. Front-end loaders were used Tuesday to maneuver half-foot-high hail.
Tuesday's storms are expected to bring similarly strong winds, heavy rain and enormous hail to Minnesota and parts of northern Missouri, said Bob Oravec, chief meteorologist on the National Weather Service.
He said the system is anticipated to maneuver south on Wednesday, bringing even worse weather conditions to parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and southern Missouri.
McFetridge reported from Des Moines, Iowa, and Beck reported from Omaha, Nebraska. Associated Press writers Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis, Josh Funk in Omaha, Colleen Slevin in Denver and Juan Lozano in Houston contributed to this report.
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