At least five dead and dozens injured by tornadoes in Iowa as violent storms hit Midwest

At least five people died and dozens more were injured as violent tornadoes ripped through Iowa. One of them left a path of destruction through the small town of Greenfield, authorities said Wednesday.

The tornadoes destroyed homes and businesses, tore down trees and smashed cars, just weeks after tornadoes struck in other parts of the state and devastated communities. The recent storms also hit large parts of Nebraska with torrential rain, strong winds and large hail.

The Iowa Department of Public Safety announced Wednesday evening that the tornado in Greenfield in Adair County killed four people and injured at least 35. At least 14 people were taken to medical facilities outside the county.

“It should be noted that the number of injured is believed to be likely higher, but these numbers reflect only those patients whose injuries were treated at certain alternative treatment sites,” the agency said in a press release.

In nearby Adams County, a female driver was killed Tuesday night when her vehicle was blown off the road by a tornado, the Adams County Sheriff’s Office reported.

The names of those killed were not immediately released.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds issued a disaster declaration for 15 counties across the state affected by severe weather and visited hard-hit Greenfield, a town of about 2,000 people about 55 miles southwest of Des Moines, on Wednesday to ” to assess the damage with local officials.” and start the recovery process.

The governor called the situation “tragic” and “shocking” at a news conference in Greenfield on Wednesday morning. She told reporters that much of the city was leveled by the tornado and a number of homes and buildings, including the local hospital, were either damaged or completely destroyed.

State Rep. Ray Sorensen, whose jurisdiction includes Greenfield, said he and other residents pulled a man from the rubble Tuesday night and took him to a “makeshift hospital” set up in a nearby lumber yard.

The governor thanked area hospitals for treating the injured, some of whom were airlifted from Greenfield, and stressed that a search and rescue mission was still underway Wednesday to care for everyone in the city.

“It’s still a search mission. We want to make sure that all residents are accounted for,” said Iowa State Patrol spokesman Sgt. Alex Dinkla. “When we have so many homes that have been destroyed and just completely demolished, we want to make sure that every resident, every person is accounted for.”

After the storm, parts of Greenfield appeared devastated. Piles of broken wood, branches, car parts and other debris lay on land where homes once stood. Cars lay broken and bent, while damaged houses stood crooked against the gray and overcast sky. There were hardly any trees left without branches or leaves. Residents helped each other rescue furniture and other belongings from piles of rubble or from houses that were barely standing.

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 route to Greenfield to assess the damage.

A wind farm near Greenfield was hit directly by a strong tornado that destroyed five of the huge power generation towers, one of which caught fire.

Video of the direct hit showed frightening images of the violent cyclone sweeping through the landscape, uprooting trees, damaging buildings and sending dirt and debris high into the air.

Several turbines at MidAmerican Energy Company’s Orient Wind Farm recorded wind speeds of over 100 mph (160 km/h) as the tornadoes approached, shortly before the turbines were destroyed, the company said in a statement.

“This has had an unprecedented impact on our wind fleet and we have been operating wind farms since 2004,” MidAmerican said.

CBS News has obtained dramatic video captured by a tornado tracker in Adams County, Iowa, showing a home being destroyed by a tornado and debris flying.

About 3,500 homes and businesses in Iowa were without power Wednesday evening, up from more than 32,000 on Tuesday evening, according to utility company PowerOutage.us.

Camille Blair said the Greenfield Chamber of Commerce office where she works was closed about 2 p.m. Tuesday ahead of the storm. She left her home to report the extensive damage and scattered debris.

“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.”

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 severe thunderstorms with the possibility of strong tornadoes. Des Moines public schools ended classes two hours early and canceled all evening activities in advance of the storms.

Earlier, residents in western Omaha, Nebraska, were awakened by wailing weather sirens and widespread power outages as torrential rain, strong winds and heavy hail swept 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 caused basements to flood in some areas and cars to be submerged in low-lying areas. According to the National Weather Service, this downpour combined with rain earlier in the overnight hours resulted in a total rainfall of 8 inches across the region.

Television station KETV showed video of several vehicles being overtaken by rushing water on a low-lying road in north Omaha and of firefighters arriving to rescue the people inside.

Although officials had not confirmed any tornadoes in the area, there were confirmed reports of hurricane-force winds, said weather service meteorologist Becky Kern.

“In Columbus we measured a gust of 90 miles per hour,” Kern said. Columbus is approximately 87 miles west of Omaha.

Chris Bruin, a meteorologist at the Weather Channel, said the storms would likely intensify throughout the night and spawn “even more destructive tornadoes.”

Tornado warnings were also issued south of 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, and conditions were also expected to worsen Tuesday evening. The Chicago area could see wind gusts of up to 75 mph, with possible tornado activity. accordingly Meteorologists David Yeomans and Albert Ramon from CBS Chicago.

A Sandstorm near Bloomington in central Illinois forced Illinois State Police to close portions of Interstate 55 and Interstate 74 on Tuesday, CBS Chicago reported. Anyone caught in the storm was asked to stop and turn off their lights.

The weather service also issued tornado warnings for parts of southern Minnesota.

The storms follow days of extreme weather that have devastated much of the central part of the country. Strong winds, heavy hail and tornadoes swept across parts of Oklahoma and Kansas late Sunday, damaging homes and injuring two people in Oklahoma.

Another round of storms ravaged Colorado and western Nebraska on Monday night, seeing the city of Yuma, Colorado, covered in hail the size of baseballs and golf balls, turning streets into rivers of water and ice. Residents used heavy construction equipment and snow shovels to clear ice that had piled up to their knees on Tuesday.

The storm in Yuma shattered vehicle windshields, destroyed the facades of buildings and smashed many windows. It also brought heavy rain to the city of about 3,500 people about 40 miles west of Nebraska, leaving some cars stranded on the streets. The hail was still about a half-foot high Tuesday morning and was being moved with front-end loaders, said Curtis Glenn, a trustee of the Yuma Methodist Church, which was affected by flooding and hail damage.

Glenn, an insurance claims adjuster, said the combined sounds of hail, rain and wind sounded like “a gunshot while sitting on a train.”

“It’s not something you ever want to see again,” he said of the storm, the worst he has seen in his years in the insurance industry.

Last week, Deadly storms hit the Houston area in Texas, killing at least seven people. Those storms on Thursday knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people for days and left Texans in the dark and without air conditioning in hot and humid weather. Hurricane-force winds reduced businesses and other buildings to rubble and shattered glass in downtown skyscrapers.