Under blue skies and a light wind, residents of the small town of Greenfield, Iowa, were busy cleaning up two days after a destructive tornado It devastated more than a hundred homes in just one minute, claiming the lives of four residents and injuring at least 35 more.
Along the strip of just over a kilometer (mile), the deafening noise of heavy machinery could be heard Thursday as it picked up splintered homes, smashed cars and fallen trees. But on both sides of that path, the picturesque homes and gardens seemed intact, and one would be hard-pressed to believe that a tornado with maximum winds of 175-185 mph (109-115 km/h) had hit this community of 2,000.
More severe weather events were reported in the north-central region overnight Thursday into Friday, including a tornado that was on the ground for nearly an hour in southwestern Oklahoma and possible tornadoes in parts of Iowa that had already been hit. damage.
The chaos caused by Tuesday’s tornado in Greenfield was reflected on the faces of those still processing how quickly their homes and lives were shattered, some in mourning and many grateful to have been spared the tragedy.
Among the dead were Dean and Pam Wiggins, said their grandson, Tom Wiggins, who on Thursday was trying to find memories in the remains of their house, of which little more than the foundation remained.
Not far away, Bill Yount was clearing his plot.
“It’s like someone dropped a bomb,” he said, pointing to the land covered in wood, debris, leafless trees, machines and equipment to clean up the mess.
According to what he said, he waited for the storm to pass inside a closet.
“The roof lifted and fell again and the windows were blown up,” he said Thursday. The tornado leveled the garage of the home and damaged the interior walls. “Forty seconds changed my life a lot,” he said.
A black van with extensive damage ended up between his house and his neighbor’s.
“No one knows who it belongs to,” he said.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds on Thursday praised the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s response as she requested disaster declarations for several counties. After examining Tuesday’s destruction, the National Weather Service determined that three powerful tornadoes carved independent paths totaling 130 miles (209.21 km) across Iowa, said Donna Dubberke, chief meteorologist in Des Moines.
On Saturday and Sunday, episodes of bad weather could be recorded in areas of Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas already damaged by the storms.
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