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Storm survey team to assess damage across parts of Carroll, Calhoun, Pocahontas & possibly Audubon Counties, today

News, Weather

May 11th, 2015 by Ric Hanson

Officials with the National Weather Service in Johnston say a storm survey team will fan out across three northwest Iowa Counties today (Monday) to assess damage from a tornado or tornadoes, that moved across the area, Sunday.

The damage assessment team will cover Northern Carroll, Calhoun, southeastern Pocahontas, and possibly northern Audubon County, where damage caused by high winds may have been due to a tornado.  They’ll also be in Lake City, where the roof of a high school was torn off while as many as 100 people attending a ceremony, took shelter in a basement.Trees two-to three-feet in diameter were also uprooted in the community at around 7:40-p.m., and multiple roofs were blown off houses. A multiple-vortex tornado one-quarter of a mile wide was reported in the area south of Lake City, at around 7:30-p.m.

A possible tornado was spinning-up debris four-miles northwest of Lidderdale, in Carroll County, at around 7:15-p.m.  No injuries have been reported. A tornado was also reported in Pocahontas County, at around 8:20-p.m., four-miles northwest of Manson. The twister was seen on the ground and bouncing before going back into the clouds. A second twister, or possibly the same one, was observed at around 8:15-p..m. 1 mile southwest of Manson, in Calhoun County.

Three-miles southeast of Jolley, in Calhoun County, a tornado was reported on the ground heading toward the Twin Lakes Wildlife Refuge, just after 8-p.m. Another reported tornado was observed three-miles west of Lohrville, in Calhoun County, at around 7:35-p.m.

Other damage reports from around Iowa include downed power lines and power poles south of Van Meter, in Dallas County. In Audubon County, a machine shed was destroyed on a farm about 6-miles south/southeast of Gray, at around 7:45-p.m., Sunday. Here in Atlantic, two waves of heavy wind and rained downed at least one power-line and a large tree. Pea-sized hail fell as well, at around 1:30-p.m.

The results and conclusions of the survey (which typically includes the level and type of damage, determining a possible tornado’s path and width, along with length of time on the ground), will be completed and transmitted through a public information statement disseminated by the media, and on the Weather Services’ website (www.weather.gov/dmx) later today (Monday).