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(Update): Wind knocks over rail cars, topples trees in much of Iowa

News

May 26th, 2016 by Ric Hanson

DENISON, Iowa (AP) – Winds gusting to 87 mph have knocked over train cars and toppled trees in parts of Iowa. Authorities say no injuries were reported from the storms that ran through the state early Thursday morning. Crawford County emergency management coordinator Greg Miller says trees and branches are down in several communities and that power also had been briefly lost.

The National Weather Service says the 87 mph gust was reported at the Denison Municipal Airport. Union Pacific spokeswoman Calli Hite says 22 cars on an eastbound UP train derailed near Westside around 2:30 a.m., but there were no injuries and no release of contaminants.

A resident of Audubon County who lives about 7-to 8-miles east of Exira off 280th Street, told KJAN News a solid wood corn crib that’s stood the test of time for over 50-years, was blown over sometime between 2:25-and 2:45-a.m. today. In Central Iowa’s Story County, a hoop building was destroyed near McCallsburg, a large tree limb snapped and fell on a house, and a shed was damaged.

On the eastern side of the state, gusts knocked over an unoccupied semitrailer at the Isle of Capri Waterloo casino, and another semi overturned near Hudson.