(Radio Iowa) – Strong storms blew into northern and eastern Iowa last night packing winds clocked in some areas from 70 to 100 miles and hour. Sioux County Emergency Management Coordinator Ryan De Kruyf says it hit there around 9:15p-m. “Throughout the county, we’re seeing a lot of tree damage, infrastructure damage, trees that fell on houses, and yeah, it’s ‘s pretty remarkable to drive around and there’s not a lot of areas that don’t have any damage whatsoever,” he says. Some 10-thousand homes were without power and De Kruyf says crews are working to get that restored. “Be cautious and if you don’t have to be out, definitely don’t be out and looking around give the workers that are out there working trying to clear the debris and clear the trees away room to work and so everyone can stay safe,” De Kruyf says.

He says no one was injured in the storm. “We did have a couple houses that some people were trapped in just simply because the exit or doorways were blocked with trees, but we got those people out safely,” De Kruyf says. De Kruyf says many of the toppled tree were large and old. “Orange City specifically, there’s a bunch of pretty old trees that are down and it’s pretty remarkable what this wind event did. It’s it’s snapped a bunch of trees that are quite old, probably ten feet up, and I’ve never seen anything like this,” De Kruyf says.

Tree damage in Sioux County. (KSOU photo)

Garner Mayor Tim Schmidt saw the same type of damage in his Hancock County town in north-central Iowa. “It’s quite severe, probably the worst I’ve ever seen,” Schmidt says. He says you couldn’t get anywhere right after the storm hit. “Streets were pretty impassable. I went up to City Hall prior to this storm, otherwise I would have never made it. They’ve been working and hitting the streets cleared. There was a lot of power lines down. Power has been restored on most of the houses,” he says. Schmidt says it’s going to take a lot of work clearing the large number of trees. “I’d say right now, rough estimates 150 to 200. You know you can’t go down a street without being damage,” he says.

Schmidt says the Hancock County Supervisors have declared the county a disaster area.