(Radio Iowa) – Damage assessment will get underway soon after last (Sunday) night’s severe thunderstorms brought multiple possible tornadoes and straight-line winds gusting over 80 miles an hour. Likely twisters are reported near as many as a dozen towns in northwest and north-central Iowa, including Armstrong, Pomeroy, Crystal Lake, Moville, Salix, Kingsley, Pierson, Mason City, Graettinger, Moorland, Joice and Wesley.
National Weather Service meteorologist Jack Rotter says the agency will dispatch assessment teams, and they’ll fan out across the region to survey the damage. “We received several reports of tornadoes but with everything happening so late at night,” Rotter says, “we’re still working with emergency managers to get confirmation on what was and wasn’t a tornado.” No injuries are reported. There are scattered reports of damage across northern Iowa but Rotter says the exact cause remains unknown.
“We have reports of homes damaged up in northern fringes of the state,” he says, “but right now it’s a little to early to say whether it was a tornado or severe thunderstorm wind gusts.” No traffic was being allowed into or out of Kingsley and Pierson to keep the public safe from downed trees and power lines.
At the peak last night, MidAmerican Energy says more than 13-thousand Iowa customers lost power. That’s down at 7 A-M to about 48-hundred homes. Rotter says say more widespread severe weather is possible tonight, starting about 6 P-M in western Iowa, lasting until well after midnight in eastern Iowa.
