(Radio Iowa) – Golf ball-sized hail hit Story City and a few other Iowa communities in Monday night’s storm, as winds topped 70 miles an hour, and heavy rains caused flash flooding in several parts of central and eastern Iowa. Hamilton County Sheriff Alex Pruisman says the National Weather Service had two reports of funnel clouds there, but neither touched down.
“Unfortunately, one of my deputies got caught in it, had some golf ball-sized hail take one of our squad cars head-on, caused some dents,” Pruisman says, “but luckily, no injuries were reported.” MidAmerican Energy reported more than 19-thousand homes statewide were without power at the storm’s peak, and the sheriff says the county had quite a few homes in the dark.
“There is some property damage to vehicles, housing, siding, stuff like that. There are some tree limbs down from the rain, straight-line winds were pretty hefty,” Pruisman says. “It was the quickest I’ve ever seen a storm come on and then the quickest I’ve ever seen one move on. It happened fast. If you weren’t ready for it, it hit you without even knowing it.”
The strongest winds in the storm were reported near the Benton County town of Shellsburg around 5 P-M, with gusts of 74 miles an hour.
