Workers search for the remains of a tornado-damaged home in Greenfield, Iowa, on Tuesday.
Charlie Nyberg/AP
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Workers search for the remains of a tornado-damaged home in Greenfield, Iowa, on Tuesday.
Charlie Nyberg/AP
GREENFIELD, Iowa — A powerful tornado ripped through a small Iowa town on Tuesday, destroying homes and businesses, shredding trees, smashing cars and scattering debris across a desolate scene. Many people died and at least a dozen people were injured.
The tornado destroyed much of Greenfield, a town of about 2,000 people about 55 miles southwest of Des Moines, on a day that saw multiple tornadoes, large hail and heavy rain in multiple states.
“We do have a confirmed death,” Iowa State Patrol Sgt. Alex Dinkla said at a news conference Tuesday night. He said authorities were still determining the total but believed they had counted all residents of the town.
Dinkla said the massive destruction in Greenfield injured at least a dozen people, including the community’s small hospital. Patients there must be transferred to other facilities in nearby cities.
Authorities said they were only allowing residents into Greenfield until Wednesday morning and ordered media representatives to leave the city Tuesday night.
Parts of Greenfield looked devastated after the storm. Piles of broken wood, branches, car parts and other debris are scattered where homes once stood. Cars were crumpled and damaged houses stood crookedly under the gray sky. The trees, with few branches or leaves, stood there. Residents helped each other salvage furniture and other items from piles of rubble or mostly uninhabited homes.
Roger Paxton said he took shelter in his basement when the storm hit. He told WOI-TV he thought the house was missing, but said his family was lucky.
“But others were less serious, like my brother Cody, whose house was just destroyed,” Paxton said. “Then you see all these people here helping each other out… Everything is going to be okay because we have each other, but it’s going to get really, really tough. It’s a mess.”
Several tornadoes were reported across the state, including one that apparently destroyed several 250-foot-tall wind turbines in southwestern Iowa. Some turbines caught fire, sending thick smoke into the air and continuing to smolder hours later.
Wind farms are built to withstand tornadoes, hurricanes and other strong winds. The turbines are designed to shut down when wind speeds exceed a certain threshold, typically around 55 mph (88.5 km/h), according to the U.S. Department of Energy. They also lock and follow the blades and turn them into the wind to minimize stress.
The remains of a wind turbine damaged by a tornado fell to the ground in a field near Prescott, Iowa, on Tuesday.
Charlie Nyberg/AP
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The remains of a wind turbine damaged by a tornado fell to the ground in a field near Prescott, Iowa, on Tuesday.
Charlie Nyberg/AP
The town describes itself as a “friendly wave while walking” type of place, with streets lined with trees before a storm and, on special holidays, “the sound of fireworks or the twinkling of lights.” Greenfield also bills itself as the “perfect place to grow,” according to its visitor page, and prides itself on being a town where business owners know your name and neighbors help neighbors.
Mary Long, owner of Long’s Market in downtown Greenfield, said her business in the community’s historic town square weathered the storm largely unscathed. Long said there appeared to be extensive damage on the east and south sides of town.
“I could hear this roar, like the proverbial freight train, and then it was done,” she said.
Camille Blair said the Greenfield Chamber of Commerce office where she works closed before the storm around 2 p.m. She emerged from her home and described widespread damage and scattered debris.
“I understand there are a couple of houses that have pretty severe roof damage that require brand new roofs,” she said. “I can see it from my house in a line along the road.”
In southwestern Iowa, videos posted to social media showed a tornado northwest of Red Oak. Further east and north, the National Weather Service issued multiple tornado warnings for areas near the towns of Griswold, Corning, Fontanelle and Guthrie Center.
Iowa is bracing for severe weather after the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center predicted a high likelihood of severe thunderstorms with the potential for strong tornadoes across much of the state. Des Moines Public Schools dismissed classes two hours early and canceled all evening activities ahead of the storm.
Storm and tornado warnings moved into Wisconsin Tuesday night and overnight, including for the state’s capital, Madison.
Earlier in the day, residents west of Omaha, Nebraska, woke up to sirens and widespread power outages as torrential rain, high winds and large hail battered the area. Floodwaters flooded basements and submerged cars. Footage from television station KETV showed firefighters rushing to the scene to rescue people in vehicles.
In Illinois, a dust storm forced authorities to close parts of two interstates due to poor visibility. The McLean area experienced wind gusts of 35 mph (56 kph) to 45 mph (74 kph), according to National Weather Service meteorologist Chuck Schaffer.
“Sometimes nothing is visible,” state police posted on social media platform X.
The storms come after days of extreme weather that ravaged much of the central part of the country. Strong winds, large hail and tornadoes ripped through parts of Oklahoma and Kansas late Sunday, damaging homes and injuring two people in Oklahoma.
Another round of storms swept across Colorado and western Nebraska on Monday night, with the city of Yuma, Colorado, blanketed in hailstones the size of baseballs and golf balls, turning streets into rivers of water and ice. On Tuesday, front-end loaders were used to remove half a foot of hail (1.83 meters).
Deadly storms hit the Houston, Texas, area last week, killing at least eight people. Thursday’s storm left hundreds of thousands without power for days, leaving Texans in the dark without air conditioning in hot and humid weather. The death toll rose from seven on Tuesday, including a man who died of carbon monoxide poisoning while running a generator after a power outage. The hurricane reduced businesses and other buildings in downtown skyscrapers to rubble and shattered glass.
Tuesday’s storm is expected to bring the same high winds, heavy rain and large hail to parts of Minnesota and northern Missouri, National Weather Service chief forecaster Bob Oravec said.
The system is expected to turn south on Wednesday, bringing more severe weather to parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and southern Missouri, he said.
