Several tornadoes damaged homes and other buildings in Iowa on Friday, with residents and officials assessing and cleaning up damage on Saturday.
In Bronson, Iowa, Shane and Angie Williams had their home and three miles of farmland decimated, reported the Sioux City Journal.
The roof was blown off the home, exterior walls and two garages blew apart, and the tornado damaged a barn, machine shed, corn crib, and more.
“You look at the destruction this thing did and you can’t believe nobody was hurt,” says Dave Amick, former Woodbury County Sheriff who serves as mayor of Bronson, population 323. “It really is a miracle.”
Damage assessment crews from the National Weather Service were touring areas of suspected tornado damage Saturday morning in Nebraska and Iowa to determine how many tornadoes there were and the paths they took, said meteorologist Mike Fuhs in the National Weather Service’s Sioux Falls, S.D., office.
In Iowa, it appears there were tornadoes north and south of Sioux City, including one at Sloan, as well as those west and north of Hinton, east of Moville, at Quimby and one south of Cherokee, Fuhs said.
“A couple of those may be the same tornado,” he said. “But right now it’s looking like we had at least six to eight [altogether].”
Cherokee County officials are saying the tornado damage “appears to be less significant than initially believed.”
In Quimby, the damage was mainly to trees after officials warned there was “major damage” late Friday. A few acreages west of Washta have minor damage.
