WINTERSET, Iowa — Winterset, Iowa is a town in the state of Iowa. Authorities say multiple tornadoes damaged homes in central Iowa and destroyed trees and power lines in the state’s deadliest storm in more than a decade, killing seven people, two of whom were children.
According to Madison County emergency management officials, a tornado that occurred around 4:30 p.m. in the hamlet of Winterset, southwest of Des Moines, injured four people and killed six. Saturday. Among the dead are two children under the age of five and four adults.
When a separate tornado struck less than an hour later in Lucas County, about 54 miles (87 kilometers) southeast of Des Moines, officials reported one death and multiple injuries.
The deceased was in a trailer at Red Haw State Park in Chariton, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
The power cuts affected about 10,000 people.
Storms that caused tornadoes across much of Iowa Saturday afternoon and evening have wreaked havoc in the Des Moines suburb of Norwalk, areas just east of Des Moines, and other parts of eastern Iowa. Warm, wet air from the Gulf of Mexico fueled the storms.
According to officials, many homes were damaged, roads were blocked by severed lines, and strong winds tore branches of trees. About 10,000 people in the Des Moines area were affected by the power outages at one point.
The deadliest storms in Iowa since a tornado in Parkersburg, northern Iowa, in May 2008 killed nine people and destroyed nearly 300 homes. A month later, a hurricane hit the Little Sioux Scout farm in western Iowa, killing four children.
The National Weather Service in Des Moines tweeted earlier on Sunday that at least three storms had produced tornadoes, but the number of tornadoes “is currently unknown.”
Victor Gensini, professor of meteorology at Northern Illinois University, said that although deadly storms are more likely in April and May, there were numerous examples of deadly storms in March. He said Saturday’s storms were not as uncommon as Iowa’s mid-December tornado outbreak last year.
“The storms that produce these hurricanes — these supercell storms,” Gensini explained, “I don’t care what the calendar says.” “No need to include June. No need to include May. They are formed when materials are found. They were clearly present the day before yesterday.”
According to scientists, extreme weather events and higher temperatures are more likely to occur as a result of human-induced climate change. Scientifically linking a storm system to global warming requires detailed research and computer simulations that are time-consuming, not always done, and reveal no apparent link.
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds has signed a disaster declaration for Madison County authorizing government resources to be used for response and recovery activities. Diogenes Ayala, Madison County Director of Emergency Management, estimated that between 25 and 30 homes were severely destroyed.
“No one has seen anything like this in a long time,” Ayala said.
In the undulating hills south of Winterset, homeowners and volunteers were picking up wood scraps and cleaning up on Sunday, with chainsaws spinning in the background.
A white car sat on its roof amid the ruins of ruined houses that had been blown from their foundations, and debris hung from the trees. Only the foundations of some houses remained. The hurricane created a narrow trail of destruction along a ridge, leaving other homes hundreds of feet away unharmed.
The devastating destruction in Iowa combined with wind damage as far away as Illinois, Gensini estimates Saturday’s storms produced more than $1 billion in damage all the way through.
According to the National Weather Service in Des Moines, initial photos and videos from the wreckage near the village of Winterset suggested it was an EF-3 tornado, at least in the Advanced Fujita scale, and could cause significant damage. He said weather personnel would examine the damage on Sunday and determine a possible rating.
Winds of more than 130 mph are common in EF-3 storms.
The storm that created Saturday’s hurricanes lingered together for about 100 miles from the Nebraska border to central Iowa, but it won’t be known how long individual tornadoes remain on the ground until damage assessments are done.