Six people were killed Saturday when a tornado swept through central Iowa, damaging buildings and toppling trees and power lines, authorities said.
Madison County emergency management officials said four people were injured in addition to those killed when the tornado hit the southwestern area of Des Moines around 4:30 p.m. local time. Among the dead were both children and adults.
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds issued a disaster declaration for the county, authorizing state resources to be used to support response and recovery efforts.
“Our hearts go out to all those affected by the deadly storms that tore through our state today,” Reynolds said. “Our hearts ache during this time, but I know the Iowans will stand up and help each other in this time of need — they’re ready.”
Madison County Emergency Management Director Diogenes Ayala said 25 to 30 homes were severely damaged by the tornado.
“This is the worst thing people have seen in a very long time,” he said.
Officials did not identify the dead but said they were not in the same location.
Wendy Burkett told the Des Moines Register that she and two of her three daughters were in their home Saturday afternoon when her husband, Tony, called her from a nearby warehouse where he was working and made the announcement. give her a tornado warning.
Burkett said she went out and joined him to the front of the house, looking down their driveway to the southwest. “And then we saw it. The tornado,” she said. “There was debris flying around and it just got bigger and bigger.”
They rushed with their daughter to the basement when the tornado hit within seconds. As they clung to each other, a window broke to the outside and water started gushing from the pipes, she said.
But within about a minute, the tornado passed, and while the family was not injured, their house was devastated because of the debris surrounding it, even in the trees.
The National Weather Service in Des Moines posted on Twitter late Saturday that initial images and video of the damage around the community of Winterset showed it was at least an EF-3 tornado, potentially potential to cause severe damage, on the Advanced Fujita scale. It said weather service teams would investigate the damage Sunday and further assess the possibility of ratings.
The tornado-inducing storms moved through much of Iowa afternoon through Saturday night, with the storm also causing damage in the Norwalk suburb of Des Moines, areas immediately east of Des Moines and areas another in eastern Iowa.
Officials said several homes were damaged, roads were blocked by downed power lines and tree branches were broken by strong winds. Photos tweeted on social media showed fallen trees, debris, roofs and damaged vehicles. At one point, the power outage affected about 10,000 people in the Des Moines area.
