Storms leave major damage, but no injuries reported

UPDATE: Several severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings were issued Monday morning, but there have been no confirmed reports of a tornado in the area.

Elementary school roof torn off during storm

URBANA – Teachers are cleaning up after high winds ripped the roof off of their soon-to-be new elementary school.

Urbana's Intermediate Elementary School on West Main Street is part of several new projects for the district.  High winds tore the roof off of the new end of the building.  The storm also caused a water main to break flooding some of the classrooms as well as a small gas leak.

Principal Jon Hasleiet has only had the new building for about ten days.

“We already have a lot going on, this is kind of crunch time for us,” Hasleiet said,  “We didn't expect adding a new roof would be part of the plan.”

Hasleiet is staying optimistic the building will be cleaned up and ready to go for the start of the new school year.

“Every teacher that teaches here in this section of the building has been in here to help or survey the damage,” he said.  “Things are going to get taken care of and we're going to be okay.”

Truck driver describes wild ride as rig tips on I-380

URBANA – Joe Schultz was shaking as he hung, upside down in the cab of his semi-trailer truck.

Fierce winds sent his rig into a ditch around 5 a.m. Monday along Interstate 380 near Urbana, and he was there until help arrived. The driver's side window had shattered, and the right side of his windshield was busted out.

Howling winds reminded Schultz how he got into this predicament.

“It was just whipping,” said Schultz, 57, of Cedar Rapids. “It was not one of those freight trains like they say, but it was loud.”

What struck Schultz was how quickly things changed. He had just stopped for coffee in Center Point, and winds were calm. After a few miles on I-380, the wind speed picked up dramatically, he said.

“It started raining and lightning, and then just instantly, it was up to 30 or 40 mph winds,” Schultz said. “And then in another mile, (it seemed like) it was up close to 100 mph.”

Schultz brought his 35,000-pound rig to a crawl. He was pulling a light load – about 2,000 pounds of cabinet hardware – and knew that wasn't in his favor. He crept closer to Exit 41 at Urbana, hoping he could get off the interstate and take cover.

“I had just started turning onto the ramp, and it just picked me up and laid me over,” Schultz said. “And it didn't lay me over easy, either. It slammed me.”

Schultz, who has driven more than 4 million miles in his 33-year career, said he worried about a fuel leak, and whether the semi was stable. A couple drivers pulled over and asked him if he was OK, but it was a factory worker from Urbana who pulled the windshield back with his bare hands and helped Schultz out of the rig.

“He went out of his way to help,” Schultz said.

Wind gusts reportedly near 70 mph overturned two other semi-trailer trucks in the same area on I-380, but no injuries were reported.

Schultz had been headed back to Bertch Cabinet Manufacturing in Waterloo, but instead, his destination Monday afternoon was an emergency room. His shoulder was bruised and his back ached.

“I'm going to be stiff, but I'll be alright,” Schultz said.

Storm in Garrison takes out fire station

GARRISON- Firefighters in Garrison wanted to respond immediately to reports of serious storm damage in Benton County community Monday morning.  But there was one significant problem holding them back.

The straight line winds, one National Weather Service representative estimated at 100+ miles per hour, leveled the town's volunteer fire station. So other nearby communities had to respond while Garrison firefighters started to dig out their rescue equipment from underneath the rubble.

Garrison volunteer chief Steve Meyer said five trucks got buried by the collapsing fire station. He was at home in his basement, listening to a police scanner, when he could tell the department was in trouble.

“It came across the radio - the station was flattened on our trucks and that was the first indication I had of how serious it was,” Meyer said.

The chief estimated damage to the fire equipment at $50,000.  He said rebuilding the fire station itself would probably be a $300,000 job.  Firefighters themselves had done much of the original construction work in 1994 and in 2007 with a major addition.

Chief Meyer estimated 90 percent of all the buildings in town sustained at least some wind damage.

The town's library lost a roof, and several hours later it was still blocking a street.  Many homes sustained damage when trees and limbs got tossed around by the high winds.

John Fowler refurbished a downtown building as a home.  While surveying the damage, he didn't know if he was ready or able to rebuild.

“I don't know whether I have the energy or not,” Fowler said adding “I'll have to look at the extent of damage.”

Despite the extensive damage in Garrison, no one was hurt.  Firefighters said they're ready to rebuild their station house as soon as they clean up the debris and raise the money for a new home.

Benton County towns hit hard

About 4:30 a.m. Monday, strong winds ripped through Vinton, snapping trees, downing power lines and ripping shingles off roofs.

Benton County Emergency Manager Scott Hansen said this morning that extensive damage occurred across northern Benton County. The communities of Garrison, Vinton, Shellsburg and Urbana were hit especially hard.

Hansen says winds of 80 to 90 mph moved through Vinton Monday morning.

There are many trees down throughout the city of Vinton. Officials blocked off part of Highway 218 due to downed power lines. The highway has reopened south of Vinton, but remains closed south of town.

Temporary shelters have been set up to house those displaced by the storm in Vinton. At this time, no injuries have been reported.

Additional damage has been reported in Dysart, Tama, Toledo and Marshalltown.

Outdoor warning sirens sounded in Benton and Linn counties due to high winds moving through the area early this morning.

'Significant' damage at Iowa Braille school

The Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School in Vinton sustained significant damage in the early morning storm Monday, school Superintendent Patrick Clancy said.

No damage estimate was available yet, but Clancy expected clean up will take days or weeks.

“There is damage to every building out here,” Clancy said. “It is significant.”

About 100 trees on the 150-year-old campus were brought down by the storm or will have to be torn down due to damage, Clancy said.

Some buildings sustained only minor damage, like broken windows or some missing shingles. But Old Main, the oldest building on campus and the school's administrative building, likely will need a new roof, Clancy said.

“The roof, the north and south sides are basically gone, and the central part is significantly damaged,” he said.

Engineers are on campus to determine if Old Main remains structurally sound other than needing a new roof, which Clancy believes will be the case.

Administrative offices have been evacuated from Old Main for now, Clancy said. Also, seven students from around Iowa with visual impairments were on the Braille School campus for a week-long program when the storm hit, Clancy said. They were staying in the residential portion of Old Main and have been evacuated to a different building. It's possible the students will be bused home early since the campus is without power, Clancy said.

Another campus building, the Cottage dormitory, sustained significant storm damage. That building is rented by AmeriCorps and used as a dorm for AmeriCorps volunteers. About 140 volunteers were on campus this week for training and are helping with the storm cleanup, Clancy said.

The seven students in the Braille School week-long program and all of the AmeriCorps volunteers took refuge in the tunnel system underneath the Braille School campus during the storm, and there were no injuries, Clancy said.

“The tunnel system connects nearly all of our buildings and it's part of our storm warning system,” he said. “People go to the tunnels when necessary, so it's good they did this time.”

University of Iowa Facilities Management sent crews to help assess damage and determine if it can provide assistance to the Iowa Braille School, UI officials said Monday. UI workers are poised to provide power generators, electricians and ground crews to help clear storm debris and other assistance, if needed.

Wind storm displaces livestock

DYSART – Several livestock confinement facilities were damaged or destroyed by the strong winds that swept through east-Central Iowa Monday morning.

About 2,500 nearly full-grown market hogs were exposed to the hot sun after the winds destroyed a confinement barn on the Ross Monroe farm south of Dysart.

Several hogs were killed when they were struck by falling debris and others succumbed to stress, according to Monroe's mother, Sandy Monroe.

Dysart firefighters were spraying water on the hogs this afternoon to keep them cool while they were waiting to be trucked to market.

The normally white pigs had turned pink following their unaccustomed exposure to the sun.

At the Josh and Ali Volante farm north of Clutier, about 1,200 half-grown hogs had to be transferred to a nearby barn after the wind ripped the roof off the facility they had been living in.

“It's been a lot of work, but we've had a lot of help,” Ali Volante said.

She said she and her husband waited out the storm in their basement.

The storm caused minor damage to their home but destroyed a grain bin and an equipment shed, she said.

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Nearly every home damaged in Dysart

Almost every house in Dysart took some damage in the storm that passed through at about 4:30 a.m.

The winds tossed a grain bin on to Wilson Street, tore the roof from Calvary Baptist Church, toppled trees in the city park and damaged a school roof, said Tim Ruroden, police chief. He said no injuries have been reported.

"I don't think there is a home in Dysart that doesn't have a tree down. Nobody was spared, but nobody was hurt," said Mayor Don Lyons.

After the storm, which lasted about half an hour, residents began to assess the damage, said city council member Pam Thiele.

"We went around checking on neighbors, elderly neighbors," Thiele said.

Electricity to the town is knocked out, the police chief said. In several places in town, power lines dangle into the streets marked by yellow caution tape.

Widespread power outages

More than 47,000 Alliant Energy customers were without power across Iowa as of 10:00 a.m., including more than 12,000 in Eastern Iowa.

As of 4:00 p.m., Alliant reported that over 30 percent of customers in Benton were still without power:

• 2,029 customers in Benton
• 2,156 customers in Linn
• 244 customers in Jones

The cities of Vinton and Garrison sustained major wind damage. Those cities are currently attempting to conduct clean up and provide for the immediate needs of the local population. Until further notice, only emergency response traffic is being permitted into Vinton and Garrison.

Trucks overturned near Urbana

Fierce winds overturned at least three semi-trailer trucks and tossed at least five smaller pull-behind trailers across Interstate 380 Monday near Urbana.

The pull-behind trailers littered the east ditch, having tumbled there from Patten Equipment Sales on the north edge of the Benton County town. A couple other trailers wound up in the interstate median, and several others were damaged on the west side of I-380, where the business is located.

Two of the semi-trailer trucks were flipped into the ditch just south of there, near the northbound exit ramp for Urbana. A couple miles south, near mile marker 39, another semi was on its side in the east ditch.

“I'm not aware of any injuries, but right now we're unable to find the (semi) drivers,” Iowa State Patrol Trooper Darin Snedden said.

Wind gusts took down several trees and topped some utility poles. One tree branch destroyed a garage just west of Casey's General Store.

There has been no official word on injuries. I-380 and the ramp at Urbana remained open at 8:15 a.m.

Gas leak forces Garwin evacuation

GARWIN - The Tama County town of Garwin evacuated most of its 585 residents this morning after a gas leak was discovered at an apartment complex, Fire Chief Tim Laffoon said.

Laffoon said his pager went off shortly after 4 a.m., not long before strong winds roared through town knocking down trees and ripping off roofs.

Alliant Energy personnel shut off the gas by 9 a.m., and residents were allowed to return to begin cleaning up debris.

“You could smell gas all over town,” said resident Rick Marks, 27, who spent a couple of hours in Marshalltown diner before residents were allowed to return.

Marks said the evacuation notices were generally delivered by word of mouth. “This town runs on volunteers,” he said.

Marks said he awoke to find wind-driven rain “gushing in through my living room window.”

Laffoon said several large grain bins were destroyed at the Mid-Iowa Coop elevator, whose office was nearly buried under storm debris.

State disaster declared for Tama County

At his weekly news conference Monday, Gov. Terry Branstad said he had authorized a state disaster declaration for Tama County due to the loss of electricity and the need for cooling stations given the expectation that the weather will get hot and humid.

“They've lost a lot of electricity. This is going to be a hot day and there's need of generators that the state owns. We'll do what we can to provide generators so we can provide cool places for people in that county that are without electricity,” the governor said.

Branstad also noted there was “significant damage” reported to the Iowa Braille and Sight-Saving School in Vinton.

“We want to do all that we can in these disaster situations to provide assistance and help as quickly as possible,” Branstad said during his weekly news conference.

Linn County officials: Take storm debris to south site

The Cedar Rapids Linn County Solid Waste Agency says if you have anything bigger than small limbs, don't take it to the landfill site on County Home Road.

Large debris should be taken to the site at 2250 A St. SW.