2 days ago
High winds damage buildings, uproot trees in NW IA
NORTHWEST IOWA (KELO) — High winds from an afternoon storm left behind scattered branches, uprooted trees and damaged buildings across southeast KELOLAND.
A relatively calm day turned a little chaotic in parts of northwest Iowa. Strong winds roll through Ocheyeden. About 20 miles west, a viewer sent us footage of dust kicking up in the air.
Storm damages towns across KELOLAND
The storm scattered branches and caused structure damage.
In Rock Rapids, the winds were so strong that it uprooted a tree and damaged a home.
It also halted construction progress on a building and was the reason behind a tree falling onto a garage.
There was also evidence of high winds in Little Rock.
'It was a mess when I came into town,' Kirk Peters said.
That was especially true at Joe Schilling's home. He and his wife were out of town when the storm hit.
'We were in Sioux Falls. It's our 37th anniversary today, and we were actually at the zoo, and my neighbor called me and asked if we were home. I said 'No.' He said, 'Well, you got a great big branch on your house,'' Schilling said.
The tree means a lot to him.
'This is actually a tree we planted when my son was in kindergarten, so it's kind of a little bit sentimental to us,' Schilling said.
People like Schilling and Kirk Peters have been working hard to clean up.
'I've been pushing trees and stuff down to the tree dump on the north end of town, and it was pretty well full, so I took my loader and just piled it all up. It just kept coming,' Peters said.
So people in Little Rock and the surrounding communities will have quite the mess to clean up in the coming days.
You can expect more coverage Thursday of storm damage throughout northwest Iowa.
In Sioux Falls, over 3,000 households lost power during tonight's thunderstorms.
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