7 dead, including some children, as tornado rips through Iowa, officials say

Seven people, including two children, were killed Saturday when a tornado devastated central Iowa, damaging buildings and tearing down trees and power lines, authorities said.

Madison County emergency management officials said four were injured in addition to the dead when the tornado landed in the area southwest of Des Moines around 4:30 p.m. Among the dead were children and adults. The victims were between two and 72 years old, Madison County Emergency Management Director Diogenes Ayala said Sunday.

Ayala said between 25 and 30 houses were badly damaged by the tornado.

“This is the worst thing anyone has seen in a long time,” he said.

Officials did not identify the dead, but said they were not all in the same place.

Wendy Burkett told Des Moines Records that she and two of her three daughters were at her home Saturday afternoon when her husband, Tony, called her from a nearby shed where he worked and alerted her to a tornado warning.

Burkett said he went out and joined him in front of the house, looking at the driveway to the southwest. “And then we saw it. The tornado,” he said. “There was debris flying around and it was getting stronger.”

They hurried with their daughters into the basement as the tornado roared in a matter of seconds. As they clung to each other, a window shattered and began spitting water from the pipes, he said.

But in about a minute the tornado passed, and even though the family was unharmed, their house was in ruins amid rubble all around, even in the trees.

The Des Moines National Meteorological Service tweeted later Saturday that initial photos and videos of the damage to the Winterset community suggested that it was at least an EF-3 tornado, capable of causing severe damage, on the improved Fujita scale. . He said weather service teams would investigate the damage on Sunday and further assess a potential assessment.

Tornado-borne storms moved across much of Iowa from afternoon to Saturday night, and storms also damaged the suburbs of Des Moines de Norwalk, areas east of Des Moines and others. areas of eastern Iowa.

Officials reported that several houses were damaged, roads were blocked by fallen lines and tree branches were crushed by strong winds. Photos tweeted on social media showed downed trees, rubble and roofs and damaged vehicles. At one point, the blackouts affected about 10,000 in the Des Moines area.