KCCI-TV Central Iowa Tornado Coverage 7-19-2018

again it's only one tornado warning at this time but getting a new report of a coming in southeast Ville area and that's where we're watching on a super doppler new storm report coming in of a tornado there a well-defined cone to southeast of larrya so that's exactly what we're watching here on super Doppler 8 just gonna zoom in for you once again and just kind of get you down this is the movement how about we put in the motion for you so you can get a look at what's going on mingle area if you're looking right here this is generally would be some hail and then as you head south and west of larrya that would be where you're seeing the rotation on the radar kind of highlighted for you right in through there so that's where you're watching the rotation at this time with the tornado warning I should update you and mention that the tornado warning is in effect until 3:15 so that's in effect till 3:15 get some reports of some sirens going off if you're joining me now we have week location on radar but spotters have observed a weak tornado southeast of Larry right now and continuing to move off to the east so that's the one we're watching there's the movement on it at this time and again valaria area I would want you to seek shelter reports earlier today of some damage in a farm field in Clarion very weak rotation but did cause some damage the expectations today with all the spin in the atmosphere where we were going to get some brief funnels not a great chance of them making it to the ground until later in the day well later in the day is now and we're starting to see some of that stretching in the atmosphere and there's a picture coming in right there of that funnel cloud making contact with the ground as a tornado there but again we're watching the movement on this and just like to look at different sources for you and here's the big picture and you can see generally i-35 is the cutoff west of i-35 I think you're going to be ok east of i-35 we're getting some storms that are starting to rotate and the one we're watching this is just a good look for you here is the one that's headed out of Polk County and now headed into Jasper County just zooming in on a 40 matter of fact I'm gonna kick over to a little better radar for you and this continue is the slide off to the east put a storm track on it for you and just give you one just put where the rotation is just kind of going out into the future if this would hold together headed towards Mitchellville and Colfax and Metz eventually again the warnings in effect till 3:15 but if this would hold together this is the direction this would be headed with this funnel cloud that has made contact with the ground again as I look at velocities on radar it's it's not super strong but it definitely could cause some of damage and that's why the National Weather Service has issued this and I'll show you the reports you can kind of see the progression of this started with a report coming in out of Ankeny then a report of a tornado Bondurant and then the report of the tornado and the rotation just a valeri area and we were talking about that as it slides that way again a new tornado warning now coming in I believe up around big wall lake so why don't we go look at that one we'll kick on over to radar well there's my theory up that is i-35 I told you I 35 is the cutoff so there's some rotation on this cell up to the north this is a brand new tornado warning in effect for Franklin Hamilton Hardin Wright County until 3:45 so a tornado warning in effect for Franklin Hamilton Hardin Wright County until 3:45 again Doppler indicated with this cell sliding down to the south we're watching this so west of Colfax and just look at the velocity a little bit of rotation on this as you had West in the northwest of Colfax but it's broad-scale rotation what I'm looking at when I'm looking at these colors is a what it does is it picks up the meteorological targets in this case rainfall or hail and shows you the rotation on these so they're either coming towards and away from the radar and we look for that that spin and there is a little bit of that near the i-35 I 80 corridor near Colfax although it's a fairly weak cell at this time and again Doppler indicated let's go over to this and just show ya sometimes I like to take off the radar and just make it simple for folks that are just joining us if you're joining our coverage here we've had a couple tornado warnings and we've had reports of tornados today this is the warning Jasper Marshall Polk although the main part of this storm that's dangerous for Polk has moved out the warning in effect until 3:15 and then to the north a new tornado warning in effect for Franklin Hamilton Hardin and right until 3:45 with that cell and now getting a report because of all this activity of a new tornado watch getting issued I'm gonna do a little math for you here that in effect until 10 o'clock I don't have the boundaries on that right now my guess is it's probably east of i-35 including most of Iowa east of i-35 but they just gave me the the brand new particulars on that maybe if I click over to another source it might pop up for us here but maybe not so the watch is not being populated yet just gonna look on over sorry to distract it for a second but I got numerous computers some get the information sooner than others this was just an update so a tornado watch until 3:00 let's see if I can get the location on this they're not updating it's just fresh information so how about we talk about the warnings right now warning i-35 gonna kick on up and see if I can see anything on the velocity signature doesn't look great up there again we're getting a lot of stretching in the atmosphere and this is getting in the updrafts we get a brief funnel we expected that to happen probably did not expect as many of these that get down to the ground as has happened but it has and that's why we have some warnings out there and we also have the the reports from earlier in the day this is where it all started we had one report up east of Webster City around Blair's burg of a tornado and then a tornado around the Clarion area and then I'll slide back to the metro and you can just see the progression on this tornado was spotted I 35 near Ankeny then it was spotted numerous people northeast of Bondurant and then it dipped a bit to the south and headed around the valeri area and that's what we're watching there I clicked through is our planner for the metro so it kind of shows you that if you're in Des Moines we're a-okay it's areas east of Des Moines that are gonna have the problems and this is hour by hour and I just wanted to show you all the spin on this you can kind of see it the spin with this and it's all pushing out and after this moves through folks we've got a stretch of incredibly dry weather ahead so we're watching that I'm just looking at something else why I'm talking to you here and then Saturday dry I didn't have a chance to edit this we jumped right into tornado coverage so you're getting the bonus looking ahead to here weekend if you got plans there but this is the concern right now your tornado safety tips and then I want to just jump on over to another radar for you because I'm watching this storm intensifies southwest of larrya right now so if you're north of Mitchellville southwest of valaria I do want you to seek shelter it looks like this has strengthened just a bit and that tornado watch is from Polk County East I just got a new update on that Polk County East until 10 o'clock Steven and Stacy what do you guys got well you just mentioned Mitchellville Curtis and we have video in from Mitchellville and then also you said this is moving through northern pole County as well we have a picture from the Otter Creek area that's up north of Des Moines just up in the Grimes area if we could take a look at that picture there we go right there or excuse me this is a video from Mitchellville keep back and going back and forth yes you're looking at the video play out right now we grab these images from folks on social media posted this near on Twitter but now you do see the the funnel clouds - very close funnel clouds they're looking like they're trying to develop this is it near Mitchell bill okay and Curtis so you said the storm is intensifying yeah that one I think I'm just seeing a little better radar signature of it and that's probably why we're getting the video in it was a it was losing a little bit of its structure as it moved east of Bondurant and then a tightened up a little bit right now southwest of Ville area and north of Mitchellville so seeing a little bit of rotation right there I'm gonna come on over and just highlight this what I'm seeing this is the area right in through here see they just issued a new tornado warning for that storm boy so we're thinking the same as the National Weather Service a new tornado warning coming in for Jasper County until 3:45 and they probably saw the same thing I did on their radar that it just looks a little better now so we're watching that as it slides off to the east and that is the storm that we're most concerned about right now as this moves I'm gonna kind of just if you look at the Box it's directly above you that's a new picture we've just gotten in from Altoona which is a pretty good shot of a funnel cloud there yeah they're probably thank you see they're probably looking east at that storm would be my guess because that that's would be where it is from the Altoona area and this is the other storm up north and I'm just gonna click on over I looking at some attributes it just doesn't look that strong up there I'm not diminishing the tornado warning because there could be a funnel there's been reports of funnels Hamilton Clarion and they have caused a little crop damage but if a tornado is up this way it's probably not super strong I know that sounds something odd to say but it would be a weaker funnel but you know still that's strong enough wind to cause some problems so if you're over in Alden and Andover eventually in Iowa Falls keep an eye on the sky with this thing because potentially could cause some problems there as it moves on through and then there's the watch that's what I was waiting for I was just I was too quick to inform you I'm ahead of the graphics so this new tornado watch in effect until 10 o'clock I got the time right I'm gonna read the counties for you I watched the radar app news Davis Grundy Hart and Jasper Lucas Mahaska Marion marshal Monroe Polke Powell chic story Thema Wapello Warren and right so that's what we're watching they're tornado watch for those counties but if I were looking at it real closely I'd say folks if you're west of i-35 you're probably a ok they threw in Polk County and Warren County just because it would be the eastern parts of Polk and Warren County but they don't draw the lines that way they got to put in the county so that's what they did there just to let you know what's going on trying to get in the minds of the folks doing this and maybe I'm wrong but that's that's my guess with that is it looks like they would be I'm going to click off the lightning for you there because I feel like it's cluttering things up get on the radar look at this warning just kind of zoom in on it maybe we can do a little slice after I stop it and just see what we're seeing here you can get off the warning picture it's a good look at storm I mean it has developed and I'm expecting things to get stronger as they as they go to the east so it's topping out pretty high up so that is something we're going to be keeping an eye on as these storms have moved to east I think they've gotten a little bit stronger it's a little more favorable environment if you were out today I was at home and came in early as always in weather is Sun bad clouds this morning and the precipitation which was having east of the Metro and then once we broke out the sunshine I was like oh we're gonna have something pop today I expected it to be east of i-35 and that's what's happening but we had enough heating in the day there's enough moisture in the atmosphere that it was something to be concerned about I'm going to update the storm track for you and just pick the area that I think is they just wanted to get Newton involved here so this would be the movement on this around 320 to colfax some of the areas you're more familiar with I don't know everything over there Newton 340 and again you're in the warning until 3:45 and then the Newton Municipal Airport there I think that's right by the Iowa Speedway 342 got a pretty decent shot there just right there from the downtown Skycam he said this thing's getting up to around 60,000 feet yeah just shy that yeah we've got a pretty good shot of that from the downtown Skycam right now also yeah some video don't which is a new video in from the Altoona area let's take a look at that I've been seeing the funnel cloud there boy that looks two of them home like two of them Curtis they're very well developed final clouds see they're very photogenic today yeah they are well I mean it makes it more impactful folks I mean now I'm telling you about this and you're seeing it instead of it being a rained wrap a significant tornado we're getting some see they're intensifying as I expected as they moved east so again the main area of concern right now is the storm over towards Colfax in a Prairie City but I'm just going to look at a couple other things for you and go through and just show you that the Metro I think we're a ok downtown Des Moines it is other locations that we're going to keep an eye on things we got those too wound up warnings right now and it's right along the i-35 corridor but the storm east of the Metro is intensifying and I'm just showing you this because you can see the spin in the atmosphere we have a lot of spin and these storms are running into an area that has more spin and that and they had a little more sunshine and that's why I'm expecting the storms that initially today produce some very weak funnels might get a bit stronger and that's what the folks that the Storm Prediction Center thought and that's why they issued the tornado watch because it looks like there may be moving into an area that would be a little more dangerous I know it's summer and a lot of kids are at home this time of year and when I was a younger kid I took care of myself while my parents were at work so just go through the tornado safety things if I've talked about your townie county or your town just get in the basement and hang out for a while if you don't have a basement just put is walls between you and the funnel cloud or tornado very simple no need to panic avoid windows protect your head and stay informed and that's what we're doing right here so this is the storm over just to the west of Colfax right now that we're watching and I'm gonna just I know I go to this velocity a lot but for weather people it's what we like to see and boy if you're in Colfax right now I would definitely be seeking shelter I'm watching this on another source and it looks like there's a little bit of rotation just near Colfax I got a hunch we'll probably get more video in and more pictures from the Colfax area but if you're north of Prairie City and in Colfax I would seek shelter just because it looks like we're seeing some rotation it's broad scale rotation it's not super strong but it's enough to provide possible damage and a possible injuries with this so folks around Colfax right now stay safe give it a little time it'll pass on through how about for you I put it into motion see what we're getting there now if you like watching radar and you're one of those folks that's always watching it and going what do we look for I was in the velocity see you're getting a little bit of a hook echo right there so that's what's going on that is what we're watching headed in the Colfax I'm going to loop it for you there's the rotation has headed dead straight towards Colfax it's probably one mile west of Colfax right now when I'm seeing on radar so the folks in Colfax you want to take shelter just because you have a funnel cloud and a possible tornado headed your way that's the movement on it and it's sliding your way so keep an eye on this guy in Colfax south of Interstate 80 and one two three four miles east of Mitchellville two miles less than a mile and a half west of Colfax right now I've lived in Iowa long enough to count the squares there we go let's look at the storm up around Alden this storm still has a tornado warning in effect for it but I do want to point out it's a week tation I haven't got any more storm reports on this storm of anymore funnel clouds but if you're up in Bradford Popejoy Iowa Falls just keep an eye on this guy and be prepared to take shelter as that storm moves on through I'm gonna widen out on this radar probably making the cameraman crazy that I'm going to this source but I'm not in frame as well there was a report coming in this was a storm west of Story City see how small this storm is this is a very small storm but there's so much spin in the atmosphere that it's just kind of pulling it up and kicking up a small funnel cloud right around or rolling right now there was a report as it went through story city this one is weak on radar but it's uh it definitely is strong enough that they had they had to put out a warning they haven't put out a warning but we had reports of funnel clouds there the storm I'm worried about I just jumped back for you is the storm near Colfax right now and that is the one we're watching if you're in Colfax please seek shelter now I'm getting another report in of a storm that's a little farther south of a possible funnel okay here we go rotation increasing near Colfax we saw it on radar you got a hook echo right may produce another tornado shortly there okay I got what he's saying I'm just reading something coming in from the National Weather Service and he saw the same thing I did that some of these storms are getting stronger as they move to the east they were weak thunderstorms we're not that high in the sky when they started but I was on the way into work I was seeing the towers develop and I'm like Oh with all the sunshine and all this moisture things are going to probably pop so again Colfax area please seek shelter Steve and Stacey anything okay oh they wanted me to talk about longer thanks Steve I was picking you up on the mic I'm watching that storm around Colfax they're getting some new pictures for you guys right now I'm gonna just click over to the velocity and again all this shows if you're just joining me if not you're gonna hear it it shows the targets meteorological targets we call them raindrops hail moving towards and away from the radar and and you see the spin in the atmosphere and that's what I look for the green and red come together that's what I'm looking for it's that simple folks and the rotation right now is in Colfax so folks in Colfax it's right over the top of you I don't know if it's in contact with the ground based on what the latest spotter report is it it I'm just just came in severe thunderstorm ok new tornado warning from Marshall and story but I'm also reading a report reports meteorological power lines over the road near this location so when it was in Bondurant we had some tree and power line damage there now we're getting a new report in continuing the tornado warning for Jasper County until 6:45 and the Colfax area and now I'm getting a report everything's spinning a new guy coming in talking about the storm over in Colfax Steve Stacey yeah we've got reporters now deployed into the areas to show us some storm damage and coverage chris gothner is near Bondurant chris what are you seeing yeah Stacy we just pulled into Bhandar and you can see that there is a roof that has been pulled off the house I'm gonna zoom in the phone here we're on the phone here so the cell signal may not be great you can see emergency crews on the scene here this is a second looks like we've lost Chris's audio there but they're gonna get as close as I can to this house here that has had a roof block if yeah we can see this house I don't know how well you can see it but it looks like some pretty significant damage here as emergency crews are but Altoona fire out here this is on 2nd Street and Allard Point Drive in Bon Duran we saw a funnel cloud off into the distance as we were driving into town here take a look at some power lines zooming in here pretty significant damage here as Polk County deputies and Altoona Police are on scene right now ok all right chris gothner thank you very much look at this yard here something that's just been blown off here into this yard okay Chris so next time we check in with you try and stay more in one spot because by moving around we we lose your signal that's right Curtis had mentioned there was tree and powerline damage in the Bondurant okay and Krista there is showing us live pictures of what looks like maybe a trailer or something that's blown over onto its side I showed us another pictures of a lot of tree damage in the area where he is we also saw the roof being looked like it was pulled off a house right yeah a lot of damage there Curtis and in addition to that the interesting thing is they move the camera around you see some blue skies and some puffy white clouds out there yeah I mean it's a beautiful day to the west it's storming to the east the matter of fact I'm gonna get this by the time we do the five o'clock news I got somebody that got a picture of one of the funnel clouds from 801 grin the visibility is that good it's a very unusual day when you have a tornado on the ground northeast of Bondurant and 801 grand they're taking pictures from that I'll get that to you in a bit when I can load that up but the area what I'm watching right now is at Colfax and I know I've had this screen up for a while but this is the one of the storms I'm just looking the rotation where the green and red comes together east of Colfax it's enough as I mentioned the caused damage we're getting those reports the storms are intensifying as they're moving to the east then there's enough that's the one storm east of Colfax in Colfax in about five minutes the rotation should be well enough away that should be safe to come out if you're in the basement everybody hanging out in the house and matter of fact if you come out in the next five minutes and look east you'll probably get a pretty picture of a funnel cloud you couldn't show your friends there then this is another tornado warned storm reports of a funnel cloud here east of Collins southwest of roads again these storms are not huge in size in expanse but there are enough to cause damage out there and we're getting those reports coming in as that one slid on through and look at that one is very small thunderstorm but they're starting to get big towers and really starting to stretch out and this storm in the last scan has intensified a bit so this is what we have the tornado warned storms there's three of them right now it's a trio of tornado warned storms again as I mentioned they're actually four so just keeping up this is one Dover for a Marshall County and headed out of Story County I got to click off that lightning lightnings dangerous 52 thousand degrees Fahrenheit but in this case it's Bach on the radar we have Jasper County here tornado warned storm then the storm I showed you earlier in Story County sliding to the north and then the storm and Iowa Falls until 3:45 and then this area in yellow I'm going to just pan well to the east of my computer picks it up that's a tornado watch that's in effect until 10 o'clock I get reports in of Jason's today goes over on the storm over by Colfax and then just to show you what's going on if you're just joining us look at all the reports this started with a couple reports today and then look at storms up to the northwest of how going oh there was a funnel weak funnel west of Humboldt and then the storm and just south of Clarion we got a report out of there and got a report of some damage in at first everything was there damaging then we got a picture of it yes and then there was a storm west of Williams that kicked up a funnel and then you see funnel story city this funnel and Maxwell and then this is a storm where we're getting a damage reports now I have two reports coming in out of Bondurant it started over by Ankeny and then as we pan on over storm then headed towards Colfax and then we're gonna look down to the south all these reports by the way folks are heavy rain there were reports from Belle Plaine North English Williamsburg of the morning rain three to four inches of rain so we didn't miss out on it and I was a heavier rain just uh formed off to the east I'm gonna go through these tornado warnings if you're just joining us just want to get down so folks can see Colfax area east towards Newton although Newton you're not in the warning right now the storm is headed your way and I won't be surprised if they put you in that that's an effective 3:45 the tornado warning Marshalls Story County the boundaries on this if you don't know your County Marshalltown state center Gilman north of Baxter east of Maxwell tornado warning ziering and west of Conrad south of Eldora and then a tornado warning for the Iowa Falls area and that storm has really really weakened up there that storm as it went on through the storm right here the rotation on this is just I'm going to start using this three miles northwest of Mikhail's Berg that's where the rotation is on that storm will go through all these for you and that way you can get a good idea on the locations this storm not as strong but just let me get a measurement this quick for you guys and I'll come over about five miles southwest of Milburn some rotation around roads steve stacy yeah we have some more reporting from chris gothner right now he's in Bondurant and he's found a little bit better connection right now you can see Chris in the frame right there and Chris he little choppy but I said why don't you describe what what you're seeing out there in Bondurant at approximately where you are yeah we are at I believe it's a we're near Mallard Point Drive I believe this is 2nd Avenue you can see this house over here on Mallard Point Drive roof has been just completely lifted off of this as emergency crews are on scene also here we have what looks to be a trailer or something that has turned over in a yard trees strewn about this yard fire crews on scene we are hearing people referencing something related to a gas leak we haven't confirmed that that has occurred here but that's that's something that's a concern for folks here you see numerous emergency crews blocking second here in Bondurant off the scene the most significant damage at least structurally right now does appear to be this house over here is photographer John Houghton gets in on that I'm gonna walk over here and maybe give you a view closer as some of these cars may be obscuring the view but yeah that house is pretty well damaged we don't know if anybody's been hurt in this we can only hope not but again a very significant damage here in Bondurant as I was saying as we were coming and we saw a funnel cloud off into the distance possibly that one Kurtis was referring to the pretty serious weather here for John Hope the other side of the street here is we see an ambulance coming in right across the street here and yet with John some minor damage to the house next to it by comparison some roof damage but again nothing really compares to what but what happened to this house here not obliterated pretty severely destroyed yeah we see Chris Chris we also see in your picture when John Houghton was pulled pulled out and gave us a wider shot that there was roof damage to a number of other houses in that same general vicinity also saw a bunch of debris hanging in the powerlines that's right and Chris where we're wondering you talked about the possibility of gas leak does it look like anybody's being evacuated people out of their houses what's going on there we're seeing yeah hi Steve what we're seeing people having their houses we're not being told by emergency crews to evacuate just yet we just heard people neighbors talking on the ground about a gas of a potential for a gas leak so again that's you know as in these situations things can if that look quickly and things may may or may not be the case but obviously that's a serious possibility just completely wrapped around this powerline here we can only hope that nobody got we're gonna keep obviously surveying the damage to this area but pretty pretty soon significantly hit Chris thanks for reporting with us on and folks thanks at home for being patient with us our our technology gets a little kinked up when weather is like this and we're trying to move and show you the pictures so we're gonna work on getting him a better signal and catch back up with him in a little bit live TV and we're trying to get things to you as quickly as we can because safety is involved and speaking of that let's get back to chief meteorologist Kurtis Gertz yeah we're watching these storms out there again I'm just going to give you a brief recap of the day we got an area of low pressure just to the north of the Metro creating a lot of spin in the atmosphere initially the thunderstorms had the spin they weren't the strongest thunderstorm as they moved in a more favorable area the thunderstorms if you're outside at all today you saw the tower is going up and they're pulling that stretching into the updraft there and that's how we started out with the funnels and now we're getting the stronger storms so they're making contact with the ground and we've had numerous reports of tornadoes today the good thing with the day at least is we had kind of things alert us early when we had the weaker funnels west of i-35 and then once they kind of crossed our 35 they got stronger and then we had all the tornadoes and getting the reports of the the damage coming in right now super Doppler 8 this is a storm I've been watching right now heavy rain in Newton but you are not in the tornado warned area and I've been trying to keep an eye on this one to see if there's any rotation with this storm yet and also reading some of the chat rooms watching area south of Goods show up no effect is not showing it well but seems me so there's a couple areas of concern over there it's real broad scale rotation east of Prairie City that's the one they're watching right now and again when I show these colors it's raindrops going towards the rain radar raindrops going away and what it's showing me is where they're spinning the atmosphere you know how to spin you know the tornado so just about 1 2 3 4 5 6 miles east of Prairie City is what they're watching for another potential tornado warning is what I'm getting but at this time not because they have chasers over there and they're watching it and at this time there's not a funnel it's just a rotation and they're watching it closely but heavy rain maybe some hail in Newton and then northwest of reasoner a little bit of rotation go through the safety tips for you I know this for have you been watching the coverage I'm repeating myself but basically protect your head walls between you and the tornado if you got a basement go to the basement also we have a situation where we have a new tornado watch as I mentioned until 10 o'clock this will make the screen go black for a second don't worry if you're the storm in Newton moving through then we have the storm over macau's burg area this has some rotation I just got a report ah just we think the same new coming in from the Weather Service probably going to issue a new tornado warning for area south of Prairie City so near the Prairie City area they're watching the rotation to just that a report coming of a tornado near Prairie City so they're seeing the same things we are always good to have a couple sets of eyes on a storm and everybody looking and everybody we talked to all the other meteorologists in town and everybody just communicates and what are they getting so again we have that new storm I just want to show you there thanks to you hi see do we have them on oh we do ready to go okay hey Zach how are you doing today Zach where are you hey Curtis run highway 210 between Collins and Maxwell and we believe it's sort of hard to see over the corn right now but we believe we do have this funnel cloud at least and it may be touching the ground we just had State Patrol flyby as they're out here storm spotting as well but we're on highway 210 looking out to the northeast so if you were looking at the live camera right now this is facing off to the northeast towards Collins just east of Maxwell right now it is a funnel cloud but it's sort of hard to see over the corn but we do believe that's briefly touched down Thank You Zach there's a lot to see today very good visibility out there to watch these storms have you seen any damage at this time Curtis no we have not seen a few that have briefly touched down and from that brief tornado all right I just want to show folks the new tornado warning there is now encompassing Monroe reasoner and sully watching that they're in super Doppler 8 but I want to look at this one with Cal's burg ziering some rotation with that storm and then I'm going to go to another source for you here but I really think this sums up things nicely if you're just joining us so tornado warning till 4 o'clock Jasper Mahaska Marion County Sully Monroe you're issued in that one and then this tornado warning just to the north is up around Marshall and story until 4 o'clock another tornado warning up Franklin Hamilton Hardin until 3:45 another seven minutes on that one and then the cell over towards earring that Hamilton hard Marshalls story until 4:00 I think I mentioned that one it never hurts to repeat when you're talking about tornado warnings and you can just see I just like going back to the storm reports you see all the day kind of started these weak funnels up west and northwest of Algona then and then they made it down to the ground just west of i-35 more funnel story County time in the strongest cell started Ankeny the damage over in northeastern Polk County and now we're getting reports out of Colfax and I'm just gonna look down south quick and see if anything's developing down there because they're in the watch area I do want to point this out court and Centerville Bloomfield Ottumwa Albia Sheridan you're all in a tornado watch until 10 o'clock and then to the north we go on this cell and I'm just gonna click on over quick the velocity yeah there's north of Monroe right now that is the area that has some rotation there's a couple areas but that's one we're watching let's do the distance on this it's not far it's mile from Monroe right now so folks in Monroe you want to seek shelter the movement on this is let's go with that and then this is if it holds together I know I'm stretching it on a long way but I'd like to give you a long notice on these things because we've had the reports of damage out there but that's headed towards Sully Sully municipal Linville area and this is the one we're watching notice Newton Newton you're in the clear right now but the rotation is to the south where the warning is just going to put in the motion for you quick just so you get a picture on that oh you can see a little bit of a hook along Highway 14 Monroe I want you to seek shelter even though I showed you it was a mile north of town I think it may be a little closer than that so the rotation there along Highway 14 I know that movements a little confusing for you matter of fact I might just do a velocity loop on that and you can see that little dip something we look for there so from reasoner to Monroe you want to seek shelter there's that drops on through on that cell so again let's tell you about the Metro we are a-ok and I'm not expecting any further development everything is really going to be east of i-35 based on what I'm looking at tornado warning Franklin capable of reducing okay they're still talking about the spin and the clouds up around Iowa Falls I don't want to forget that for you but here's the strongest sell on radar is definitely this one Monroe reasoner's Sulli especially Monroe restore seek shelter then this warning that was for Colfax and Newton we got some spotters on that and they're watching that closely this one is kind of falling apart Marshalltown Gilman state center doesn't look as strong on this radar say that without looking at another source for you someday I'm going to take a picture of all this joy sources we have just just always look for backup always redundancy in weather that way you know what's going on when you're looking at things earring seek shelter rotation on this storm the rotation is just north of ziering and then even though this cell doesn't look very strong we're still getting a report even the weakest thunderstorms I don't want to use that worm week that it can't cause damage but even the storms that are kind of compact in size and a little weak are still kicking up really brief funnels and tornadoes so it's very conducive any storm that has the strength to punch through into the mid upper levels of the atmosphere is a starting or mid levels starting to show rotation now getting a report of the storm east of Collins a new new report coming in of folks seeing a funnel there but here's the storm we're watching at this time right around Monroe it's gonna yeah right in here folks I should have highlight that for you yeah you know I can do this for you there that's where it be really make it simple put that on the screen for you but that's where we're seeing some rotation right now and as one area and then areas to the north steve stacy get any more video coming in it's been I mean we are going to be we have video and pictures these have been very photogenic funnels and tornadoes that's right we do actually have three more pieces of video to show you the first piece here we're looking at the dual funnel cloud if you will in the Altoona area again as Kurtis said they are very very photogenic today yeah you know with the things clearing up to the last and all the sunshine they are very very clear don't want to make a light of this situation now look like the the funnel clouds in The Wizard of Oz yes they do I mean they're just very well defined the next video we have on your Mitchellville and you can see how dark the sky is there and just you know what looks like pretty sizable funnel development at that point yeah it looks like another double one old cloud situation there maybe it's the same one a very different angle to do the third piece of video we have to show you right now is near Bondurant you see the folks still trucking right along on the highway there as these storms are developing and and again some really impressive shots of these funnel clouds wondering why they're not rain wrapped like they like we so often times see courtesy I mean that's just that's just a product of what kind of supercell you have really you know the the back edge of the storm kind of comes back around and gets pulled in and then the tornadoes in this area this is not the case today it's just a situation where it's not taking a super powerful storm to create a tornado today because we got so much spin and again it's the also situation we don't have a bunch of storms running into each other so often in Iowa and has been the case for a long time we don't have these storms out by themselves like in Oklahoma or Texas that's why you get so many nice tornado shots sometimes it's just a storm one storm when many times in Iowa we have brief tornadoes in a line of storms we do have a line of storms right now but as you can see they're all kind of lining up by themselves with nothing else going on if I were just jumping on rain right now at the second this is the storm I would be most concerned about this is the storm that has the potential to cause the most damage today there's other storms that have warnings and they could cause damage but this is definitely the strongest storm on radar and we have a little bit of a hook as you can see right around Monroe and that is a sliding down I'm going to put it in a motion for you just quickly it's kind of kicking east south east so that is the strongest storm on radar you can just see the difference as I pan to the north these other storms though are still these are little weaker ones this one by Melbourne has weakened a bit but it could recycle then this storm I just got another report of a funnel cloud on this storm crossing highway 65 so that is one that is still producing a funnel even though just the size of it is not as big and then the storm in Iowa Falls a boy if you're joining right now this this is the storm I just had a report come in three southwest of reasoner of a of a tornado look at I just put in on the screen for you three Southwest and that's where the hook echo is and that's what folks are seeing Zach what do you got hey Curtis we're just north of Collins right now keeping it on that storm bear Mel borne that you were talking about how it looks really and impressive on radar but we still do see some rotation within the clouds we have that rising motion as we call Scud but we do have quite a bit of inflow it's still rotating so it's not nothing to distance up at this point but we do still see some rotation we're tracking north just out of Collins right now but we continue to keep an eye on it thank you so much Nick I really appreciate it I'm glad that you're on that storm I just was looking at it on radar but I'll take I'll take eyes on the ground any time over what I'm seeing on radar ground truth is what it's all about and if you're seeing rotation with that and this just shows you all the rotation in the atmosphere area of low pressure is moving right over the top of us and that is kicking up a new report in Jasper County of another funnel cloud forming along that line and then another one come in off the storm in Jasper County of a tornado but all this spin in the atmosphere any storm is really tapping into it but I'm going to just kick on through I want to update you on these tornado safety tips because what I'm seeing on radar is a storm that is growing stronger and more potentially dangerous so if you just move to Iowa or you're new to just looking at this stuff first thing don't panic second if you got a basement best place to be if you're in the basement you're fine if you don't have a basement as many walls between you and the tornado avoid windows don't look out a window at this it's a tornado knocks out the window protect your head most tornado injuries fatalities are because of something striking somebody in the head and stay informed with us a KCCI just got a brand new is our first shear and shear indicator on the radar that we use - I'm just going to click on this and see what it's saying 115 miles an hour see that's what I'm seeing on radar this is the first time we popped one of these these are an attribute we have on our only on our super Doppler 8 that says hey meteorologists look at me and I've been watching this storm and I was noticing the strengthening and here we go this is a very very powerful storm there and that is the shear storm on that so the BTI is what's considered it but it's called a barren tornado index if you're seeing all these numbers 4.3 that is starting to be a better number we're having tornadoes but that's a higher number than we've had all day so that is the storm we're really concerned about down there a lot of wind speed with that and potentially a lot more damage with that storm that is down to the south so we're watching that one for you I'm going to put it into motion I know I jump around on some different sources but I just like to give you a little picture of what's going on and see how it's kind of starting to move a little bit more to the southeast stronger storms that have been moving east all day when they intensify they will start to turn a little bit to the south that's just the nature of these things it's like they're saying hey give me that good air I'm a powerful storm and I'm going to draw that in and that's really what's happening here I know that's simplified stuff but you know if you're you're new to that that's what we're watching right there and then there's a storm up look at these haven't I'm glad Zack sharp was talking to us because these storms actually have grown a bit stronger of Melbourne State Center the storm up around ziering not forgetting you guys there the storm up in Iowa Falls those all are capable of producing funnels so now the Weather Service's seen what we've been seeing all day but they noticed the same thing potential for a strong tornado on that storm east of Monroe when I got that indicator on our radar that's a dead giveaway that these things have intensified as I mentioned they started out weak of a 35 and now they're strong and this is a potentially very strong tornado down there I'm gonna just look at a another little source for you here and just look at things it doesn't look as good on this radar this is just a oh not I mean it looks it doesn't look as photogenic but then when you look at the velocity see the brighter Reds we haven't had those all day that is showing higher wind speeds where the red meets green that's not a good place to be and the rotation right now and I'm just going to do this normally I won't do this this is how positive I am that this is a very potentially dangerous situation 163 just to the north seeing rotation there strong rotation and there's actually another area of rotation with this and I don't want to discount that just south of reasoner so two areas of rotation on radar if you put it into motion even with the velocity you can kind of just see it drop down right in through here so that area very dangerous situation I think we could see the highest winds we've seen so far today hey Steven Stacy can you take over for a second I want to load something up over here I might have a tornado on one in the sky yes thank you we can do we have this new video from Bondurant from the area of 780 northeast 64th Street in Bondurant okay we do have chris gothner though he's in live in the area and he showed us some storm damage earlier Chris what's the latest up there where you are hi Steven Stacey well hopefully we have better picture and audio for right now we apologize for those issues of Technology as you know take a look at this house here this is that house that is damaged we have seen emergency crews kind of largely leave the area right now although there are still of course plenty on scene as this damaged you can just see stuff just strewn about here in this yard and this Bondurant neighborhood right next to that power pole that has some of that debris on it I think we were gonna try crossing the street right now let's photographer John Houghton with me are gonna watch and make sure we're going the safe way here we're gonna take a look at some of the damage here you see a destroyed trampoline here lots of just insulation has just snowed over this yard here in this house in Bondurant lots of roof damage you can see shingles torn off this roof here but let's take a closer look at this one house because this house you're a149 seems to be the worst this is a 2nd Street Northwest and let me look at the street one more time it is I believe it's pheasant all right excuse me Mallard Point Drive yeah 149 Mallard point Drive here appears to be the house that is most significantly damaged you can see John's taking a look at a 319 here which is also pretty badly damaged but John if we could go back to that one you can see right through the garage there it's okay well we're keeping an eye on that thank you okay 149 pheasant Ridge here you can see straight through that garage straight through that Steve yeah Chris once you walk a little bit farther it looks like South the house directly to your right it looks like that one the roof has been ripped off down to the joist you could just have John swing his camera right now back the other way okay back to rent to the mind the house behind you yeah it looks like that roof has been torn off down to the and and that garage door you know probably let some suction there created that problem but we saw the back of that house earlier so I'm just curious Chris how far does it look to you like the path of damage goes or just curious if this was down for a brief period or four it stayed on the ground for a little bit well oh well you know let's swing over here to the other end I didn't even notice this earlier but take a look at this house that's here on Second Street you can see actually the roof so this actually goes pretty far it almost looks like this tornado might have crossed the street oh my look at this we hadn't seen this angle before but you can see debris just in these yards just a mess right now but but that house there is pretty significant we might make our way down there here shortly you see fire crews over there pretty significant damage we'll try to get you a closer picture on that as we cross the street but like I said it almost looks like I don't know if this was a very wide tornado path because you look at some of the houses that are just directly across the street here and they look some of them look practically untouched by this so I I'm guessing it might have been a very compact tornado but it did some pretty real damage here we're just walking across here seeing some of the just debris that is strewn across the ground pieces of wood pieces of trees but we got what looks like a lawn mower here just just take it about strewn about just completely destroyed a just huge path of destruction we're just I think probably following the path of this tornado took because it when you see those aerial shots of what tornadoes look like in the American heartland you see some of those just that path of white debris and I think we're taking the path that this tornado might have taken I mean obviously that's for the meteorologists to figure out but it's looking like it and Chris you said there are emergency personnel further Chris you've said there are emergency personnel out there on the scene they're moving to different locations along the path of this store I notice or somebody was talking to you what what kind of warnings have you been given as you're out there covering this are they are they wanting you to be careful of power lines or they want it was he was he was talking that we haven't heard anything about power line Stacy but the guy was warning us about nails of course we appreciate that warning uh we're at a Eagle Park right now we haven't heard much about the gas leak we did talk to the the woman who owns that house or her father-in-law ins the house but she was in that at the time okay Chris thank you very much we need to get back over to Curtis Curtis has have something he needs to tell us immediately yeah yeah we've been watching a storm on the Pella Skycam this tornado confirmed tornado now just a bit northwest of Pella so we've been watching in our Skycam there and you can see we're trying to see if we could see the lowering there but we're just watching this on our Skycam it it developed and there was a moment on sky cam where I had a brief look at this storm this is now north of Pella the hook echo is east of Otley so if you're just north of Pella right now and west of peoria you have a confirmed potentially strong tornado on the ground right now with wind speeds possible well over 115 miles an hour that's what it looks like on radar could be worse than that maybe better but again a confirmed tornado north of Pella right now I'm going to put the movement on it for you just so you can see how this little hook is kind of rotating on in and it looks to me like it's it's dropping southeast there's a brand new scan that's why we love super Doppler eight you're getting that radar information as it happens and it's just north of Pella right now the most dangerous part of this storm I also wanted to point this out a little bit of a hook developing now east of ziering and that's why there's a new tornado warning up that way I'm not forgetting about the storms to the north but I'm just concentrating on the storm that has a potential to be the strongest all of these can cause damage all these can cause injuries but there's a new hook developing just to the east of ziering and then I did have another report come in north of state center of a funnel again everything there's so much spin in the atmosphere that it's very impactful as it slides off that way click over this boy can you see is that just the classic you talk about a hook echo there it is right now and the the area we're watching it's five miles from pella the most damaging part of this storm five miles from Pella right now that's where we're seeing that hook on radar and I'm going to click over the velocity and just see where the red meets the green that's what you look for folks radar particles raindrops meteorological targets moving away from the radar moving towards that spin we got it on radar and it's north of Pella right now let's kick on there's the warning and then there are warnings to the north I just don't want to forget about those just show you all along the i-35 corridor seems like if it's a thunderstorm today it's producing a funnel or a tornado that's basically yet that's how much spin is in the atmosphere when we got that sunshine today it was so unstable out there that everything is happening there another report out of Monroe folks from Monroe watching that rotation move through the pellet area and we'll look at these storms for you let's just go down the line tornado warning up around Iowa Falls that's a weak storm probably a weaker funnel this storm east of seen Anthony probably seeing a potential funnel right now I wouldn't be surprised if the storm south that Clemens is producing a funnel but the one around st. Anthony looks better these are just from my eyes I'm not reading these obviously storm spotters on the ground got a better look but then when you compare the size of the storm you could see why we're focusing a little bit more on the one these are all dangerous but this is a classic supercell and then look down to the south it's got nothing doing do but ingest air that will keep it strong so these areas in yellow you're seeing that is a tornado watch and this storm is now very very close to pehle if you're in Pella please seek shelter now it looks like a very very dangerous storm just to the north of Pella and I'm gonna do from downtown three miles north of Pella is a confirmed tornado at this time and what it looks like on radar is it could potentially be a damaging tornado so that's what we're watching right there I'm gonna just click over on the velocity we still at the velocity couplet looking at something else I know this is confusing folks but this is a color that would show me if there's debris in there at this time it's it's not definitive so I can't say yes or no but it's not a glaring example of that well that's just something we watch when we're keeping an eye on radar it's called correlation coefficient and what does is distinguishes between debris floating in the sky and what would be raindrops basically to make it simple and these are the reports today and as you can see it's turning into a pretty big day of funnels and tornadoes one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve thirteen fourteen reports right now funnels and tornadoes here in Iowa Steve Stacey Curtis we are having a nasty day in severe weather that is for certain we want to show you some video this is from northeast 64th Street in Bondurant as the tornado hit Bondurant watched this thing go down the story my god it's starting to take out transmission lines and watch this houses are going oh you see all that debris being pulled up into the airs these houses and that power lines are being hit it also looks like the man taking this video is a lot closer than he should be to this storm as he's taking this video we do appreciate your efforts to shoot these videos and pictures for us but please stay safe when you're doing it yeah this video coming to us courtesy of TJ Phillips Warren today you can hear the excitement and the fear in his voice right now there's another funnel spinning up off the ground right there straight above him also folks be careful when you're out there and you're shooting video we we really appreciate the help and covering storms like this but do not threaten your own safety you're shooting video or pictures it's not worth it we do have chris gothner and live back out at Bondurant let's check in with him Chris hi Stephen Stacey well we're moving back right now because I don't know if you can hear it on this but we have an active gas leak right now the Sheriff's Office is telling us we're gonna have to stage over at Bondurant high school for a news conference but there is an active gas leak right now so they're having us move back you can see if John pans over you can see a lot of emergency crews staging here on the scene really a somewhat chaotic situation as they're trying to get everything in place as we have an active gas leak right now again we're gonna walk back to our news car here as we go to the high school but we'll show you some of the damage once again this is of course seemingly where this tornado blew through it is just we're walking over lots of wood right now trying to not trip over some of this stuff you can smell a little bit of that gas in the air right now yeah we had we didn't hear that same forgive me if this fire truck is going over my mic right now but you could hear some of them we couldn't hear rather some of that gas over that other house that supposedly had a gas leak but I think they're still possibly just checking there to see what's going on there but again that appears to be a potentially dangerous situation is that a gas leak we're going to continue walking to our news car you see a mass of neighbors walking over here to see what happened we talked to some of them one of the woman one of the women we talked to was just caught up in this storm it was a scary situation we will be hearing from her a little bit later on as we get that ok Chris we need to interrupt you and get right back over to Curtis you have an update Curtis yeah I mean that obviously the gas leak very very dangerous there and you can see that damage coming in out Durant getting more reports of extensive damage and we're seeing that but I just wanted to talk about this storm over in a Pella it is just near Pella right now it is a very strong potentially strong tornado it's a tornado on the ground the strength of it based on what I'm seeing on radar is well well over 100 miles an hour and could be much higher than that and that's why I just wanted to come back quickly quickly there's a storm up north west of Marshalltown has a hook on it north of State Center but this is what I wanted to show you this is just a look at the the back edge of that storm this we've been watching it on our Pella that's how close the storm is actually saw the rear flank downdraft on our camera there and this storm is just just just north of Pella right now the most dangerous part of the storm and it looks like the rotation will stay just a smidge and I don't even want to say you'll be a-ok in Pella because it's going to get so close to the northeast side of town so close so please if you're in Pella you should be in shelter right now especially if you are north and northeast of Pella I would say from Knoxville I mean excuse me from downtown where our sky cam is Mullingar out areas north that's where you want to seek shelter because that's where the rotation is I have a very good couplet on radar right now then I'm watching that has intensified and what we watch is you have all this rotation and then when the rotation tightens that's when we really get concerned and I just got another update one mile north of Pella a potentially very strong tornado and this is where it looks like on radar right now and I'm looking at some other radar sources that have a little different look but we have a very well-defined hook echo there's a tornado over in the pellet area it is very strong at this time I'm just going to click over why I'm talking to you and just see look at that where you see these break means that is 41 and 91 put those together it's well over 100 miles an hour probably over 120 rotation strong tornado north of Pella right now folks in Pella please seek shelter this is very very dangerous at this time and I do want to point out between Pelin Peoria that is the area where the main rotation is just looking that storm I don't want to forget about the other storms that happens when you're watching these things Bangor area Marshalltown you probably got a funnel on that one in this I'm going to update this for you folks I've got a bad picture here it is this is where we're watching a storm if I was a let's click over to velocity so let's just make it simple there's a tornado right there so the tornado just northeast of Pella and west of 102 right now that's what I'm seeing on radar I'm getting reports of storms reporters so there again it's a mile away that's just too close folks keep it safe you know this is a radar things happen in the atmosphere things get bent things move around a little bit so if you're in Pella and you're near highway 102 I want you to take shelter you could have a very damaging storm it looks like the most dangerous part is going to just clip pass Pella but it's so close I just want to be safe there let me get the movement on this and then I'll throw to Zach in the field just let me click on one little thing here and just get the rotation and try to give you a look at so 4:16 over by lower Grove Park Zach Sharpe Iowa storm chasing Network where he had Zach and what you're looking at right now we have a funnel cloud you're looking off to the Northeast halfway to the ground we've seen this storm really begin to tighten up and that's been the case with these storms all day these storms really tighten up we produce a great bottle that touches down making that brief tornado but right now it doesn't seem to be cycling Thank You Zack for being on that storm and stay safe out there based on what I'm seeing on radar I'm seeing what you're saying it looks like it's intensifying so we have the bigger storm down to the south but the storm in Marshall County looks also quite strong at this time and this area in yellow folks this is your tornado watch again I just want to show you take i-35 and just call it the line you're fine if you're i-35 west you're gonna be fine the rest of the day it's gonna be a beautiful evening for you all this is to the east right now this warning up around Iowa Falls that storm I don't even know if that's still in effect it they expired for that one okay and then this is a storm we're watching down to the south one storm here see where Zach was if there were a tornado would be right in here he's seeing the funnel so east of Clements is where the rotation is right now on that storm I'm going to look at velocity quick not as strong as the other storm but some of the storms that haven't been showing great velocity on radar are also been tornadic and damaging as we saw I got you I'll get to that just a flash I just want to update folks down around Pella so it looks like the most dangerous part of the storm has just scooted past the Pella area it is now right here folks I like this new just put it right on their highway 102 and north 163 that is where the main area of rotation is Jason's today go out Jason today I think he was coming back from a well-earned vacation but because he knows whether he's out chasing tornadoes that is great yeah I'm right now on 160 screen pretty dynamic environment out here you can just look at the clouds and see the rotation and looking just ahead of it now looks like we do have a little bit of a funnel you go a little bit of tone around the building but even earlier when I was on the storm near Bondurant that's a little more short-lived so it dipped down and kind of hot backed up but this one looks like it looks like a cone leading to the ground right now Jason I'm getting reports from some other chasers of the same situation actually a new report came and if he's still listening to me of a large tornado so it kind of depends on where you are in relationship to the rotation what it looks like I mean different angles different looks as always Jason's kind of sneaking in around this if you were south east he came in off that storm of Bondurant so it was harder for him to get to this one if you're southeast looking back at it you get a little better a better view there so this is the storm the tornado warned storm I would not be surprised I'm just watching what The Weather Service says they'll probably my guess I'm not speaking for him would probably issue another tornado warning based on what we're seeing but that that's completely up to them rain now on the Pella camera because it's raining in Pella good news for folks in Pella the main rotation is east and northeast of you right now so given another five minutes and then if you were seeking shelter in Pella you'll be able to come on out I just updated this so the shear is 104 miles an hour that has weakened a bit but because it's tightened and more likely a tornado our indicator what we call the barren tornado index which was at a four earlier is out of seven this is a scale of one to ten you get above five that's that's something that's at seven and what that is is just a way of a the computer telling us hey look at me look at this storm we even Wilkin added you'd have to be first student not to notice these things but also I want to talk about the storm that has rotation on it there's a funnel cloud northwest of Marshalltown storms a little stronger you do have a tornado warning so if you're in Marshalltown and Marshalltown Northwest please seek shelter that storm also has a funnel cloud on it I got a new update so they have a tornado observed east of Pella east southeast moving southeast at 25 miles an hour Steve Stacy I might be missing something and you guys are my eyes and ears what do you got let's see if we can roll some of the video that we had earlier specifically if we can the the video of the tornado hitting Banda ramp this come is coming to us from TJ Phillips we understand northeast 64th Street of Bondurant just watch the power of this thing as it goes down the street and it just tears apart electrical lines transformers and then it started to get houses this is the first time I've ever seen a view like this I'm wondering about you as well the opportunity to catch these kinds of things with cell phones these days is just amazing but you see the debris and and the heck shingles and structures flying into the air and just you know it's no wonder the the brief fields for these storms is so big because the wind just takes it all all all over the place yeah there have been a lot of funnel clouds right now it looks like most of the damage has been done in Bondurant but we'll stay on it and figure out where they've been hit let's go back to chris gothner he's in Bondurant he's been doing a great job today of showing us what's going on in one neighborhood there Chris if you could tell us again where you are and then describe the scene please yeah this is a second Street and Mallard Ridge Drive in Bondurant this is that house that we've been showing you all afternoon long that has been just the roof completely blown off and the garage door is just completely see-through where you can see through the other side this house got a lot of damage and we can only hope that nobody was inside this tornado came through you can see the the path of destruction here kind of if photographer John Houghton is able to pan just just a line of debris appears to come through diagonally across the second we're gonna pan around okay John is panning around to show you where these fire crews are right now this is at an active gas leak right now we're not sure the status of that gas leak we've been moved back Lauren Donovan is going over to the Bondurant High School to talk to officials there that's where their staging area is they're going to be updating on this gas leak situation presumably still an active situation because you can see numerous fire crews still on scene up just a line of Deputies Polk County deputies coming out here you see neighbors just out here looking at the damage some of them impacted by this some of them not some of them just seeing what happened we we heard from another neighbor that there might have been a second smaller storm that came through to the north of here that one didn't really do much in damage just the neighbor said it just twisted things up a little bit but this one obviously was the one that was a pretty significant you see a line of Deputies going down here on a mallard Point Drive this is on the west side of Bondurant for those who may not be familiar with Bondurant I don't know John can you pan over to this this area here where you can see some of these just this line of houses that has looks like the decks are just collapsed right now on seconds - well not really second street but a road here in this subdivision that appears to be where that tornado came through you just see the the roof torn off there we can't hear the gas noise from here but that doesn't mean it's not still going on obviously but when we were down further there by further down on second you could hear the gas noise just rushing out of there so obviously this has been a fairly chaotic situation here right after this storm just rolled through here and again we can only hope that nobody was hurt in this because this is some pretty serious damage Steve Stacey yeah Chris if we if John could pan back to the house that's behind you that's got the most serious damage yes keep just a little bit wider John no no the one no you're right the other way the the house with the most significant damage that we've been focusing on throughout the afternoon that house we understand the back house at one point was a two-story house we understand that the second story has been totally alright from that structure and that would make sense that would make sense and Chris I'm curious you've been out there for an hour or so now have you heard any ambulances leaving that area just curious if there are any injuries if any ambulances have been rushing out of that area we've we've seen ambulances we've seen ambulances Steve we didn't see anything that looked Arjun coming out of the area we didn't see any ambulances taken off with lights and sirens were running hot to the hospital we did see some ambulances though we're not sure if that's it was just precautionary or if somebody was injured in this we can only hope not but yeah it's it's bad here I mean there there's no other way of putting it it is it's an ugly scene and Chris as you are standing there looking at the destruction looking at what was a and Chris as you are you are talking you're seeing more folks come to check out the damage have they shut down the area we saw a line of Polk County deputy cars SUVs come through but two civilians have they shut down the area the folks who are in or in but they're not allowing anybody else in or out well we're not sure if they're allowing people in or out we know that obviously second Street Northwest is closed because of the massive emergency vehicles I mean obviously we're in I don't know what they're letting more people in or out we can't necessarily see too much down second street but I mean I guess whoever's in is in right now they're not shooing anybody away from from from these houses right now so assuming everything is fine right now you see emergency crews again surveying that 149 I mean I can believe that that was a two-story house based on the construction of some of the houses in this subdivision I mean that that's incredible and can only hope that again everybody is all right here Steve Stacy yeah Chris you just saw a woman and a man walking away with suitcases I would imagine there's some people who live in that neighborhood and maybe they are just vacating their houses they're probably going to be a few stories like that this evening they're kind of rolling down the street there - yeah nobody here no doubt yeah all right let's go back to chief meteorologist Kurtis Gertz and Kurtis Wow there was an interesting looking radar right now yeah it is getting a even stronger at times I think what I'm watching here is this storm is maintaining its strength tornado on the ground now it looks like it's about five miles southeast of pehla pehla you are safe the most dangerous part of the storm has pushed on through Pella at this time what I'm seeing on radar is it's for southeast of Apella then this storm has strengthened a funnel cloud reported just to the northwest of Marshalltown right now Albion you are seeing a funnel just outside of town please seek shelter there folks in Marshalltown this cell is going to be headed your way and then this is just a little I'll have to move this over for you but what we're seeing here folks is these storms have strengthened and there's not as much competition if you want to put it that way tip in Iowa you know we got a whole bunch of storms they bump into each other we get brief tornadoes today we got classic supercells with big old hook echoes and my concern with this one is as you can see is it's not that far from Oskaloosa it has pushed through Pella but folks down in Oskaloosa I'm going to go right from the rotation on this it's about ten miles northwest of Oskaloosa right now this cells so 10 miles northwest of Oskaloosa is the tornadic storm that is producing a tornado okay now coming in National Weather Service tornado for that storm near Marshalltown it was a funnel cloud now being reported as a tornado we saw it strengthen there's almost like a threshold today once they get to a certain strength so this storm right here I'm gonna give you the marker on this one two six miles northwest of Marshalltown confirmed tornado on the ground or law enforcement storm spotters report tornadoes so getting to reports in on that so that storm right there continues to move on through I'm just going to quickly go over to the tornado warnings and see so there's our tornado warning for Marshall County 4:45 and you can see that it's it's quieted down except for these two larger storms everybody else is a-okay right now Oskaloosa you're not in the warning but Mahaska County Layton is and Marion County until 4:45 just going to show you what's happened today there's the funnel that was north of Pella tornado east of Monroe tornado east of Prairie City tornado northwest of Colfax this is the Bondurant area generally Bondurant north these aren't exactly where they are they're based on lat/long they'll correct themselves later tornado started I 35 Ankeny and then we had the activity up along highway 65 and then all those other storms there I'm gonna just uh if you could go full screen for a second on this I just want to update something for you and thank you for doing that these are storms I'm going to put them into motion you can see the hook echoes on both of these I've been watching our Pella Skycam waiting for it to see if you could see the tornado on the backside of it so I had to run on over and make it go fullscreen it'll be just a second here we go there's your two storms I was hoping that once the storm cleared Pella we might have a look at it on our Pella Skycam earlier I could see the tornado on the Pella Skycam so we've been watching that there again you're quickly your tornado safety tips you obviously hopefully folks in Bondurant file these get to the basement no basement put as many walls between you and the tornado protect your head don't panic stay informed that's what we're doing here we're gonna show that you're a-okay in Pella right now fine everything has moved on through Layton if you're up that way that is where the most dangerous part of the storm is I'm going to quick oh boy on velocity that is really tightened up you see where these reds and greens are that's where it is and so you got almost a hundred miles an hour there of sheer appears the tornado is going right down Highway 163 towards Oskaloosa several residents in the path along Highway 163 so I'm getting some more information coming in there but the rotation on this storm story that popped up for you that's just the radar attributes there and then I'm just going to quickly kick over to our arrow here and see what it's saying for shear so it's dropped to shear a little bit but hey 100 mile an hour winds plus obviously can cause some damage and the rotation is right along Highway 163 which is right here folks so it's headed right towards Oskaloosa at this time with that cell and then this cell north of Northwest of Marshalltown also I'm going to click over and just see what we got for strength with this near 100 miles an hour of shear getting another report end of that storm quickly over to another radar source for you so here's the hook on i over zoomed you're really going to get enclosed just along Highway 163 right now that is where the tornado is headed towards Oskaloosa at this time and I just want to give you seven miles from Oskaloosa tornado on the ground moving right down 163 lot of development along 163 between Pelin Oskaloosa if you are between Pelin Oskaloosa 163 seek shelter right now that is where the most dangerous part of this storm is and then quickly I'm going to go to the storm up north for you and just show you what's going on because this one's headed towards Marshalltown I'm going to click over to velocity quick okay it's right here would be where the tornado is if just to the west and northwest of Marshalltown Steve Stacey anything new the only thing we do have that is new we've just heard a number of ambulance calls that have been made out of Pella we don't know exactly what's going on there we're looking on we're looking into that but senior reporter Todd Magel is on its way to Pella and we will figure out exactly what's going on there but sounds like a nasty situation in Pella and Kurtis you mentioned it's going down Highway 163 and you just go from Pella to Oskaloosa down Highway 163 okay we understand chris gothner is doing an interview live in the Bondurant area right now let's listen in to that it was a second-story house so so so that will that was a second-story house tell me again what you what describe what you just described there with what you saw before and what you saw after I saw the tornado forming and I was driving down this way trying to get home as soon as I could so I want to get stuck in my car in the tornado and I've driven past this house dozens of times the second story house it was a beautiful home and then I got home just in time for the tornado to touch down in our backyard thankfully we got down to the basement okay but after it passed we came out we could see the debris flying around in down here I couldn't see much of what was going on down here because my house is too far down but this it's really devastating to see such a beautiful house destroyed like that have you heard anything of how your neighbors are doing yes Curtis what's going on well I didn't mean to jump in on that because obviously that young lady's at a very trying day but this is something we have on super Doppler 8 do you see what's on the screen you see that rotating area of black there that just popped up that means that our Doppler radar indicates debris it means that it is a sure thing there's a tornado on the ground north of Layton and what happens when we get that spinning thing the attributes don't make a mistake with this very often it means there's debris lofted with this tornado so the tornado going down 163 is kicking up debris just got emergency manager to north of late and you see it right there and radar tornado on the ground so damage on right now Leighton area that is damage being reported on super Doppler 8 it is a definitive sign of debris being lofted with this storm so I wanted to come back to that I hated interviewing interrupting Chris there but we have more damage coming as this happens this is a storm just northwest of Marshalltown right now and that also is producing a tornado so we have two storms to keep an eye on one headed towards Oskaloosa at this time I just want to click on this and I'm sorry I interrupted there folks but this is creating damage right along 163 velocity it's moved just a bit but at this time six miles from Oskaloosa tornado on the ground six miles from Oskaloosa folks in Oskaloosa this storm is headed your way at this time a tornado on the ground on 163 Stephen Stacy sorry to interrupt you there but just seeing that damage and it's around Evans right now if you know the area I know that's a small town but damage lofted near Evans okay Curtis thank you very much yeah a very nasty afternoon with regard to the weather here in central Iowa let's go back out to Bon Duran and kcci's Chris got there Chris sounds like it's still yeah hi Steve and Stacey well just out of the the corner of my ear it sounds like this gas might still be going and John can you hear the gas still going it okay he can't tell but I mean you see the crews are out there we saw made American energy crews out here earlier presumably for power lines or gas again take a look though at some of the damage to these decks in this backyard here a long second Street in or second Avenue and Bondurant you can see again where the path of this destruction clearly went through because you just see these decks toppled you see shingles being taken off roofs you see some of the siding taken off you see just exposed exposed wood there but the the house down here where you just see that looks like the entire roof almost taken off here down along here along 2nd Avenue is this is this is bad folks John I don't know if you can pan again I think we ought to show that house again here on a mallard Point Drive again if you're just joining us this was according to neighbors here and according to a lot of the folks we're talking to this was a two-story house it is no longer just extreme damage to this house here again we don't know if anybody in this neighborhood was hurt by this we can only hope not but this was very bad damage is very bad damage really as crews it looks like if you can see this are we still on me right now guys if we can see some of the neighbors out here just picking up the did the damage out here alright Chris thank you very much happy to get back over to Curtis we have more breaking severe weather information yeah we have met major metropolitan areas with tornadoes northwest of both towns and both tornadoes moving southeast at this time the storm right now Leighton to the east and southeast just northwest of Oskaloosa confirmed tornado has kicked up a whole lot of damage along Highway 163 we are watching that one and then the storm to the north has intensified I'm Way sumed in on this but I want to show you Marshalltown confirmed tornado right now just outside of Marshalltown I don't know if the tornado sirens are going off in Marshalltown but do you have reports of a tornado it just came train spotter and it was near Marshalltown right now and I'm what I'm looking at a radar it's just about over Marshalltown I'm going to click on over quickly to velocity and see what it looks like there it's just to the west side of Marshalltown right now west northwest side of Marshalltown a tornado on the ground so tornado headed into Marshalltown at this time so we're watching that Zach Sharpe Iowa storm chasing Network near Marshalltown Zach it looks like a tornado on radar I'm getting reports a tornado what are you seeing his phone dropped out well as can be expected he's Jason is that his video there okay he's running through the video he's running through the storm right there but I do want to tell you folks in Marshalltown please seek shelter right now this is a confirmed tornado I'm just reading new reports coming in and that we have this storm over Oskaloosa they did issue a another tornado warning I think for that storm just want to go over your tornado safety tips a lot of folks just coming home it's 4:35 what's going on well we've had numerous tornadoes they've been causing damage out there widespread damage up around Bondurant and then we had reports of other damage out there along Highway 163 don't panic go to the basement simplest thing you're safe there avoid windows protect your head stay informed that's why we're here on KCCI we've been on the air for at least an hour and a half since the storm moved through Bondurant this is a storm I'm worried about in Oskaloosa what's been happening is one of my attributes on the radar signifies win we get some debris from the storm and what's happening is occasionally it shows an indicator like there's debris what it looks at is it knows what hail raindrop looks like and when it sees something that isn't like one of those it's obviously debris that's the only other thing it could be so it throws up a debris indicator we don't have one right now but we had one earlier southeast of Pella and that's why we're watching this storm as it heads towards Oskaloosa I'm just gonna zoom in on Oskaloosa for you okay sorry I can't see if we're still seeing anything 104 miles an hour of rotation they're gonna click on the rotation has it's just the west-northwest of Oskaloosa till 5 I don't know why my warning hasn't updated there but it does include Oskaloosa until 5:00 and this is a storm in Marshalltown now back to Zach sharp he's near Marshalltown or in Marshalltown Zach looks like a hook echo on the radar yeah hey Curtis we're on Main Street heading into Marshalltown right now the tornado is brain Rev you can definitely tell there's a tornado there as we have these rain bands dancing around the parent tornado right now but as you can as we can see visually and you can tell it's a very large tornado back in there somewhere we're keeping our distance from it but once again this is a rain wrack tornado that's heading towards Marshalltown right now Thank You Zach be safe out there you can see his video he's watching it very very closely Staci you asked that question earlier about it's just a rear flank downdraft coming around on this storm and where zach is is that tornado is notched in just to the northwest of Marshalltown you could see it right in through here so it's coming around pushing the winds are pushing out into downtown Marshalltown right now and then the winds north of Marshalltown are headed away from Marshalltown and in the middle there that is where you have the tornado it's just on the west and northwest side of Marshalltown right now oh this is not good getting reports of some big cat attention Oh they're coming reports and of the Weather Service they're just trying to heighten the awareness for people and they're talking about the potential for catastrophic damage in Marshalltown so tornado emergency pardon me I got some my throat's dry a tornado emergency in Marshalltown the potential for catastrophic damage in Marshalltown folks in Marshalltown now please seek shelter Steve Stacey we're watching that storm moved through Marshalltown right now do we have any eyes on that besides that we got his video right there just Zach at this time Curtis are are these folks Oh Zach is also on the phone can we talk to him yep are we there hey hey Zach wondering if you're seeing a lot of rain in addition to the tornado damage we're seeing some tree damage now thanks to your video yeah Stacey we're just rolling into Marshalltown right now you can tell the tornado has just gone through here we have significant tree damage that is blocking the roadway this is Main Street they head straight into Marshalltown there's literally trees everywhere right now in Marshalltown we're trying to navigate our way through there's a piece of siding we just saw people fighting then Wednesday we're not strong enough to take the power poles down those are still standing but they're significant there's a swing set that has been knocked over we're turning a navigate our way through Marshalltown right now but we do have significant damage here at least in the way of trees things that are like multiple tree branches on the roadways right now it does and we in the tornado if we can still we're tracking it it's still moving off to the east away from us but as we continue to navigate our way through marshals have right now we do have the significant damage are you seeing significant rainfall with this storm as well Zach this storm some heavy rain but near the area rotation we haven't seen much in a way of heavy rain it's been by the Corps I don't know if you can see very well off in the distance we're facing to the east right now but we can still see the area of rotation but right now with the vegetation damage and Marshalltown it's quite extensive okay Curtis curious you know normally here in Iowa we'll get these huge lines of storms that are very well-defined but what we're seeing day at least looks to me like little individual storms along a line but they're all pretty powerful it was really we haven't had classic supercells here for some time and as you can see from Zach there's the damage coming in from Marshalltown but today we got two storms two storms producing tornadoes that managed to overcome the environment of all the other storms and there are two storms that are going to maintain their strength most likely because they have a fresh look at some air that has not been polluted by other storms so they're going to continue to be quite strong so that's what we're watching there and want to stay on Zach there is this is just live video coming in and I'll update you verbally Oskaloosa I really hope folks in Oskaloosa right now are seeking shelter we're watching this storm move into Oskaloosa if it's not already in Oskaloosa so we informed you that it was going to be headed towards Oskaloosa so folks in Oskaloosa area please seek shelter if you have not already we have damage in Bondurant damage in Marshalltown and there's most likely damage on 163 between around Layton north laitanan and as it heads in Oskaloosa you potentially have some damage so we're watching that storm there I'm just going over to another source and you can just see what's happening as the hook is coming right into Oskaloosa and most likely it's in town right now and that's why you have that tornado warning I'm going to click over yeah the rotation is in Oskaloosa so folks if there's not a tornado in Oskaloosa right now it'll be there in moments it's probably in town right now it could potentially be a funnel cloud but the rotation right now is at 63 and 163 cut it in to Oskaloosa at this time so that is what we are watching their reports coming in along 163 of damage Oskaloosa I'm just gonna look at a couple things before I know these colors are bright but that's just something I look at for potential damage the rotation right now is moving through Oskaloosa it's a broader scale rotation there but one to keep an eye on Steve Stacey yeah Shawn Curtis we need to go to Bob Leonard of kr LSK and I a radio and Pella and Bob you have breaking news there please tell us what's going on well we have a evacuation of Vermeer going on right now I got a report from a law enforcement officer I was following the tornado and North Apella that it was over Vermeer plant and now we had a gas leak evacuation there's a strong smell of gas perhaps oh I don't know six or seven different agencies are here they blocked off Vermeer Road people are evacuating as fast as they can but it's a slow process that's a big plant there was a loud roar of gas and but that is now gone Lyon energies on scene a lot of different agencies Pella ambulance has not left the scene so I presume there are no in are no injuries but you can't you know say that for sure but I've tracked that storm all the way from Monroe through North Powell I cook limbs down up there I haven't didn't see any buildings damage but it's not going to be clear here for a little bit until how bad if you know really there's tourists you know approximately how many people are employed there oh boy I would guess that there's several thousand here on standards you know I don't know there's a line of cars mile long of people leaving so that'll tell you how many people are trying to get out of here things seem to have calmed at first there was lots of rushing around by law enforcement and now that you know they've settled down a little bit Bob any indication of how much storm damage there is to the the plant where any of the workers they're injured when the the storm hit or when no word on that yet oh okay so you said the ambulances have not left how many ambulances are there are they treating patients no they're just standing by you know as just in case of an emergency in case somebody needs treated did did the city of good fair warning where the sirens going you know because these people have had time to seek shelter the sirens went off well in the dance there was plenty of warning we were on the air giving warning and yeah the National Weather Service for a great job any indication of how big of an area they want to evacuate given the dangers of the the gas leak well I don't know that there's any danger anymore but you premiere it's a mile long they call it the Vermeer mile and i don't know they've evacuated at least half of it if not all of it there would be a thousand employees on shift right now that's gone Bob Leonard of KNI aka RLS radio in Pella thank you very much nice job for us this afternoon doing let you know folks Pella a town of a little more than 10,000 people and we need to go to Lauren Donovan she's also over in Bondurant and she's standing by with lieutenant rich Blaylock the public information officer for the Polk County Sheriff's Department Lauren take it away well Steve we've actually been relocated here to Bondurant High School because of concerns involving a gas main break and we have as you said lieutenant Richard Blaylock with us here he's going to tell us what he has seen so far well this weather event multiple homes have sustained damage in the mallard Point area right across in the Legion Hall as you saw when you try to come into town a lot of the intersections are blocked off a lot of law enforcement and emergency management and safety personnel are here right now we're just trying to get the homes check to make sure the people inside are safe and the homes are safe to remain in right now they're putting displaced people in the Federated Church 103 second Street Southwest here in town again no reports of serious injury or death yet so we're going to monitor that we'll update you on that Emergency Management is going to bring in a shelter trailer in case there's displaced residents who need special needs again multiple homes and the area is closed off right now and can you talk to us more also about this gas main break because that's why you moved us out here for our safety you were concerned right with this type of weather event there's some gas mains are broken they're checking the homes they're clearing the areas nobody's gonna be able to get back in that area until it's safe it could take a little bit of time but again anybody that's displaced make sure you go to that Federated Church on 2nd Street and if I'm in Bondurant what can I expect as far as cleanup efforts and safety moving forward what do I need to know well right now what we need to know is this is safety and security and making sure everybody's okay and making sure that scene is made safe once we progress into this Emergency Management will take over and and all the people will work together to get this cleaned up great okay Lauren Donovan at Bondurant for our high school that is a staging area for the emergency efforts in the Bondurant area Curtis you have some emergent news yeah we still have tornadoes on the ground so we're continuing to keep you updated on those obviously tremendous reports coming in of the damage out there and the risk for the gas leaks still a potential for a tornado damage as you head east and southeast of Oskaloosa I'm not getting many reports and out of Oskaloosa of damage we'll have to wait a little while hopefully the tornado went back up into the clouds when it moved over Oskaloosa which is possible because there was damage on 163 the rotation on it weakened a bit but I'm not saying there wasn't any damage it that's what I'm hoping and now it's drinking a bit east and southeast of Oskaloosa so from cedar north west that is where you want to seek shelter right now and then this storm that caused all the damage in Marshalltown I just want to read for you what the weather service is saying with their tornado warning observe tornado catastrophic damage potential with this storm in Marshall and Tama County and this is a confirmed large and destructive tornado up there so that is the one LaGrande Montour Dunbar those areas please seek shelter now this is a potentially catastrophic tornado up that way a tornado emergency issued for Marshall County with that storm this is the storm down south I'm just giving you a little different look I like to jump around between the sources we're in just here's the rotation five miles matter of fact that's over towards Oskaloosa Airport five miles around northwest of cedar that's where the rotation is on radar it's west of right out of Oskaloosa there's a secondary rotation though moving into Oskaloosa right now I've been watching that so I I hope that's okay but there was a secondary little rotation but the main rotation is now southeast of Oskaloosa but I'm watching a little rotation that was along highway 92 heavy rain Oskaloosa right now frequent lightning but then the storm on radar I went the wrong way to zoom sorry about that folks will just come out to a wider view for you and the storm on radar that we're watching is this one that's headed in the Tama County that moved over Marshalltown why don't we loop it for it you can see it moved over Marshalltown damage with that is it wrapped up and now areas around Legrand you want to seek shelter there I'm just going to go over to velocity it's a little wider scale but it is moving east at this time so I'm going to put a little bit of a storm track on it for you and there's the timing on this so a few minutes moving on through Legrand over towards Montour and the Meskwaki Indian settlement there so that is if it maintains its strength that's what's happening right now with that storm moving out of Marshall County I'm just going to give you the big picture folks some folks don't know the counties well he may have moved her so I'll just tell you the towns in this warned area that are still potentially impacted Mont or Legrand Garwin Toledo Gilman with that storm the warning in effect until 5:00 and then the storm down at Mahaska County in effect till 5:00 Cedar Rose Hill and Oskaloosa although it looks like the biggest rotation has moved through Oskaloosa new warning coming in downstream of current Mahaska County storm so that's coming in from the web service the rotation has tightened northwest of cedar right here it's been a while here in Iowa since we've had your classic supercells with hook echoes on them but that's what you're seeing you see how that hook moved through Oskaloosa and then drop south and now most dangerous part of this storm is just west of right if I was putting the tornado on here and put it right in through there so that's where we're watching between Wright and cedar I'm just watching to see that's just a storm that has tightened up reports of a funnel cloud I'm not getting any more reports out of the Mahaska County storm of a tornado it's a funnel cloud with rotation but the radar signature has gotten tighter here in the last a few scans so I just wanted to keep you updated there and I know we got numerous where reporters in the field can't wait to hear what Zacks saying out of Marshalltown Marshalltown by the way you're clear it's okay to go on I know folks probably already coming out but I forgot to do that for you okay to come out assess the damage if you have power lines down stay away if you have a gas leak get away it's that simple because a dangerous situation there LeGrande that area highway 30 the storm right over highway 30 and 146 right now the most dangerous part of this storm over 146 highway 30 right in through here possibly nearly grandeur over Legrand right now headed towards Thema Toledo I'm just gonna put the most dangerous part of the storm and give your storm track there are some of the areas there obviously it's over Legrand right now headed toward Toledo Municipal and moving to the east they just extended that tornado warning a little farther to the east for folks there so these are the storms were watching I'm just going to go through the chat room a quickly just see if I'm missing anything I am NOT two storms very dangerous LaGrande areas downstream east and southeast also southeast of Oskaloosa northwest of cedar very dangerous storm Steve Stacy yeah we want to go to Pella we've got meteorologist jason sydejko on the phone we also have his video here Jason what are you seeing tell us what tell us about the pictures were looking at right now other cars pretty intense damage that this plant took buildings on it it looks like most of the other roofs of the buildings or not thank you very much you're doing to let you know that if you are not familiar with Vermeer they are an industrial and agricultural equipment maker they employ about 2,200 people total we don't know how many people were on this shift we understand the plant the plant did take a direct hit the plant there on Vermeer Road which is on the east side of Pella town of a little more than 10,000 people and the plant itself is said to be a mile long that's right we understand that well Vermeer confirms that plant number seven was hit not sure on the number of people injured at this time you can see in the video the Jason showed us his audio was a little tough to understand but those flags are just ripped to shreds that's the driveway as you go into the Vermeer plant campus he said a number of vehicles were stacked on top of each other like they were toy vehicles you could tell the the storm had gone right through there and just created all kinds of problems we do have a KCCI senior reporter Todd Magel on the way to Vermeer we hope to Wellman as soon as he gets there and gets set up we will check in with him and he can update us on what the situation is again we're not sure of any injuries at this time yeah we do want to let you know that Bob Leonard the news director at a local radio station there IKr LS told us by phone earlier that and he had been there for a while that he didn't see any ambulances rushing from the scene there were ambulances there we don't know the extent of any injuries and we certainly hope that everybody is ok but that's a bad looking scene that for me right now they did say that there was a gas leak they were evacuating the plant because of that leak and they brought in all kinds of emergency personnel as a precaution in addition to the crews who were attending to the gas leak yeah I have some numbers on that right now ambulances from bussy are seeing significant damages I damage at the Vermeer plant we've seen that there bus he just south of the pellet area two to three buildings seem to be hit there I know you just mentioned plant number 77 Stacey and this person who has checked in with us has told us about 50 ambulances and police vehicles on the scene at the Vermeer plant in Pella we understand it took a direct hit from a tornado today it looks very severe and there is substantial damage jason sudeikis showed us the shredded flags and cars stacked on top of one another according to one caller there are 13 buildings on the campus and 7 plants that Vermeer but we were told plant number 7 was definitely hit yeah we just got that information I gave you from Randy Sikkim he's a good friend of KCCI and Randy very active in the community there in Pella and he will keep us as formed as best you can as well Bob Leonard from the local radio station yeah I'm wondering if somebody can tell us what video we're looking at right now we see some metal just looks like it's bent around oh this is still the stolen Vermeer plant okay yeah jason sudeikis Jason's today coating these pictures for us so you just see these flag poles are just the fact that they're still standing is amazing but we do see we see tree damage we the vehicle vehicle just looked like they've been tossed around like they were toys in addition to them being stacked up on top of each other in the parking yeah it's just severe weather in Iowa and it is severe today it's all hands on deck here at KCCI 8 News lots of reporters out and chief meteorologist Kurtis Kurtz has his finger on the pulse of it all yeah I want to keep you updated we still have a to possible tornadoes on the ground I'm getting a new reports coming in on these storms and that storm that moved through Marshalltown by the way reports coming in and out of Marshalltown of vehicles missing vehicles overturned tops of buildings gone trees downed power lines gas lines etc coming in from a train spotter now this storm is sliding to the east it looks like ma it's Legrand Montour in highway 30 that's where I'm concerned at this time a tornado warning in effect for these areas will take you from the highway 30 highway 63 interchange in the most dangerous part of this storm is eight miles due west so folks in that area Montour Legrand I think even Thema Toledo you want to seek shelter it looks like you still have a bit of rotation there and you're under the tornado warning so that is that cell then quickly folks I hope when you were listening I told folks in cedar to seek shelter I hope you did because boy it tightened up is it headed towards a cedar area here's Oskaloosa so far I haven't had any reports coming in out Oskaloosa pardon me Oskaloosa hopefully the storm was cycling when it went over ice Oskaloosa and weakened just a bit but then it intensified as it headed down highway 23 so the rotation on this storm if there was a tornado and I had a report of a funnel would be Cedar area highway 23 headed towards Fremont highway 149 that storm right down there is a 1 we're keeping an eye on two quickly we'll look at the tornado safety tips I'm going to get a little better picture on a couple of my radar sources and that way I can update you on that so again the storm cedar area you could see kirk ville there that's where the rotation is around Fremont that area it's broad scale there but I'm gonna this is an old indicator that came in but I just want to click on it see what the what the wind shear is so 92 miles an hour probably a hundred miles an hour of of shear with that storm and then the storm to the north getting a look at this this is headed towards Tama in Toledo and I just wanted to look at one other thing for you it looks like I'm getting a few reports coming in of a funnel cloud earlier around Legrand but at this time as it moves to the east I am NOT getting reports of funnel clouds but because of the way these storms have looked and the fact I'm just going to click out for you and show you that there's only a couple storms on radar the fact that they could ingest more powerful air just be safe over in tainment Toledo you're under that warning just take shelter and keep an eye on things there at this time the storm might be cycling but the most dangerous part of the storm is just west of Toledo and Tama and over towards Mont or Iowa and we're watching this move to the east but at this time all we're getting with the report of that is a funnel cloud but obviously it could intensify Steve Stacey all right Curtis thank you it's been an absolutely busy day here in central Iowa with these storms popping up and we've been following it all we've got KCCI chief meteorologist Kurtis Gertz tracking these storms meteorologist Jason Sudeikis wrecking the storms as well as Iowa storm chasers Zac sharp we've got reporters in Pella Bondurant and on the way to Marshalltown that's right that's where the most damage has has happened one a start the five o'clock newscast here in the city of Bondurant took a hit this afternoon we understand it's in the maillard Point area of that town and kcci's chris gothner is there live hi Steve well yeah we are in the Mallard Point area for those of you who might just be getting home or just joining us this is widespread and pretty serious destruction here in Bondurant take a look at this house here that is on the corner of a Mallard point and second Avenue this was was a two-story house it is no longer the good news here is we talked to the homeowner who was here she was not in the house at the time none of her family was in the house at the time even her dog wasn't in the house at the time so everybody is okay really tremendously fortunate there let's pan over and show you see all of these Power crews out here fixing power lines debris just wrapped around these power lines as this tornado moved through I said it was widespread destruction really though I really meant it was more or less concentrated actually it really you see some of the houses right next to this just not even touch but some of these other houses are just like the roofs have been just torn off completely there was a gas leak over here is a John Houghton for our photographer pans over you see some of these decks out here you can see where the path of this tornado presumably went through it I would imagine it went diagonal over second Avenue and and went over to some of these houses over here but there is just a lot of damage over here particularly the roofs but this two-story house was probably the worst one that we've we've seen so far the roof just got completely torn off of it and really significant damage here but again it looks like everybody in this neighborhood is safe and that that's what matters here there was a gas leak over at this house here down at the down the way here on second Avenue we don't know if that is still ongoing I haven't been able to hear the gas rush out it does appear that there might be fewer emergency crews over there I don't know what to read into that per se but there was a gas leak which is why we're we're sort of staying back we haven't gotten all clear from officials but again a somewhat chaotic scene here obviously as this tornado ripped through the western edge of Bondurant here Steve Stacey all right chris gothner live in Bondurant this afternoon thank you we want to check in now with KCCI meteor jason sudeikis been storm tracking out in the storm today and Jason you're on you're in the Pella area near Vermeer is that right that's correct yeah I was kind of on the back edge of the storm and kind of followed it into town and going into town you can start to see some power lines down and whatnot but once I got to the Vermeer plant it was just totally different scene there's quite a bit of damage here out of the factory buildings themselves the cars in the parking lot I asked me some ambulance players to come and go but I haven't gotten any word on anything going on with that but the scene is just especially in the parking lot total construction cars stacked on top of other cars you can see the roofing from the plant pretty much all over the place you can standing into other fields away from the plant so the police have most of the roads around here blocked off so they're trying to keep things safe I know there's kind of an odor of gas in the parking lot of course since the cars were kind of hurled about but yeah it's it's a pretty have you heard anything about injuries have you heard any sirens ambulance sirens taking from the area and it ended when I pulled in I saw some as well so they don't have any word on any injuries but there's definitely a presence here so if if I can get more information I don't let you know but now I don't Jason the pictures are amazing it's it's incredible to see all that damage and to not have a high injury count at this point we don't know the extent of injuries right now but we haven't heard that's right we do want to let you know that if you are not familiar with Vermeer and what it does it is an industrial and agricultural equipment maker of a plant is maybe a mile or two east of Pella proper they employ 2200 people approximately but we do know how many people were working on this shift the planet is about a mile long in fact they call it the broom ear while over there in Fela and we understand building seven which may be the one we're looking at right now it took a direct hit there was another one that was hit as well ambulances from all over that part of Central I were there we understand from Randy second ah a man who lives in Pella and who has a lot to do with the community there he is on scene he says about 50 ambulances and and other police vehicles there and everything at that plant looks quite bad right now unbelievable we want to check in with Zach sharp he's with the Iowa storm chasing Network he's been following these storms in the field all day as well he's in the Marshalltown area Zach we understand the that storm had the potential to create some catastrophic damage what are you seeing yes Stacey we arrived so just within minutes after this tornado hit this town of Marshalltown and there is catastrophic damage to I just spoke to a resident that was here she heard it she said that you knew you were looking at on the livestream she said you couldn't see for miles right now but due to this tornado damage she said she says you can see for miles now so the Linux plant here and Marshalltown has received significant damage there's a fire hydrant off of the distance that is now stealing 20 feet into the air but we do have the significant damage the smell in the air it definitely smells like a very large and catastrophic tornado rolled through here the pine trees it's so fresh it smells like Christmas time because those pine trees have been damaged multiple trees damaged power lines down everywhere roofs have lost their shingles on this house as we pan here garage door garages are gone this vehicle that was right in front of me here was once parked in a garage but it is now exposed and it has received its the specific damage to it its door has been caved in the back windshield has been lost but this town is going to be recovering for quite some time as it has received significant damage from a tornado that just rolled through here not moments ago and Zach are you seeing folks out and about anybody injured anything that like that that you've heard about or come across today all right those folks are just now coming out we just spoke to a couple residents that lived here and said that the power that this tornado had you could just hear it for and as we that's how we could hear the same thing when we were talking to Kurtis we said we could see those rain bands dancing around which is a strong indication that it is a very strong tornado people are now taking pictures I'm sure they're posting to social media but they are starting to get a first look at the damage that has been left behind sorting through what is left that this tornado has caused okay Zach sharp of the Iowa storm chasing Network in Marshalltown said the Lennox plant there took a hit that's a heating and cooling plant there and I'm sorry we want to go where now I don't know okay yes here is the map of the Lennox plant there and yes the Lennox plant took it took a hit as so many other buildings in that city did Curtis what's the latest for us yeah we still have a very strong storm down in a southeastern Iowa we've been watching at this storm it is now just to the south of Fremont and east of Kirk ville sliding north of Ottumwa at this time so this cell continues to have a tornado warning in effect for it latest reports coming in our reports of some rotation I do not have a report on this of a confirmed tornado but that is one we're watching then the cell that's moving in the tama Toledo right now you got a lot of rain there potentially still some broad scale rotation again with this cell a possible tornado not even Doppler indicated right now but as you've seen these storms have cycled just a bit but that tornado warning continuing up around a Toledo Tama and back in just now clearing the Montour area just wanted to give you a quick look at those storms that's the storm that is north of Ottumwa you notice this area in yellow that is a tornado watch in effect until 10:00 o'clock look to the west it has been quiet aid all day long as expected we expected these storms to develop east of i-35 and that's where most of them developed although there was some activity west of i-35 early you could see this concentration of funnel cloud and tornado reports and just to let you see all the spin in the atmosphere is moving east tonight most locations once the storm comes on through the majority of the rain is over there could be some wraparound showers but better days ahead to clean up after all these storms but again continuing to watch two storms one south of Fremont east of Kirk field rotation on radar and then another cell right now team a Toledo broad skill rotation you do have a tornado warning there but at this time it just looks like potentially a tornado with that cell that's over towards Tama and Toledo so things getting better as we move through time as these storms movies but still two storms to watch as always we're keeping an eye on things the best news though is the 8-day forecast is absolutely spectacular we're going to have some of the finest July weather you can ever expect for this time of year so again these are the reports that came in I just want to show you this activity up around Ankeny Bondurant the storms there then they moved over towards Colfax Prairie City the reports out of Pella you can see we watch this storm move into Pella north and east of town and then I think there'll be some reports of damage along Highway 163 because on radar I had an indication of lofted debris now I'm starting to think about this a little more in the heat of battle I was not it was probably debris from the Vermeer plant lofting downstream along Highway 163 so I had that canoe were watching live coverage I was getting reports of a debris indicator on our radar and I'm thinking now that that may have been the Vermeer plant parts of it falling down to the ground along Highway 163 but there also could have been damage along 163 as that storm moved down to the south and then moved over Oskaloosa the good news is hopefully the storm was cycling as it moved over Oskaloosa and then the reports of all the storms up to the north and this is what it looked like we were on the air when this storm was in ziering as a funnel cloud but then intensified as it slid towards Albion and I said oh boy this does not look good and then a douve southeast towards Marshalltown if you ever see storm on radar moving due east and then it makes that dive south usually it's intensifying we saw that one Titan on Steve and Stacey at least better news ahead but at least we're watching that storm right now north of atoma and east of kirk Ville Curtis also let's show you some of the bad video from earlier this shot by TJ Phillips along 64th Street northeast I believe in Bondurant and you can watch as the tornado hits Bondurant they're on the left side of your screen you see the flashes of the the electrical lines being torn up and just look at that tornado move into that to see the debris just rise up and be pulled up into the air in the big swirl that we all know if these tornadoes to be and creating a huge debris field it's it's an amazing sight it's amazing that we have these pictures but boy you can just see how powerful and dangerous that store it storm is or was you hear the man took it was taking the video tell his his loved ones to get in the house he's awfully close to that storm standing outside snapping these pictures for us as he says said houses are being torn to shreds and we see another funnel there which looks like it's standing on top of that power line kcci's chris gothner is there and he's in the mallard Point neighborhood and Chris a lot of damage there yeah I mean it is just as incredible on the ground as it was when you see those videos there take a look we showed you this a while ago but I wanted to come back here this is that trailer that just came up and got flipped turned upside down in this house here you can see the garage again got blown straight through we talked to the homeowner of this house again they're okay too I mean it's really incredible that nobody that we know of has gotten hurt in at least in this Mallard Point neighborhood I think I'm gonna walk down again a John Houghton Fowler's we were gonna try to stay off the road here because it is an active Road now as you see the Mid American energy truck whoa I just slipped there okay but we're fine moving down on here you see again this house we're just going to show it to you again if maybe you're just joining us on this coverage because again this was a two-story house it is now a one-story house because it just got obliterated by this storm I mean the roof is off the garage is again blown through again on this one though nobody hurt I mean great news there nobody home at the time really incredible that nobody got hurt in this destruction you see the Mid American energy crews again working to get the debris cleared off of these power lines lots of deputies on scene still the emergency crews have largely cleared off from the just sheer amount that there were earlier but still plenty out here as they work on what was or maybe still is a gas leak out here on 2nd Street Northwest this is a the west side of Bondurant here is really where all of the destruction at least that we know of is concentrated right now again you can kind of see maybe I mean it has been cleared up a little bit but where that debris path it looks like Stacey were you're saying so yeah Chris we see the Mid American crews there or excuse me the power company crews they're looking to remove some of the debris there was so much debris wrapped around these power lines and and they've done a significant amount of work to free that yeah there really was it was like it was like twisted around okay just shows the power of that they really have it's been it's clearly a team effort here okay Chris thank you very much like wrapped around let's go back over to Curtis Curtis it hasn't moved down to the viewing area yet has not we told you about that storm east the Kirksville now we have a confirmed tornado report on that storm that's about six miles north of a tunnel right now got it on super Doppler 8 for you so of Farson Batavia maybe I would say the north side of at um wha let's just say at um WA but mainly north of the river probably more dangerous location right now as the storm continued to dive to the east and southeast you see they extended the tornado warning there and I have seen this storm tighten up so it's just a few miles north of Ottumwa the storm in Toledo Tama extended over towards the east towards Belle Plaine at this time we're not getting any confirmed reports on this but it is a tornado warned area so please seek shelter there too because these have been cycling where they're weakening and then strengthening once again as a storm north of a tumble adjust it and I just want to go down there for you and show you how close this rotation is yet folks in the Ottumwa area especially north of the river just seek shelter the storm continues to slide on through I'm just going to look it's now generally east and north just slightly north east of a tumblr the main area of rotation so that is the area to keep concerned there so again that tornado warning down to the south I'm just going to show you the easy picture for you this is the area that's in the new tornado warning because it's diving south Davis Mahaska Wapello County until 6 o'clock the area I'm most concerned about right now is northeast of Ottumwa if you live on the north side northeast side of Ottumwa areas northeast seek shelter a confirmed tornado let's hope it doesn't dive due south and come right into Ottumwa but at this time it looks like it'll stay just on the north and northeast side of a tongueless so folks in those locations please seek shelter all right Curtis thank you very much what talk a little bit about the damage in Marshalltown kcci's Kevin Cooney he may have retired but he hasn't hung up his reporter had completely he's called in and told us at the clock tower at the Marshall County Courthouse has been destroyed an employee told him that there is a picture of that beautiful courthouse there was built in 1886 it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972 you know it's a beautiful building a lot of beautiful courthouses around the state of Iowa and that's that's one of the more beautiful buildings let's hope people are not hurt that's right and that courthouse is in downtown Marshalltown just south of East Main Street and if you just head out of town to the East by maybe a mile maybe not that much is the Lennox plant again on the south side of the East Main Street and we understand that the Lennox plant took a lot of damage in this storm as well the around town Iowa storm chasers act sharp reports seeing extensive tree damage power line damage extensive damage to other homes and businesses and buildings in that city okay we want to go back to Pella right now and meteorologist jason sydejko the Vermeer plant agriculture and industrial equipment plant taking a big hit there today Jason what do you see they had just swept the parking lot looking at the vehicles make sure there was nobody in them and it Sears that they've they've cleared it for people to come and check out their cars now so it's I mean it's a sad scene there's a lot of times but obviously not usable and people just trying to pick through them now to figure out what they can take I've seen a couple cars drive out but those were definitely the lucky ones this was the extent of the damage here we have literally metal poles that are bent midway through again there's pretty extensive damage to the cars in the parking lot and not only that but the factory building it looks like the roof is off most of them and it looks like there may even have been a couple partial wall collapses so I mean it's it's a pretty pretty big scene of destruction here and it's pretty widespread too I mean even just with how far the tornado flung the debris from the buildings you can see it in the fields behind me part of it's blocking the sidewalk some of its into the roads and this is just part of the plant that I can see I mean as you guys have said this is a mile long facility here I think I'm standing in what is probably close to the path of the tornado which is why I'm saying most of the damage that occurred but still some some pretty intense stuff Jason I know this is pure speculation but you are an experienced meteorologist could you possibly gauge the strength of this tornado that's that's hard I mean this was clearly a strong tornado we have cars that were picked up and stacked on each other we have got metal beams that were bent over and snapped off near their face no I mean they may be F to e F to e f3 I don't think it's out of a question I hesitate to go stronger than that just because I haven't seen the full extent of the damage and Jason we are focused right now on the damage at the Vermeer plant and on your way to this location what did you see for damage I know if you didn't go through town you went through a relatively rural area and maybe you saw some crop damage or or other out building kind of damage on farm places and stuff explain what you saw on your way to Vermeer heading east on 163 and as I was starting to get in town there were lines of cars on either side of the road that it stopped because they clearly heard the warning and heeded the warning so good thing there and I started to go a little bit past those cars and you could see power lines down you could see trees snapped off and even as I was taking some of the more rural roads to get around to here you can see tree limbs broken off in yards and stuff like that so I mean this may have been the main area of damage but still I can't stress enough stuff the scope of this this was fairly widespread even houses and farms on me just on the edge of this at least tree damage and Jason you're still outside the vermeer location is that right I am yes what kind of activity are you seeing out there I knew that we understood that there were a number of vehicles kind of lined up to exit the facility and to to get out of the area I'm wondering if there if that kind of traffic jam has kind of cleared up and moved out or are there still a number of employees assessing the damage for themselves in the facility and are there emergency crews fire and other utility groups out there yes I mean there's still I have seen quite a few fire department of vehicles fire rescue vehicles fire trucks we've got a Sheriff's force police force of course out here emergency managers a lot of when I got here there was a pretty big traffic jam of people trying to get out of the plant but right now there's literally hundreds of people just kind of scouring through to see what they have left see what they can see and to check out the damage for themselves so it's definitely not cleared out or a quiet scene by any stretch I think everybody's just trying to wrap their head around what happened yeah it's it's hard to believe what happened when you look at all of the damage the vehicles we're showing your video now with the metal just kind of draped over vehicles out in the parking lot like it's a piece of fabric and it's really the storm was so strong to have done that kind of damage it's significant yeah we are getting lots of reports out of Pella lots of reports out of central Iowa but we understand there may be some serious injuries at the premier plant we'll have more on that in just a bit let's get over to Curtis now Curtis what's up yeah we're watching that storm over towards remember we mentioned east the Kirk feel they had a wind gust thereof 75 miles an hour getting new reports in of that tornado that was north of a tunnel also I just have this sitting still for a second and I didn't have a chance to render this like you normally get to see but I want you to focus on the Des Moines area right here in areas north east and I'm going to put it into motion and anytime you see one of these super cells that's moving east and then it digs as we call it down to the south that's normally not a good sign watch what happens when I put this into motion look north east of Des Moines watch what happens that storm just digs south and heads Bondurant and then it moved over in through Pella and now it's diving into Wapello County and it's the same storm it's the same storm that produced that tornadic activity and now it's a headed down towards at um I also want to use the same long loop for Marshalltown look to the west it was very quiet and boy when it was about 20 minutes from Marshalltown I saw that cell intensify and our own storm chaser Zach Sharpe was on that storm and then it really really tightened up and before it hit Marshalltown it had a a very dangerous looking radar signature and I hope folks heeded the warning there these are the reports today you could see we'll have to count them later but a lot of activity there across the state and I just I want to focus just once more on this a storm that is to the north that storm up in the Ottumwa area been watching this and continue to look at some other sources still some rotation but I really think that it is going to head down towards Elden through the Ottumwa area but folks in automa still seek shelter until this moves on through give it a little more time I saw a secondary area of rotation I wasn't that concerned about it a few minutes ago but just give it a few more minutes in Ottumwa and then we'll have to give you the all-clear but just stay safe and automa will give you the all-clear there in a few minutes it's heading downstream though except for that secondary area of rotation Batavia Eldon seek shelter Curtis we are seeing in in the livebox above you the live picture from zach sharp from the Iowa storm chasing Network we're also getting video of the storm from Marshalltown into the newsroom and the pictures are just unbelievable sinister looking storm and Zach sharp of the Iowa storm chasing Network is there Zach it did lava and did a lot of damage in Marshalltown yes Stephen Stacey it really did a lot of damage and we were here first on scene right after this tornado a little crude you could tell it was a very destructive tornado just by looking at it as we rolled in from the west side of Marshalltown and we're now in the northeast side of town if anyone knows where the Lennox plant is here in town we're just a block south of that right now but we are getting a first-hand look at what damage was left behind garages are gone the roofs are gone in the way of shingles we have large trees down uprooted we have fences that were pulled out of the ground we have metal sheets siding there's a plant parking lot they have a fighter haider has been ruptured and now they're shooting 125 feet into the air there's you know sheets of metal that are twisted around the power pole very similar sites to what we've seen in the past storm chasing with very large and destructive tornadoes and we were first chasing it showing you why earlier on KCCI we showed you how wide and powerful when you could tell the storm was what Curtis was talking about but since then we are the residents here in Marshalltown are now beginning to come out excess the damage that they have seen firsthand we spoke to one resident that said she was at home at the time that the storm rolled through and she said you can just hear the roar like the freight train noise that everyone encounters when they experience a large destructive tornado and she said you could just hear it roars so that's the common case so far we have ever met attorneys here in town you can hear sirens throughout town now as first responders continue to show up here on state but right now it's just mainly people combing through the destruction that has been left behind with this very large and powerful tornado it's been just amazing to see the damage that this storm is caused in Zach we understand that the downtown area has suffered a lot of damage in Marshalltown have you been able to see that at all at this time say we have not the problem is here in town as you currently can find roads that have been open that's a lot of debris it's been scoured across them so if you can find a road that is open you consider yourself lucky so I would imagine that's going to play a factor into the first response and rescue but these officials here in town are probably dealing with right now you know we are showing a picture for folks at home of the Marshall County Courthouse and we understand the storm has blown out a number of windows on that building on the clock tower we had initially heard reports that the clock tower had been destroyed I don't know if that is in fact the case we've got KCCI reporter Lauren Donovan in Marshalltown area right now and she is sent back pictures that showed windows blown out of this historic courthouse things like that power outages at this time as there's virtually no power line standing or power lines that are still strong across the power poles as the poles are still in somewhat decent shape but in the way of gas we have heard a few people asking on the phone at other people in parts of town if they smelt any gas or anything that they should be worried about downstream but at this time we have not heard any official reports of any gas line leaks but yes definitely at this time there is significant power outages in this area right Zach thank you very much we need to go to the Blair's area right now I gotta let you know this is a town about an hour due north of Des Moines it's right in the area of highway 69 and highway 20 basically in the Webster City area you can see a funnel cloud there this video coming to us from a viewer we thank you very much the winter bird is spinning in the distance there has been damage in Blair's burg you saw the trees down in town and the earlier picture there but this is a tornado that kind of looks like a rope and we do have more pictures too from the Marshalltown area we do have a KCCI reporter Lauren Donovan in in on the way to the town I think these are this is a funnel cloud this is the tornado that's hitting the downtown area this is this is these are the first pictures into the newsroom from Marshalltown yeah and you know we talked about the damage from the courthouse out to the Lenox plant in Marshalltown you got to remember the courthouse and there it is it's right there on Main Street and then the Lenox plant is maybe about a mile or two east of that and in between that is a whole lot of Marshalltown there are apartment buildings in there there are lots of businesses you can see a brick off of a building there so we are very curious about injuries in Marshalltown very thankful that KCCI is Lauren on Aman is there along with photojournalist Glen Berman this funnel cloud we have some video of it coming in somebody looks as though they're standing in the parking lot of the Slumberland store there and you can see this very sinister looking here it is very sinister looking funnel cloud big dark funnel cloud coming toward town you can hear the tornado sirens there that store is located on Westboro Road which is right off of Highway 14 kind of on the south side of Marshalltown they're unbelievable create Kurtis Gertz our chief meteorologist said this was a catastrophic damage potential for this storm it was large and destructive and Curtis you were exactly right but we don't know if the storm stayed on the ground from the downtown all the way out to the Lenox plant but it certainly would have created some damn yeah it's amazing pictures coming in and this storm in Marshalltown and I'll show you this in just a second it was amazing how it weakened when it crossed I 35 and then north of st. Anthony I noticed something on radar and I was watching it I'm like this looks like it's intensifying it intensified very very quickly I do want to give you a quick update at um well you got some heavy rain even some hail and there is still rotation east northeast of Ottumwa Batavia on the road to Ottumwa and North folks in that location seek shelter still I'm still seeing some broad rotation but it is rotation and it looks like it's crossing the highway just to the east of Ottumwa this is want to show you it's just going to take me a second to load it up but it is amazing what happened here I'm just gonna loop it once stop it and then grab it back watch what happens here there's your timeline on the banner noon we're watching this storm there's Marshalltown look at that storm look at story city funnel cloud that is not impressive on radar folks ziering or watch funnel cloud then I'm watching I'm like what is that what's that oh it's moving east watch how it just digs to the southeast ingest that other storm it's still northwest of Marshalltown and then it just comes right through Marshalltown it was at its strongest probably right when it hit Marshalltown those two storms came together the storm douve to the southeast moved through Marshalltown then actually weakened and went back up into the clouds around Montour I just want to show you what happened here in the Metro so you got an idea we're talking about all this but to visualize it let you see the storyline here we are Metro not much going on there's the storm Bondurant I should be zoomed in on Bondurant story that Bondurant storm produced a funnel around Ankeny and then this thing just Dov's south there it is look headed towards Pella again anytime you see one of these storms moving east and then they and this one also ingested another storm see that and then it just dough right in the Pella area so two big super cells powerful enough to dominate the atmosphere by themselves and that's what happened today causing all the damage out there I just want to point out once more we're not done one cell just north northwest of the Tavia north east of Ottumwa is still some rotation on radar please seek shelter if you're in that location the rest of us it's basically all clear usually this time of the evening you do see the CBS Evening News on the air we are staying with Kate there's a special edition of KCCI 8 news because of the severe weather we have been following all afternoon we've had major storm damage in Bondurant Pella the pellet area and Marshalltown a very dangerous weather situation and it continues chief meteorologist Kurtis Gertz staying right on top of all of this a lot of KCCI reporters and photographers out of the field right now as Stacy just said serious damage in Pella Bondurant and Marshalltown we are gathering as much information as we can we have not heard much of anything about injuries in these cities so far in Pella you have a Vermeer plant on the east side of town that took a direct hit in Bondurant the Mallard Point neighborhood took a direct hit and in Marshalltown the downtown area the Marshall County Courthouse on out to the Lenox plant that area took a pretty big hit so the information continues to come in here at at KCCI and stacy you have some new information that's right KCCI senior reporter Todd Magel has made his way down to the pellet area we understand he's in the vermeer area Todd what are you seeing Stacy and Steve we just arrived about five minutes ago here and the destruction I can tell you is enormous and we are still about a block away from where the actual damage is we're an intersection just outside the premier pavilion if we're familiar with Revere manufacturing they make farm equipment construction equipment and one of their plants was pretty badly damaged in this tornado the blew through here in the last couple of hours with me is a little ooh 10 Shayne Cox he is a little tenant with the police department here and thanks for joining us and we've had a busy day can you fill us in and our audience in about what happened here and what we're seeing today Todd from what I know obviously some weather came through town it directly impacted one of the premier Manufacturing's buildings we have tons of local fire departments EMS crews emergency management on seen some of those crews are working around the Vermeer buildings trying to make sure that there's nobody trapped inside the buildings that's where we're at right now and can you tell us how when this hit and what it hit today I would say it was probably hour and a half ago I'm not sure what time it is even but and it looks like it hit Vermeer plant number seven mainly there might be a couple other buildings that that's sustained damage but the majority of it looks to be Vermeer plant seven now you've been up there can you describe some of the damage I've seen a few pictures we again we're not able to get quite close enough to see that yet it looks pretty bad it it looks like it's pretty bad I haven't been I've been a little closer than you but not not real close I'm trying to stay out of the fire and the EMS guys his way so that they can get in and make sure that anybody with injuries is getting out and getting to local hospitals as soon as we possibly can get them there now I know our cameraman Robby is zoomed into some of the damage here it looks like cars on their tops but the main question would be people that are injured can you tell me a little bit about who who was in there how many folks were in there and what do we know about injuries I have not talked to any of the Vermeer manufacturing management I know that it sounds like they were in between first and second shift I can tell you as far as injuries go I I know that there have been some people that have been transported to local hospitals with with injuries I'm not sure the extent of the injuries and I'm not sure the number of people and do we know yet have you found everybody I think you mentioned to me earlier before we went on the air that you were still kind of searching and looking for folks inside correct I don't I don't know that there is anybody inside but we're trying to get in there and make sure that nobody is trapped if they you know if they were in a bathroom or something during the during the I think there was a tornado warning here in town so I'm sure that there were some people that were hunkered down in the bathroom so we're just trying to get in there and make sure that nobody is still trapped inside the building some cars drive by us while we're here live and they're covered in what looks like insulation that windows are blown out of the cars so clearly some cars can make it out but there's a lot of damage here yes there is and actually this cornfield here just to the south of us there are pieces of the building out there in the cornfield and there are a couple vehicles that have rolled across the street or the highway here and on to the south side so yes an extensive amount of damage now we did drive by one farm just across the street from here that was damaged you about any other damage in town or is this primarily with a tornado hit as far as I know this was primarily the the center point of all the damage I know some you know little stuff tree limbs that kind of stuff as far as in town I heard of some power lines on Highway 163 which is just about a mile south of us from where we're standing right now so power lines down maybe structure out there a barn or something I think I heard on the radio had been had been hit by high winds but as far as in Pella this is the majority of the damage right here folks obviously they've thousands of people working from here everybody wants to know if their loved ones are ok will there be some kind of a way to for people to find out who's injured is there any kind of a triage unit at the hospital or how are you dealing with all when I drove down to meet with you folks I was I left they were just getting ready to have a meeting with EMS and with vermeer management trying to figure out who was inside the building then then we'll go into who we have at the hospital or who we have out here on the street and start trying to piece together who who has been injured those types of pieces of information ok Shannon thanks so much for joining us here live on channel in and we'll talk again here as you learn more information yes ok thanks very much all right you heard from lieutenant Shane Cox with the Pella Police Department I think Robbie was able to show you some of the damage but the damage here is extensive there's real no way around it and I think we did show you some of the corn damage as well so we're going to try to meet now with the media folks from Vermeer they are on the scene here and of course they're dealing with some of the specifics of this emergency as soon as we hear from them we will get back to you live Steven Stacey all right Todd we do have a couple of questions for you you have been down there many times as have I you mentioned the Vermeer plaza there pre-storm what did that look like you know I don't we can look to just to our right here the pavilion and the building is actually not bad there may be some damage beyond where we can see we're at a bit of a bit of a disadvantage because we can't move the road has blocked off because of all the damage here so the pavilion looks okay you can see Flags just to the west of where we are that's where you start seeing the damage in the parking lot so that's just we're right now on the Marion Mahaska County line it's a highway 102 or 250th Avenue in Vermeer Road so if anybody kind of knows that address you can kind of see where we are but then if you go just about you know a half a block to the west that's where all the damage starts and that's where a plant number seven is and plant number seven I'm told is where they make drilling equipment and what they call mud pumps so Vermeer if you're not familiar they are a family-owned company they've been in Pella for generations and they make you know industrial and farm equipment and construction equipment and that plant was open now we're told from a viewer that they believe the shift change happened around 2:30 or 3:30 and so that means there were fewer people in the building that maybe there would have been during a normal day shift we think that's good news but we just don't know yet about numbers and who was in there so at any one time there could have been hundreds of people inside but we just don't have any confirmation of that number at this point again when we get to the public relations folks from Vermeer they should be able to tell us that so the other thing is building number seven as we mentioned or plant seven is damaged than if you go just beyond that we think there might be a little more damage to some of the roofs but the police lieutenant we talked to said he haven't been able to do a good survey to see if there's damage to other buildings so that that's kind of the scene here in Impella here at Vermeer manufacturing and todd we understand that maybe there was a customer appreciation day or of sorts going on at the Vermeer company today we see in in the background there a tractor pulling a tram that looks like it was heavily damaged we also when when the camera pans toward the plant we see buses motor coaches they're loading up folks I'm wondering if if there was anything any information you might have on that if they had extra visitors I don't yet but that's yeah that's one of the first questions I plan to ask because we don't know yet about what was happening how many people were here and as soon as we get a hold of a Liz the public relations person for premiere she said she would be able to help us out with some of those details so we're gonna try and find her get that nailed down and then we'll let you know as soon as we find out about that important time mega live on the scene of the tornado damage in Pella at the Vermeer plant there let's get back over to chief meteorologist Kurtis Gertz and Kurtis we is this sliding out of the viewing area yes yeah there's one storm to keep an eye on the rotation has broadened just a bit but a little bit of activity right now between Eldon and Batavia right now I think it's more of a Doppler indicated thing a little bit of hail frequent lightning and you still could get some very strong winds down there but it's a broad rotation but that's the area we're keeping an eye on at this time so this is sliding down again this little notch you're seeing between Alden and Batavia if there was a tornado and I don't believe there is right now it would be right in through there as this moves down to the southeast you can get the movement on that headed towards Dowd's there so folks in that location keep a close eye on the sky I mean you are under a tornado warning you see what's happened earlier today so that's what we're keeping an eye on there we're gonna look at the storm reports it really does tell the story of the day for you I'm going to zoom out I assumed in way there but we'll go to the state here's what happened earlier today we had some funnels up to the north they were west and southwest of algo and I had a little wind damage report up in Pocahontas and then we headed over towards East Webster City West of Williams east of Eagle Grove and I got some reports there have some funnels and then there was a report near Clarion south of Clarion of some damage in a farm field and earlier all these funnels were very weak but then that one produced some damage and then what happened is we got the report of a tornado near Ankeny northeast of Ankeny and it slid right over towards Bondurant and that was the storm that caused all the damage in Bondurant it developed very quickly but then that cell moved east of Altoona near Prairie City Monroe Pella and as we surmise there was parts of the debris getting lofted from the venire plant down 163 but the same storm was moving down 163 and we mentioned that on the air between Pelin Oskaloosa a lot of houses on that farm stand a farmstead damaged along 163 transformers down there I have not had any reports coming in Auto out of Oskaloosa hopefully the storm cycled which is it may have weakened and then it intensified again as it headed towards Cedar but notice not as many reports and then we had to report north of a tumble of a tornado and this is not forgetting about the Marshalltown storm this started north of State Center over towards Clemmons had those reports of funnels it looks very weak on radar and then that storm Doak north of Marietta and ran right in through the Marshalltown area matter of fact I'm going to do what I did before if folks are just joining us loop this and then I'm just going to back up and show you what happened here watch how unimpressive this is on radar the warning was issued in plenty of time for Marshalltown but initially we were watching this storm by Pella and then we had Zach sharp on this storm and I was watching it it's like what that ziering had had a funnel cloud Clemmons funnel cloud and watch what happens the storm moves these and ingest the other storm dives due southeast by this time on velocity it had a very tight couplet and looked like a very powerful storm moved right in the Marshall town and then moved out of town and weakened as it headed over towards Tama Toledo I just find this interesting from a meteorological perspective and then I just want to show you what happened on the Tama storm move through Bondurant then dose off look right over team I should probably zoom in down for you you see that hook echo main part of the storm and then it move right down 163 so that's what we're watching there how about it look at the big picture go to a current picture for you and you could see most of the state rain free we have the one storm moving out of a tum whanau and headed to the north of Keosauqua the main threat there would be some wind but again most of the state a ok clear for rest of the night and that's the storm we're watching broad-scale rotation not a tornado down to the southeast not even Doppler indicated right now but I do think you could get some winds northwest of kiyosaki and I do want to point out in that area this could intensify and that's why you have the warning we're keeping a close eye on this one for you from Keosauqua east of Elven Steve Stacey Thank You Curtis we've been following severe weather all afternoon one of the storms that Curtis had been telling us about and watching was the tornado in the Marshalltown area he said it had the potential to cause catastrophic damage it was a large and destructive storm and we've got new pictures in to show you and in fact it was a large and destructive storm and did cause extensive damage we've had Iowa storm chasing Network Zac sharp there throughout the day telling us about the damage and we understand that the Lenox plant just on the east side of town was heavily damaged we also understand throughout the community there was extensive roof damage to houses and buildings extensive tree damage even power lines zach sharp said the power poles were still standing but the power lines had been pulled off those poles in this storm he also said there were a number of streets that were blocked by storm debris whether it's part of the buildings or trees that have mad knockdown yeah we've mentioned the damage to the Marshall County Courthouse they're built in 1886 and you can see a part of the look at the architectural what beauty of that building had been torn off and then tossed into the street that was quite possibly Main Street right there in downtown Marshalltown this building was put on the National Historic Register in 1972 beautiful building lot of windows are blown out of that building don't know the extent of the structural damage to that beautiful old courthouse but we will have more on that coming up as soon as we get it you can see another building in the area right there in downtown you have to realize the Marshall County Courthouse is right in the middle of downtown Marshall town right on Main Street and as that storm moved to the east through the downtown area there is a whole lot of development between the Marshall County Courthouse and then the Lenox plant that's on the east side of town where they make heating and air conditioning equipment kcci's Laura and on 'van joins us now live door she's in Marshalltown Lauren what are you seeing Stacey we heard reports coming up here into Marshalltown that the damage here was catastrophic take a look it certainly is the last shattered roofs brick destroyed on this building here on the corner I would tell you what Street it we were on but I guess Center and Main Street over here to the left you can see the sign is down were right at the base of the Marshall County Courthouse which we're going to move you over this way because you can see I know Steve was talking about what a beautiful historic building this is it is sustained so much damage the top spire has been blown off on the other side you can't see it but hoses are working to put out what I'm assuming to be with some sort of fire on the inside trees are knocked down and ever since we arrived there's been an unimaginable amount of traffic people I heard them on the street saying I don't know how to get home right now everyone has been walking the downtown surveying the damage taking pictures and taking it in as you can see trees have been blown through the streets and over here to the left we have a group of firefighters who are making their way down the street over here they're going in and out of buildings surveying the damage Lauren you know we've been asking this above every recorder that that we've been talking to are you seeing any injured people are you seeing any ambulances rushing from the sea well over here in the distance Steve you can see red and blue flashing lights we haven't seen any ambulances at this point yet but sirens are going off non-stop in the distance there's glass shattered everywhere while we were walking up here we had to be extra careful so I would imagine a storm of this magnitude I I'm not sure what exactly it could do but it's certainly powerful and it's heartbreaking to see this beautiful downtown devastated and Warren is there damaged as far as you can see from the courthouse to the east it's a very heavily developed area there marshall towns been around for a long time a lot of those two and three story buildings that you find in a in a downtown downtown of an iowa city well now I think Glen it here photographer Glen Biermann and I are going to take you over here to this one two storey buildings you can see I didn't know if you got a good shot of it earlier but if we move over here you can see how this one has just caved in there's it's bricks are also scattered on the ground here but up there on the left-hand corner you can really see where this storm came and driving in you can see how it just gushed through this town people are just staring at staring at it just yeah that effectively the damages for me to see this here that's right it's hard to it's hard to understand it and comprehend it and take it all in Lauren I'm wondering if there is electricity to the downtown area we know there's been extensive powerline damage are the stoplights working are our businesses open because they have got electricity it doesn't appear that there is any electricity here Stacy over on the right if photographer Glen Berman can move up there that way you can see all the lights appear out in this business upstairs Oh another historic building there's a car right here you can take a look to look at where the storm is that we've seen multiple cars like this and parts of this car have been ripped off oh my goodness that is remarkable and we are seeing through your video Lauren the extensive damage to a number of these beautiful historic buildings in downtown Marshalltown you see some glass broken out and you see the flag there ripped from its stand and Oh looks like some damage some maybe some buildings damaged a brief falling on that pick up that red pickup in the picture there and and say see if we can take you over this way it's really hard for anybody to get in this part of downtown right now moving down this way the way we came in there is so much traffic building up all over on the bridge moving in we're actually this area we're in is completely blocked off right now to traffic so it's hard to actually make it out to where we are right now we have to carry our gear multiple blocks to get here over glass and rubble all these bricks that you're seeing okay we do I want to let you know folks at Marshalltown the city of about twenty seven and a half thousand people very substantial industrial base there and a lot of people live in that downtown area and we certainly are sending out the best thoughts and prayers that we possibly have right now for the folks in Marshalltown and all of the damaged areas across central Iowa this this line of storms has just been incredible that's right and chief meteorologist skirts has been tracking these storms all afternoon Curtis yeah it really does tell the story when you look at the storm reports page that we have for you of this activity I'm just gonna highlight a couple for you they started early in the day we had a funnel cloud reported over towards Rolfe and then things really intensified after that I do want to point that out I was watching the situation develop and the storm that really got everybody's attention today was this storm south of Clarion at first it looked like the day was going to be funnel clouds maybe impacting the ground and then this storm south of Clarion produced the tornado and I think everybody that was in weather said we better start really keeping an eye on these things west of i-35 because when they move to east of i-35 I expected them to intensify and that's what happened we had numerous reports of funnel clouds up around Story City but then the big storm did produce of one of the big storms excuse me produce the first storm is what I should have said the tornado around Ankeny and then as it moved east moved into Bondurant and that storm is the same storm that slid down we had a report northwest of Colfax we're on the air valaria of that storm with a tornado there and then it slid down to the south and southeast EST all right thank you Curtis let's get out to senior reporter Todd Magel he's on the seat on the side of the Vermeer plant in Pella that has sustained heavy damage today Todd what do you have Steve we're hearing from Vermeer for the first time Oh Vince is just joining us now live he has a statement to make and Vince can you tell people first who you are our viewers and then tell us what you can about the damage yeah sure my name is Vince new and arpan the vice president of operations here at Vermeer you know about 4 o'clock this afternoon severe weather hit our campus causing some pretty extensive damage you know our first priority has been our team members right we want to make sure that everyone on our campus is safe and and secure you know from there we'll assess the damage and at a later time we'll have more details but that's about all I can tell you at this point in time I don't know about ya the go folks that are injured how many if you're still searching can you fill in any of those blanks for you know there were some injuries I can't really tell you what the extent of those injuries are at this time we are trying to find out as soon as we can we'll get that information to you but first and foremost is the other team members their family members to make sure that they are aware and then as those details become available we'll get that to you we'll have further communication on and off throughout the evening can you explain what Vermeer Industries is what exactly this company does yeah Vermeer is a manufacturing company here located in Pella Iowa it's a family-owned business we have around 2,800 team members that work here on our campus we manufacture industrial and industrial and agricultural equipment from steel raw steel through final product it's can you tell me what did you think when you walked out and saw this today well my first thought was that you know this can't happen this could not happen to us now the good news is that's that we have disaster recovery plans in place we enacted those immediately we established a command center and we got our leadership team together and put together a plan and again first and foremost is our team members making sure that they're safe and secure and that that our emergency services have room to work and that's our first priority can you talk about which buildings were actually hit because a lot of people are familiar with these and they're wondering which ones and what did they make it you know I haven't been on the whole campus yet but just visually as I walked in front I can't I can't speak for the back of the plants yet but the the east half of our campus was hit the most of there we have we have seven manufacturing plants plus the global pavilion behind us tell us is that accurate you know absolutely we we have like I said we have lots of disaster recovery systems and processes in place all of our team members were in shelters when that hit and yeah from there we went into action so I think that's as much as we know at this point I later on as we have more information available we will absolutely communicate with you okay to take now as you want you know we're gonna we're gonna assess that as soon as I finish with this interview so thank you very much and I'm going to turn it over here to the Vince Neuendorf in aw e in do RP thank you thank you thank you thank you very much lieutenant Cox any update since we last talked to you and you had a chance to look at the site at all no updates actually I've been meeting with Vince talking about what what the strategy is kind of like what we just spoke about or what he spoke about what the next steps are obviously for Vermeer it's making sure that everybody is is getting the help they needed we will probably is at about six o'clock right now we'll we'll plan on having another briefing right at eight o'clock can you talk about you know who all has joined in on these efforts I mean obviously you guys are the lead right now but who else is here with you I can't tell you definitively how many other agencies have shown up I can tell you that it's probably in the 20 to 30 range as far as outside agencies that have come to help and that's a lot of our viewers didn't get a chance to hear your interview earlier because we're live in our 6 o'clock news now can you just recap a little bit about what you told me earlier about what you saw when you drove up and how bad this all looks just to echo what Vince what information Vince had it's the East the East End of the Vermeer mile here looks like it sustained the most damage obviously as you guys I'm sure panning around with your cameras even across the road there's there's extensive damage and right now emergency services are just trying to get in make sure that we've got everything covered that we need to be doing you talk a little bit about injuries I don't know if you've seen folks how they were injured were they I assume they were in the plant and that we heard possibly a collapsed wall inside is there any indication of what might have been damaged in plant number seven I have no information about injuries like I told you earlier there were some injuries that were transported to local hospitals I don't know the extent or the number and I haven't spoken with any anybody as far as structurally what exactly has happened to any of the buildings here I am lieutenant Shane Cox with the fellow police department feeling I'm the one down here in charge of talking to you guys incident command is dealing with with a lot of different things right now but just before I before I finish I'll just reiterate what Vince had to say our main priority is to make sure that anybody that's injured or has been injured is getting the help that they need okay Thank You lieutenant all right that will lose head Shane Cox from the Pella Police Department we talked him earlier and he just updated us along with a management from Vermeer but if you heard basically what they said is that they don't have a number of injured and I'm not sure whether from our angle you can still see a live picture of what we could see but we are just so you know we're near the global pavilion here on the campus of Vermeer manufacturing and you can see flags there and just beyond the flags or where plant number 7 is and I think we've been showing some video throughout this live interview here about what happened but basically a tornado a couple of our goes blew through damage plant number seven pretty severe from what we can tell from our vantage point we can't get much closer because the road has been shut down and for good reason there's there's debris cars piled on top of each other and I think you can see a little bit of that from where we are here so the good news is we have not heard about any fatalities but I should say we talked to one witness who just walked by us a little bit ago and she thought she heard a collapsed wall may have injured some people inside plant number seven but we have no official confirmation of that so again this plant makes farm and agriculture and drilling equipment some commercial small construction equipment they've been a family-owned company here in Pella for decades and that's why this is such a incredible story because everybody in town certainly knows this company if from Iowa you know about Vermeer manufacturing it's it's just the legend here in Pella so it's a tough day but as you can see they're on their way to cleaning things up treating the folks that were injured and as soon as we hear more about how much closer we can get to get some better video of the damage we will certainly bring that to you Steve and Stacey all right Todd Magel live in Pella tonight thank you this is KCCI 8 News at 6:00 we've been covering extensive storm damage all day long two tornado damage this is from Marshalltown you'll see the moment that the spire was knocked on that beautiful historic courthouse which is in the heart of downtown Marshalltown I'm going to continue to move on to the east through a very heavily populated downtown area out to the Lenox plant on the east side of town which is about a mile from the downtown area or so maybe more and that plant also sustained some pretty heavy damage kcci's Laura Naaman is there and Loren looks like she's talking with somebody Loren we know about the courthouse the hospital is also located right next to the courthouse just wondering if that building has been damaged I actually don't have an update for you on that one yet Steve but behind me is from speaking to people here is one of the oldest buildings here in Marshalltown and it has been looked it looks like it's been completely gutted what you would see a an open side dollhouse over here this gentleman says 1860 this is what originally a bank building here in Marshalltown one of our original buildings here on Main Street it's destroyed that's pretty sad it's pretty sad I know a lot of business owners here on Main Street the bike shop lost their third floor you know we had this big Art Festival coming up on Saturday it's a disaster it's an absolute disaster we're sorry for you and everybody here we're also with another man Traci Wiseman here who's going to tell me just when he saw the damage you rushed to go help your family members one of which is disabled is that correct yes ma'am it is correct as I left work I started noticing the dirt clods moving in and it started hovering over Main Street and my brother lives two blocks from here so I circled around and came back up north I heard on that on the TV before I left left my house that they were looking for first responders and I've worked in the medical field for 16 years so I decided to come up and try to help people where I could thank God I found my brother and his girlfriend in healthy condition this is very devastating to this community it's a multicultural community and all the people here worked very very hard to work together and as you can see all the people walking around they will all bond and work together to make this community be great again definitely well thank you Tracey appreciate you taking the time as you move over here you can see one of the store fronts totally devastated broken glass shattered all around and this is just what we keep seeing here on the Main Street in Marshalltown people have been coming out of their places of work checking out their vehicles many of which have been damaged that were left on the street as you can see this Jeep here has its back windows blown out we don't know yet what is going on with the Marshalltown hospital but that's what we need to check in on next so will we will keep giving you live updates from here but as we keep understanding more and more about the devastation it's it's hard to take in any questions back in the studio or in we can see that you're on that block just east of the courthouse there there is the courthouse which is sustained heavy damage at courthouse built 1886 wondering how far the damage goes that you can see just kind of curious how long maybe that tornado was on the ground there is Steve absolutely nothing that I can see that has not been hit right now and it's terrifying to see this and to see the reaction on everybody's faces here many of which who have lived through this and I think know Curtis was saying earlier nobody was expecting this there's not one single block that has not been hit with rubble shattered glass or buildings that have been destroyed Lauren is now that we need to move away from the buildings because they're afraid they're going to come down Stacey sorry to cut you off there no that's that's quite all right we want you to keep us updated and stay safe at the same time we also see although we see a vehicle driving there that by and large the vehicle traffic to this area has been shut down most folks are coming here to check things out on foot you had to park blocks away in order to reach this area tell us about your drives through town to get here well the drive was very difficult after we left the storm coverage in Bondurant we drove up here and we were immediately hit with a huge influx of traffic that's over here past my right shoulder but we're in that area of downtown as you said Stacey that's limited two cars at this moment people working to mitigate that you can see certain vehicles are moving through but a lot of people have just come out here today to see the damage I was just told as we said there was an arts festival coming up here this weekend that many people were looking forward to and and now we're seeing more pictures I know Lauren you can't see them but we're seeing more pictures now of damage from this beautiful historic courthouse big piece of it laying on the ground next to the building another victim of the big strong tornado that blew through that downtown area oh my goodness yeah once again building constructed in 1886 put on the Historic Register in 1972 about 25 27 thousand people live in Marshalltown and boy a lot of devastation there let's go over to another heavily damaged part of central Iowa let's go to Bondurant kcci's chris gothner has been there all afternoon in the maillard Point neighborhood I were taking a look at some funnel cloud video here's this video well this is near Bondurant where we actually see the tornado rip being roofs off a building Omar you snapping the powerlines you can see the flicker and the flame there as the powerlines have been but just torn apart and then we see this great big debris spin all up into the air as the as the storm is ripping off roofs like they're just toys mm-hmm and as I said kcci's chris gothner is there and chris is right in the middle of what you just saw Chris what's the latest on the situation in Bondurant well Stephen Stacey if you if for those of you at home we've been watching us throughout the evening and afternoon we have moved further east we've moved further east from where we were before that's because the gas leak that was around here has been contained so good news there but I'm gonna walk and show you we have debris just scattered here all throughout the ground just various people's accoutrements here just scattered throughout the ground we've been seeing hats closed you name it just scattered here take a look at some of the destruction as we walk through this park area you can see where this tornado blew right through just trees down decks collapse windows just completely blown out you see siding just removed from that house giving you a closer look at that when we were before just you could tell we're standing basically right where this tornado blew through right now you could see just all the all this stuff scattered about we got what looks like insulation or just pieces of a house right here close on the ground you see folks working to contain the damage right next to this above-ground pool the cleanup has already begun again just to update you though for those of you who are just tuning in maybe right now we have heard from authorities here polk county deputies and others here that there have been no injuries that they know of in the Bondurant area which is really something when you consider just all of the the destruction here and what could have happened I mean especially considering as everybody's been saying this this really took everybody by surprise and we talked to neighbors earlier who were out just driving when this came through and they had to try to they said they were trying to outrun this thing I mean it was it was scary for people and just fortunate that everybody's safe we had that house I don't know if you all remember that where the crazies hi Stacy yeah we see folks behind you cleaning up already all this storm damage you well your you've been there throughout the afternoon what are you hearing from property owners about the damage and what they're seeing and and their now their efforts to clean up obviously it's much too soon for a dollar amount damage yes you may not but I mean we had a house here if you remember the video from earlier we had a house here where the entire second storey blew off it was a two-story house it's now a one-story house obviously tremendously significant damage I mean we're not seeing in this part as we move further east the kind of roof damage but you look at all the the decks that have been blown off here I mean this is not going to be a cheap repair for folks I mean and you can see they're starting now they're getting started on this it's gonna be a long repair process I can only assume stacy steve chris gothner and live in Bondurant thank you Chris and we want to get back to Curtis now Curtis very interesting day you rushed in today because once you saw the sunshine and the moist atmosphere out there the instability of that atmosphere you raced right in we have damage from Blaire's berg way up north to Marshalltown to Bondurant down to Pella and very unusual day here in central line it was when we have that area of low pressure moving over the top of us anytime you have that you know you got a lot of spin in the atmosphere what a lot of folks were speculating it is may be the morning rain and the cloud cover would kind of suppress our risk for severe storms today once I saw the Sun came out I came right into work and I expected some tremendous development east of i-35 and that's where most of it happened but there was activity to the west also just look at my bar on top super Doppler 8 to 15 watch how quickly this storm develops over Bondurant look is not an impressive radar signature and then right there bang that's the storm that produces the tornado and Bondurant then it moved over Colfax this is all the same storm that's our velocity scope I'll get to that a second it moved over Colfax and then you see Monroe watch what happens as it heads towards Monroe there's your classic hook echo we're on the air during all this and then it comes down towards Belen I knew this is going to be close for most of Pella obviously it hit the rear mirror but it stayed generally away from the downtown section of Pella move right on through there and then tremendous damage along 163 we had debris aloft it in the air from the Vermeer plant moving down 163 and then along 163 some farmsteads hit look at the time I'm just gonna back up a bit 4:11 ish Pella I'm sure it could be a little off by a few minutes then go to the north we were very busy with the storm up in Marshalltown watch this storm ziering I noticed something there not much than I'm like well a funnel cloud northwest of Clemens what should we watch storm ingest the other storm heads towards Marshalltown big concern here has moved just to the northwest of Marshalltown and then your classic hook echo has it moved right over Marshalltown there good news is the tornado watch has expired most of the warnings have moved well out of the viewing area there are all your reports of tornadic cells today starting west of i-35 and then moving to the east the National Weather Service will send out storm survey teams I hate to speculate but I think a couple of these storms easily EF two if not stronger but that'll be up to them to decide it's all based on what type of damage was done but obviously tremendous amount of damage just give me a forecast here I know you've been sitting through the storm coverage but just some wraparound showers tomorrow and then it looks to be quiet right into the weekend I think Friday maybe a shower at best overall there looks to be like some very big improvement here's tomorrow's forecast mostly sunny Metro 84 still some thunderstorms northeast or not when non severe and if you like great weather I like this 8-day forecast better than most anybody right now temperatures in the 80s very quiet very tranquil it will give folks a lot of time to clean after these very powerful and as we mentioned on air as these storms are headed towards Marshalltown catastrophic damage we just could look at that radar signature and just see that Marshalltown was going to have a direct hit and also when we were watching the storm headed napela it was obvious that there was going to be damage in the pellet area next chance of widespread rains maybe holding off until a week from Friday all right thank you Curtis and as Curtis mentioned catastrophic damage in the town in the community of Marshalltown kcci's Laura Nevin is there Lauren what's your update we have some important information I just spoke to a law enforcement officer about what is going on and so I want to update everybody in the area and anybody coming to the area with it so what we know now is over over on - over to the right the storm moved through 13th Street and summit until it blew through here in the downtown it first hit an apartment complex and ran past the VA hospital nobody has been hurt so far we haven't heard reports yet but the roof has been taken off many buildings and town center has actually been located off site for now while they try to work out what is going down here right now obviously you can see the devastation but they're really asking people to go home right now all these people you see around me they're urging them to get back to their homes because first responders are having a really tough time getting around what takes them 20 minutes to or typically five minutes to get anywhere is taking more along lives of 20 there have also been reports of several gas leaks that are going on right now and so that is what is going on here in Marshalltown but the law enforcement officers wanted me to pass that along to you okay Lauren Donovan thank you very much Pella took a pretty darn good punch today from these storms KCCI senior reporter Todd Magel to say on the scene at the Vermeer plant and todd looks like you have a guest we do meteorologist jason sydejko from KCCI was actually chasing this very tornado and arrived on the scene just a couple of minutes after it hit Jason tell us of what you were doing and what you saw when you got here so originally I was chasing the storm up by Bondurant and that kind of started to rope out as we call it a kind of weakens so I dropped down to this storm and it just the more you looked at it on a radar the more intense it got and I tried to stay back aways because there was a lot of rain associated with it especially from my angle coming from the north so I couldn't see the tornado but I could see some of the damage that led up to it like when I was on 163 East there was powerline damage there was tree damage and there were cars stopped on both sides of the road so you know that there was something serious going on ahead of that so I tried to slowly make my way beyond that and I didn't really get to see the scope of the damage until I pulled right into the plant I mean there may have been trees down and power lines down outside of this area but once I pulled up to the plant you could really see the scope of things especially looking at the park act on top of each other and it was just immediately you just start to think of the people bad this is okay we're having problems with Todd Magel is live audio and picture there we do want to pass this on we understand that the hospital in Marshalltown the unitypoint health facility in Marshalltown was hit by a tornado at about five o'clock today no patient or staff injuries reported within the hospital the building did sustain structural damage so they are evacuating patients to unitypoint health in Waterloo and unitypoint health and Grundy Center and they are unable to treat incoming patients at this time but it's amazing that nobody inside that facility when the tornado hit was injured exactly we're going to go back to KCCI senior reporter Todd Magel in in Pella Todd Steve and Stacey we were just talking to Jason Sudeikis who actually chased the tornado right into town and saw some of the damage firsthand when you ride to her we you sent us back some video that we've been showing as well you talked about some of the cars talk about what you saw here just behind us here at Vermeer it was it was almost kind of intimidating I mean you you see damage or you see you see the signature on the radar but you don't necessarily correspond that with this magnitude of damage so when I drove up I'm actually came around the back side of the building and you could see from afar some of the roof damage that they had but you couldn't see the full scope of it yet and I came around the side of the building and you could just see just the mass destruction one of the buildings was collapsed not the whole building the side just a wall and the parking lot cars just toppled on top of each other like rag dolls so if you see something like that it kind of hits you as a person you know what if that was my car oh my god what if there's somebody in that car so yeah it was just it was overwhelming you know Kurtis has been talking about the fact that these storms were not something that I think anybody really expected to be this severe today so you were chasing it so when did you decide oh this was something that I needed to chase today I mean at first it just started off there was a storm up kind of by Prairie City Bondurant him like that it's the potential there for that could to produce something so I just went and I thought that might be one of the only storms of the day and then you just saw the other one start to fire and especially the one here in Pella as soon as that one fired up and started to intensify you knew it was going to be something bad so that's when I started I made the decision to start heading south and see what I could see and just I guess get here business today code thanks so much I know you've had a long day of storm chasing so we'll let you go and mention a couple of quick things we did talk to some folks at Pella this is the 70th year this is their anniversary year for manufacturing a farm and light industrial equipment in town here and we're told that they were having a customer appreciation day that's why you saw some of those buses that we showed you earlier that are behind me here and I think if I can get out of the way you can see some of the tourists there was a tractor pulling kind of a tram that people were involved with there and they had people here from around the country and around the world that were here for a customer appreciation day and as you could see they were set up in some hospitality areas outside the global pavilion where we are now just to east of Pella and so that is another twist I think that wasn't certainly expected today but just beyond as we've been showing you was where the damage is plant number seven where they produce a drilling equipment and what they call mud pumps they produce a large number of different small machines that farmers and construction workers use so again the latest is that they are trying to clean up some of the damage they've got some injured people we don't have a number yet and we don't have an indication on exactly what is damaged because we haven't got up that closely here so that's the latest from Pella we'll throw back to Steve and Stacey okay thank you very much Todd let's go back over to chief meteorologist Kurtis Kurtz and Kurtis you have what kind of radar data that tell storia what we're watching and we knew when it was north of pillow that it was going to be a big problems there we watch the velocity this is basically the when a window going towards and away from the radar and where you watch is red and green coming together this is a very tight couplet as we call it very dangerous there look at your timeline that was at 4:04 that's north of Pella then right in through here again very dangerous just east of Pella probably right around the venire plant and then that one slid on out although I did expect it to produce damage along 163 north of Layton and it did down that way and we're just reviewing this quickly for you and I wanted to show you one other thing quickly is up in the Marshalltown area and I'm doing all this on the fly folks normally I have all these graphics loaded ahead of time but this is what it looked like up in Marshalltown notice the couplet not as good then where I was well on the air by now and we're there it is right headed towards Marshalltown same kind of scenario you look there it is red and green right next to each other and here it just kind of slid on in and that's right downtown Marshalltown when that came on through at an estimation anywhere from 4:35 to 4 or 40 but boy both of those storms intensified moments before they hit major metropolitan areas typically here in Iowa you know a lot of our tornado damages farm stats here and there but exactly when these storms hit town was in exactly when they were at their most powerful Steve and Stacey much Curtis let's go back to Marshalltown kcci's Laura Naaman and it's there in a very heavily damaged downtown Marshalltown in Lauren what do you have worse now well Steve we have a new update on the condition of the hospital we were just shooting video here in front of the motional County Courthouse when this woman stopped up by us and let us know what was going on so I have Janita here with me - Nina can you tell me about what was happening you were inside the actual building when the rooftop no no we are on the second floor the hospital and they were all very calm very professional they followed the warnings they put everybody that they could inside of the hallway shut all the fire doors and kept checking on patients they couldn't move into the hall and we really didn't know anything what was happening you all knew more than we did and then we started getting calls from our kids and Friends are you ok so I was out here taking pictures and seeing what the damage was when my husband just called me and said get back here because the roof was taken off the hospital and they're moving the patients to Waterloo that's all you know well thank you so much for and you better get back to him yeah we'll let you go thank you - Neeta stay safe also while we have you guys live here I want you to take we'll zoom in to the spire from the Marshall County Courthouse that is collapsed right there on the left-hand side of it people are throwing bits and pieces of trees and rubble into a pile around that but it is it's definitely sad to see such a beautiful historic icon just toppled over like this any other questions you guys have back there in the studio Steven Stacey yes Lauren it looks as though they are picking up pieces of what was the cupola there and just stacking it together so maybe if they can reconstruct that thing they can not necessarily reuse those pieces but maybe they can at least go to get an idea of of size and how to reconstruct that thing is that is that what you're saying yes you can at least see the bare bones of it and get an idea but the rest of the courthouse the I believe they're Corinthian style columns they seem to be fine the stone the masonry looks like it's held up well except for a little bit here in the front you can see people lined up chunks of stone have been toppled I think that's going to be more of the difficulty there but wow what a beautiful piece of Iowa history devastated by this I think the the big threat now for folks is standing too close to these damaged buildings for fear of falling debris falling bricks falling blocks such things like that we do have some pictures too to show you of the storm as it moves through Marshalltown and all of the damage that it has created you know that in its path we've got a couple of pictures here this is the Bondurant area and you see two funnels they're developing very very photogenic as Curtis said today that's right Curtis said all of these storms spun up very very quickly intensified very very quickly here's the big one out of Bondurant this one taken from mine I believe it's East 64th and you can see it hitting that neighborhood watch it hit a couple of houses and then it just goes right down the street tears out electrical lines and transformers and then moves into another portion of the neighborhood creates a huge debris cloud there all kinds of construction material flying into the air as those funds in Bondurant this afternoon and the next video here this is outside the Vermeer plant in Pella this truck it looks like one of many in the parking lot after the tornado hit the building there we understand that plant number 7 at the Vermeer facility was the most heavily damaged in fact they said the east half of the campus was hit the hardest you see all all of the flags they're just ripped the tornado moved through vehicles in the parking lot stacked on top of each other and heavy metal is just draped over these vehicles as it was peeled off the roof and the sides of the plants we did see an exterior wall collapsed or was peeled off of the building right there you see right into the building there firefighters EMS went building to building room-to-room to make sure there were no people trapped inside that building and we understand that at the time the storm hit we were between the first shift and the second shift so there weren't as many people there as could have been should this storm have hit on either side of the shift okay now we're gonna go way up north into Hamilton County this is Blair's buttburn a tiny farming town of about two hundred ten people in the area of highway 69 and highway 20 up there just east of Webster City and this is a pretty good look at it very well-defined funnel cloud their tornado that's hitting the ground you can see the the windmills that are just so prevalent across the state of Iowa especially across north-central Iowa spinning in the breeze there we understand there was some tree damage maybe some structure damage in Blair's burg once again in a town of about 210 people and we certainly hope everybody up there is okay we do want to stress once again folks we don't have a whole lot of information on injuries we're trying to get that as quickly as we can exactly right this this is the tornado that moves through downtown Marshalltown Curtis told us earlier today this storm had the potential to create catastrophic damage and as we've seen from our live pictures and live reports from Marshalltown it has certainly created that kind of damage and you look at that thing it is just a sinister looking storm here it is putting a direct hit on the Marshall County Courthouse structure built in 1886 beautiful building put on the National Historic Register in 1972 our kcci's Laura Naaman and Glenn Biermann are in downtown Marshalltown right now and they have shown us pictures like this video like this there's a piece of the courthouse right there we did see just a little bit earlier the cupola and volunteers down there you can see it's totally knocked off the building the cupola and they are they are now stacking up pieces of that one wonder is what is going to happen to that beautiful old building that's right kcci's Laura Nevin is live in downtown Marshalltown with the latest for us Loren Wow well Steven Stacy as we continue to update you I know you asked earlier where can you see damage and this is just evidence we moved one Street over from where we were a couple hits ago damage is everywhere right now I'm on 1st and Main Street and you can see bits and pieces I'm not even sure of what this is in front of me but as you look also to the ground I want to reiterate all the broken glass and debris out here and I know Stacy you especially expressed earlier concern for these buildings falling over after they sustained already some of this damage and from speaking to law enforcement officers here on the ground in Marshalltown they were telling me they really want to encourage anyone in this area all these people you see on the streets right now they're pressing them to get back home because for first responders what usually takes 5 minutes to get downtown is taking more along the lines now of 20 I know the damage is captivating people want to go get images but it's they're trying to do their job we'll take you down this way more towards where another building has been completely destroyed photographer Glen Biermann will you come with me this way we're gonna take you down this street but damage to the car is over here on the left and I'm not exactly sure what is here at the end of this street but I'm trying to understand it right now so we want to figure it out and we're going to take you with us as we take a look but it looks maybe a car or the top of the building has come down I don't know back in the studio if you have any sort of idea of what this could be I'm taking it in the first time just as you are not sure what that is I've been to Marshall down many times Lauren but that is a very heavily Devere developed very heavily populated portion of town Marshalltown downtown is expansive about 20 7500 people lived there according to the last census and it's a very active busy downtown area and a lot of beautiful historic buildings that are still standing in the downtown area and we see a lot of the debris falling that has fallen from the buildings and on two vehicles below and onto the sidewalks and onto the streets as you've been showing us and the see folks standing so close to these buildings now it's it's a it's a dangerous place to be and yes yes we also said in our last hit that there was a gas there's been multiple gas main breaks here so police are just trying to corral people telling them to go home this is not what they want right here what's happening right now that's for certain that's right and we also did get an update from unitypoint health facility Marshalltown that the hospital the facility was hit by the tornado around five o'clock today no patient or staff injuries reported within the hospital but the building did sustain severe structural damage and they are evacuating patients and moving them to unity point health Waterloo and unity point health Grundy Center they are not taking any more patients at this time and I guess what we're seeing right there is looks like the facade of the building has collapsed onto a vehicle perhaps below yes and it looks like they're very careful what it looks like there's a and a white pickup truck is what's behind but we were trying to make our way over to the unity point hospital here and we just keep getting stopped because we're seeing things like what you are watching unfold right now live in front of us difficult to manage this traffic right now and cars are you can hear the glass crack underneath their wheels and the broken wood all these things this is quite a moment so now we can see I think you can get a better idea there is a red car underneath this oh wow let's hope for the best yeah and multiple storefronts here have just been blown out hoping nobody was in the vehicle at the time that that building came crashing down on top of the car alright KCCI warrant on events well I think in Marshalltown for us thank you very much Lauren we'll get back to you in just a little bit Curtis it just seems to get worse the more pictures we get from these devastated areas yeah and the day started out with the week funnels potential for weak tornadoes and then after this crossed I 35 everything intensified I expected that to happen when we first went on the air with the Bondurant storm we mentioned as it marched to the east we were expecting storms to get stronger unfortunately both of those storms that intensified intensified right over Marshalltown and east and north of the Pella area this is what it looked like at 153 we're getting numerous reports of weak funnels everything crossed I 35 and then I'm just going to go forward 4 and you could see it one time there's your two super cells the one over Marshall County in the one over Marion County how about we zoom in on those for you the first storm up in Marshalltown moved over Story County with funnel reports and then just dug south and moved right over Marshalltown we saw this storm coming matter of fact if I click over on velocity what we look at it was just amazing what was happening with this storm as it moved on through it just tightened up right when it got to Marcy the spin the green and the red spin you see that that just sliced right in the Marshalltown right there right before town it intensified dramatically and was at its strongest right when it hit Marshalltown and then it moved off to the east and there were still reports of funnels Legrand and Montour almost the same scenario for Pella although this one we were watching for a longer time this cell started over round Bondurant was headed towards new and then it just dug south and slid over towards the Monroe area and there's the red and green as we watch for the velocity signature and then it's slid towards fellows see those bright reds and greens that's all the intensity look what happened again at its strongest just as it headed towards a major area and then slid to the south there so these storms producing two super cells today and causing so much damage out there I'm just going to show you what the picture looks like this is what you're used to seeing and as it moved through Bondurant let's not what we zoom in just enough to show you the Bondurant area just the north side of Bondurant look what happened stronger by Colfax and then this is when it really started to look really nasty was when it was over towards Monroe and we were talking on the air it's like pellet take cover especially north and east side of town and then here it came through Pella almost the same scenario but a different look in Marshalltown the storm west of Marshalltown did not look as impressive initially but we were getting numerous reports of funnel clouds heads acts are sharp from the Iowa storm chasing Network on it and boy once I saw this storm - you're due south towards Marshalltown that's when we were on the air saying catastrophic damage potential for Marshalltown and then it moved through there now we take you to a live picture on radar and it is quiet across the state right now one cell moving out of extreme southeastern Iowa with a tornado warning in northeastern Missouri but all quiet now after a very impactful day across the state just going to backtrack for you had a tornado six miles north of Ottumwa the good news I would say in all this is that this incredibly powerful storm moving down Highway 163 was headed right for Oskaloosa and it weakened right before it got to Oskaloosa there'll be some damage on 163 I'm sure of it because as it was moving over 163 our Doppler indicated debris signature lofted debris widespread damage from Mir probably getting lofted downstream but also farmsteads hit on 163 just by what I was seen on radar I'm just kind of taking things backwards tornado report there North Apella funnel cloud tornado reports Monroe east of Monroe Reisler we saw that storm Prairie City the funnel Mitchellville over towards Colfax and then well here it is in Bondurant with all your reports there as it moved on through in this storm started with a very weak tornado signature around East Side of Ankeny and we're watching that there so a lot of activity moving on through and then this is what we watched funnel clouds Clements funnel cloud st. Anthony and then the tornadic impact over there right over Marshalltown as it moved right through the heart of town so a big day for those tornadoes and again our own jason sudeikis was looking at the damage National Weather Service will be out there tomorrow I really think probably going to end up with and I don't like to speculate but probably f2 damage plus when you're talking EF 2 you're talking winds above what speeds Curtis with this storm I saw winds on the radar and that's another thing 120 miles an hour maybe higher so we'll have to see what comes out of this and I know everybody in weather hates the speculate that's the thing we we don't like to talk about the damage The Weather Service will be out there tomorrow and they'll look at things and they'll see by how far to this car move how far was this car rolled over what type of tree damage what's embedded in the concrete they'll be able to see all that so I'm just speculating there so they'll have a better look tomorrow and to see it hit three population centers at least three right the one in Bondurant that developed quickly the other two actually were at their strongest right when they moved into town I mean we were watching them and the storm in Marshalltown intensified right before it got to Marshalltown and the storm in Pella intense it was already strong that one was already very strong but then it intensified even more as it moved north and east to Pella so no you know we got a lot of ground here does not have population centers and many times that were the tornado said unfortunately today the tornadoes were at their strongest right when they were over centers of population yeah all right Curtis thank you now we want to talk to Mike Wagner from Alliant Energy he's on the phone with us this evening Mike it's been a busy day for your folks it has been a busy day we've got crews out in numerous communities across Iowa right now assessing the damage that these storms brought a lot of the work that we're doing right now is what we would call make safe work we've got down lines in a number of areas we also have a ruptured gas lines that are blowing natural gas and our efforts right now are focused on making these areas as safe as possible and that's de-energizing thousand customers who were out of power right now which areas are you working on hardest right now which areas are the hardest hit you know right now Marshalltown there's some damages I look at our outage map is one of the areas that we're focusing on was another tom was another area that we're keeping an eye on you know as you kind of watch throughout the whole you know late afternoon these storms swept across a good part of our service area throughout the afternoon so right now we're kind of in the stage or just kind of seeing how bad the damage is and what Mother Nature like what are the priority centers for you Mike Marshalltown is a big one for us right now and and Pella is also another one and really for us right now the biggest concern that we have are those downed power lines and those ruptured gas line you know we want people to stay away from these as best they can you know we understand that the situation where they live it is one where they might be kind of limited as far as where they can shelter but a downed power line is very dangerous a ruptured natural gas line it's very dangerous we want folks to stay away from me so we also want them to report them you know if there's a an electric outage they can report that through our website Alliant Energy calm slash outage they can also report that Electric outage or gas outage through our 1-800 number and that's one 800 align the more information we have as far as what the situation is that helps us assess it and figure out what work needs to be done okay Mike thank you very much for the information we will certainly be getting back to you and now we want to check in with KCCI reporter chris gothner he's been in Bondurant covering the tornado damage there all afternoon Chris what are you seeing now well right now it seems like we're in the cleanup and maybe surveying phase with the damage here they're a lot of crews out here the the power crews have seemed to clean off these wires here but lots of neighbors going around looking at the damage you see some of these crews surveying out here by this house where that second floor just got totally blown away it was it was a two-for house now it is a one floor house you see you see some repair companies look like RT coming through here neighbors are getting let through here on the road to be allowed to come in and check on their houses again this damage is not overly widespread there's not a huge field of destruction but where this storm did come through it's pretty bad it's pretty bad there's you you and you can see right there it it's not good but yeah that's where we're at right now we are hearing from mid-american energy that there are about 856 people without power here in Bondurant right now just a number one of a number of power outages throughout the metro but Steve Stacey that's where at right now all right Chris thank you very much and go through the numbers that we have right now from in American energy with regard to their power outages Chris just mentioned the 856 in Bondurant looks like Layton is 88 customers without power 580 in Mahaska County Oskaloosa 193 customers MidAmerican Energy customers out of power and then in Polk County 589 customers without power now we want to check in with KCCI senior reporter Todd Magel he's live outside the Vermeer plant near Pella that plant was severely damaged in this afternoon's tornadoes Todd Stacy and Steve we are on the east side of Pella on behind me is the historic premier manufacturing company been here for 70 years certainly one of the most catastrophic events in company history here today you're looking west in toward Pella this is the campus for premier manufacturing just if you haven't caught up with us they manufacture farm equipment and construction equipment diggers and and other types of equipment they got hit with this massive tornado late this afternoon and plant seven is the one in case people from around here know what that is is the one that was hit that's the plant that makes mud pumps were told and some drilling equipment there were people in the plant we don't yet know how many people were inside we were able to talk to police here we were able to talk to some folks from Vermeer they came out and did a quick little impromptu news conference awhile ago basically they say that they had a bit of a warning the plant hit the tornado hit plant number seven we've heard from one witness that a wall may have collapsed and they did go in and found some injured people we just don't know the number of injured people there were many ambulances and police cars when we first got here but we are back about a block from the actual damage so we haven't been able to see up close and personal yet but we do have plenty of video that we've been showing all night from people who drove by when this happened and from our storm chaser jason sudeikis actually chasing the storm and then it up here shortly after the tornado hit and was able to get pictures of cars that were piled on top of each other in the parking lot since we've been standing here cars have been driving out covered they look almost tarred and feathered with insulation and broken glass and those are the cars they were able to drive there are many cars in there that are piled like toys on top of each other in the parking lot just outside the plant number seven here Vermeer manufacturing now this is a mentioned a 70 year old company this is their 70th year of manufacturing here it's been family-owned third generation is running it now and we were told they had a special day today it was a day of celebration and they invited customers to come from around the country and around the world that were actually here on the campus celebrating when that tornado hit we don't know if they were injured again we're supposed to get a news conference about 8 o'clock tonight with the Pella police they're cordoned off this area from traffic because it is such a mess here where we are and we hope to learn details of who was injured how many folks were injured how severe those injuries are we do know some people were taken to the hospital the good news is there was we believe a shift change around 3:00 or 3:30 and that means that they're made in fewer people inside this building which means fewer people may have been injured so that's the latest from Pella here just to bring you up to date the road is blocked off you can't get through they're still searching inside for damage and for victims and as far as we know there have been some injuries we don't know about any fatalities but haven't heard that yet Stephen Stacey all right Todd we see the global pavilion behind you there but there are also seven manufacturing facilities there just curious if the entire complex is shut down it's a mile-long complex there on the east side of Pella it is shut down now in fact the main building is the plant seven which is near the the goal pavilion where we are now but we're told from some other witnesses that there were there was damage they believe to some other buildings that are just to the west of where we are down this long road where Vermeer is located so we don't know about injuries in those buildings but from a Vermeer vice-president said that they believe there is still some damage to other plants so right now the company has shut down certainly their first priority they told us is making sure that their workers are safe and making sure that they've gotten to everybody they can get to that we're inside at least the main building it's certainly some of these other buildings so we hope to hear from them again tonight around 8 o'clock we're told to get the latest conditions and the latest damage reports here at Vermeer manufacturing in Pella Stephan Stacy and Todd one more question for you before we let you go wondering what employees if you've had any information about what employees need to know I don't know if the plant runs 24 hours a day if there's a night shift coming in or for folks who are coming in in the early morning I don't know if any of that kind of information has been announced yet if you have any of that to pass along we haven't heard yet I assume they're using internal communications for the most part to let folks know but I haven't specifically been able to ask that question and maybe that's one we can answer 296 because there are I believe three thousand maybe 3,500 people that work and for Marinette factorings so they have a lot of folks here that are certainly concerned about what happened and of course those folks have families so you can imagine there are thousands of people here in Pella and around this area in Marion County that are very concerned about what happens next with their jobs with their shifts with their scheduling with the future of this plant but I can tell you it's been around 70 years we talked to the vice president of premier and he sounded very upbeat saying you know they're gonna get through this they're gonna help the people out they're gonna make sure everybody's safe and you can just bet that you know as soon as this damage is assessed that they will get right back to repairing and Reed some of the manufacturing drills and other equipment that they've made here for 70 years all right KCCI senior reporter Todd Magel live on the scene of severe tornado damage on the Vermeer plant in in the pellet area Thank You Todd well as usual KCCI viewers helping us cover this storm I mean they happen in their communities here's chief meteorologist Kurtis Gertz and you're getting video and pictures in as well aren't you a chance to look at both my Twitter and Facebook and I got something coming in out of the Vermeer plant now just I know it's a little smaller it was vertical but if you just look at the car damage these are all new pictures coming in out of there that I got right after the storm so you could see cars rolled over tremendous damage here again the National Weather Service will be sending out storm teams tomorrow to assess this and again when they look at the damage you'll probably see damage reports of winds over 120 miles an hour but again that speculation as I mentioned earlier probably f2 plus in a couple of these spots if not better but that's up to them and when they get a closer look they'll be able to decide but again all this activity started out very quietly and then it just got going the first storm of the day that we had reports of damage was south of Clarion there was damage in a farm field there and that's when with all the sunshine that I really started to get concerned and then we got the report of the tornado over in Ankeny that hit Bondurant all of this you're seeing from Ankeny over towards west of Newton Monroe Pella that's all the same super cellular storm that was the storm that was on the ground the longest and then the storm in Marshalltown there were about three little cells that moved out of Story County and then they all came together and then hit Marshall County and unfortunately they were at their strongest when they moved through the Marshalltown area but I'll give you a quick forecast because I know some of you folks have been watching so long and this system is out of here and it's going to be quiet tomorrow we'll be in wraparound moisture maybe an isolated shower in the afternoon and some cloud cover but absolutely last day that could cause any wrinkles in your weather our Friday and the weekend right now looks glorious as we'll see some fine weather Saturday and headed into the future so tomorrow 84 mostly sunny thunderstorms generally along the Mississippi River Valley and then as we head into your 8-day forecast temperatures in the mid 80s it's almost repeat days right through next Wednesday with lows in the 60s a bit of humidity may be another storm chance next Friday but a busy day here at KCCI 8 weather wise and we had those big old super cells a little more Oklahoma looking in Kansas looking we haven't had storms like that in some time we normally have the line with a few embedded tornadoes but two big storms decided to dominate the day and unfortunately both of those two big storms hit big cities that be in Marshalltown and Pella alright Curtis thank you very much dominating the day and dominating the programming here on KCCI we know that a lot of you were tuning in for your favorite shows but you know people's safety is at stake here so we're gonna stay on the air as long as we need to that's right and right now we want to check in with kcci's max deke night he is live in the pellet area showing us and covering some of the storm damage I think we've got max on the phone max where are you exactly safety were just southeast of the vanmeer plant where you just saw Todd a minute ago Curtis mentioned it's been a busy day at KCCI it's gonna be a busy night here in Pella we were just at Denis Van Wyck for more off of 250th Avenue she's on the east side of 250th just south of East Vermeer Road and you know it's unbelievable how much damage they had but yet barely any damage to their home they've lived here she's lived here for 40 years said her husband grew up here great grandparent his great grandparents built you know built this home and and settled here in Pella 150 years ago and this tornado tore through the Vermeer plant and actually through some of the roof over onto their cornfield so I don't know if you're seeing those pictures but they're literally part of the Vermeer roof is on their property in their cornfield they lost a lot of they lost a barn actually have she says between 150 and 200 cattle all the cattle are okay her family is okay but it's just unbelievable looking at this damage and just looking outside of our window here in our KCCI truck right now of 250th Avenue here in Pella just south of southeast of the premier plant we're watching the Pella Public Works Department several trucks here they there's a downed power line several homes without power there was a post that we were literally just looking at and photojournalist Billy Storm pointed out that it was there was about a third of the post left from what was a power line completely snapped and half and while we're sitting here they picked it up out of the ground and threw in the back of a truck give me an idea how much damage there is there's no salvaging some of these things it's just what was here is now gone the cornfield completely wiped out for about looks like 20 or 30 yards off into the distance we're about a quarter mile southeast of the Vermeer plant and clear from here to the plant we can see parts of the roof not only from this farm but what appears to be part of the Vermeer plants roof we see insulation all over the place it means that there

Channel: StormSpotterMike

Views: 19,238

Keywords: Tornado, Twister, Disaster, Natural Disaster, Weather, Meteorology, Thunderstorm, Weather Radar, Supercell, KCCI-TV, Iowa, Central Iowa, Marshalltown, Pella, Vermeer Manufacturing

Id: yp1xe7_mgmk

Length: 239min 56sec (14396 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 20 2018