OAN’s James Meyers
10:42 AM – Wednesday, May 22, 2024
Multiple people have been declared dead and a dozen have been injured in a tragic tornado that ripped through an Iowa town, leaving dozens of houses and businesses destroyed.
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The horrific tornado ravaged most of Greenfield, which is a town of almost 2,000 residents close to 55 miles southwest of Des Moines.
“We do have confirmed fatalities,” Iowa State Patrol Sgt. Alex Dinkla said at a news conference Tuesday night. He said law enforcement were still determining the total number of confirmed dead residents.
Dinkla stated that there were at least a dozen injuries in Greenfield, including at a small hospital. Patients at the hospital were forced to be transferred to other facilities in nearby cities.
Additionally, at least 18 tornadoes were reported in Iowa on Tuesday as other states in the Midwest saw hail and heavy rain.
In a Meta (Facebook) post on Tuesday night, the Adair County Health System announced that it had set up a triage center at Greenfield high school to be utilized as a sort of sanctuary for those who need medical care and other assistance.
Meanwhile, law enforcement officials reported that they would only allow residents to enter Greenfield until Wednesday morning. Non-local media representatives were told to leave the city on Tuesday night.
Valerie Warrior, a Greenfield resident, told reporters that she “asked God to protect her home and her family” during the devastation, according to station KCCI.
“I was in the furnace room and then I heard (the storm) like a train,” she said. “I heard it, and I knew it was hitting.”
Warrior said the damage was tragic to see, but she is still optimistic that the city will eventually bounce back and heal from this.
“They’ll get through it. You already see people out helping each other, working together. And that’s what they do, people come together when a tragedy happens. People come together to support and encourage each other.”
“We’ll rebuild,” Warrior added. “We’ll rebuild.”
Tornado reports have increased over the well-above average in recent weeks. There have been over 800 tornadoes reported so far this year, which makes it one of the most active years for twisters on record.
Over 90,000 homes and businesses are without power across Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin as of Wednesday morning, according to PowerOutage.us. More outages are anticipated as storms roll through the East.
Cities like Nashville and Memphis in Tennessee, St. Louis in Missouri, Cleveland and Columbus in Ohio, and Tulsa in Oklahoma “should be on storm watch,” according to weather experts who spoke with the press.
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds (R-Iowa) issued a disaster emergency proclamation on Tuesday for 15 counties in the Hawkeye State.
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