Four people were killed and at least 35 were hurt, Iowa authorities said Wednesday (May 22), after a tornado sliced through the farming town of Greenfield the day before and reduced homes and other buildings to heaps of twisted rubble.
Officials were still assessing the full extent of property damage in Greenfield, a community of 2,000 about 60 miles (97 km) southwest of Des Moines, the state capital.
The tally of casualties was announced by the Iowa Department of Public Safety, after rescue teams picked through fields of debris left by the deadly twister in search of people who might be trapped in the wreckage.
"We're going to rebuild. The insurance company said it was going to take 12 to 18 months. So basically we're going to start from scratch." said Victoria Turner, who lost her home, but she and her family only suffered minor injuries. "We're down to buy all the basics all over again. Clothes, toiletries, you know, food. We lost everything."
Of the 35 people reported injured by the tornado, at least 14 were taken to out-of-county hospitals for medical treatment, officials said, adding that the actual number of people hurt was most likely higher.
"Something like this, you know, it takes time to clean it all up. It's going to be a lot of years before this town gets back to normal. We have to plant new trees." said Jon Crawford, a shop owner in the small farming town whose building was decimated. "I'll be dead and gone before it's all normal."
The twister that touched down in Greenfield was among a swarm of tornadoes reported in southwestern Iowa on Tuesday afternoon and evening. The Federal Emergency Management Agency said preliminary reports counted 23 potential tornadoes, mostly in Iowa.
Governor Kim Reynolds said state officials were working to send a request for President Joe Biden to approve a disaster declaration to get federal assistance for state residents. "They have policies and metrics in place and we're going to do everything we can to get that declaration." she said.
The National Weather Service reported that at least three tornadoes touched down in Texas on Wednesday evening, including one in the city of Temple, located about 60 miles northeast of Austin. There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries.
A separate storm system threatened to spawn tornadoes in parts of New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia, according to the National Weather Service. — Report from Reuters
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