A state emergency has been declared in Johnson, Jones and Muscatine counties in response to severe weather. Iowa Emergency Management Director David Miller says state teams are in eastern Iowa trying to get a handle on the damage caused by Thursday night’s tornadoes. Miller says he sent a team over to work with officials in Johnson County to get an assessment of damage.

Miller says they’ve also asked a federal team to come in and do an assessment. He says the federal team will do their assessment Saturday to determine if there’s enough damage for a presidential disaster declaration.

Miller says various state resources are being used in the clean-up. He says they used the Department of Public Safety and National Guard for security, and are also using the Department of Transportation for traffic control and debris removal.

Miller says he’ll have more of an idea of the dollar amount of damage once the federal disaster teams completes its work. He says they’ll go through and look at uninsured loss, as Miller says the uninsured loss is what’s used for a presidential disaster declaration. Miller says he’s heard of just the one death in Muscatine County and says it seems that everyone got warned in time.

Miller says he hasn’t completed the review, but it appears that all the sirens went off and everyone was warned in time. The Muscatine County Sheriff has confirmed that a 49-year old female died in the storm. Her identity has not yet been released.