(Update) The National Weather Service confirmed today that a fourth tornado touched down Saturday in northeast Iowa.
The twister destroyed a rural Black Hawk County farm, just south of Waterloo. A survey team rated the tornado an EF-0, with winds around 85 miles-an-hour. The tornado touched down at 5:49 p.m. and was on the ground for only two minutes.
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There were multiple reports of tornadoes, funnel clouds, hail and high wind as severe thunderstorms rolled across the state Saturday.
National Weather Service officials say an EF-1 tornado — with winds estimated at 107 miles per hour – uprooted trees and struck a 12-unit apartment complex on the northwest edge of Oelwein, tearing part of a wall off one building and the siding off another.
Officials say the same storm produced a weaker tornado near Maynard that caused damage to several rural Fayette County farms.
In Dubuque County, a confirmed tornado damaged at least six farms near Sherrill, and a possible twister in Black Hawk County destroyed some buildings on a farm just south of Waterloo. There were no reports of injuries associated with the storms.
A team from the National Weather Service is expected to survey the damage in Black Hawk County today.
(By Elwin Huffman, KOEL, Waterloo)