.National Weather Service survey teams have identified damage in Greenfield and southern Adair County indicating Tuesday’s tornado was an EF4 — a thousand yard wide twister than was on the ground for 44 miles. It reach peak internal wind speeds of between 175 and 185 miles an hour.
Donna Dubberke, the meteorologist in charge at the National Weather Service in Des Moines, joined Governor Reynolds and FEMA director Deanne Chriswell at a news conference in Greenfield.
“Tornadoes initially developed over Montgomery and Page Counties on Tuesday around 2:45 in the afternoon. Two out of those three tornadoes strengthened as they raced northeast at speeds of up to 50 miles an hour,” Dubberke said. “….The damage path across Greenfield is about one mile long as the crow flies, which means it took just about one minute for the devastation in Greenfield.”
The National Weather Service analysis has confirmed the tornado moved through northeast Adair County and then dissipated once it reached Madison County. “The third tornado was from Johnston to near Nevada and that produced EF2 damage,” Dubberke said.
That central Iowa tornado was on the ground for 41 miles. Officials say it destroyed or caused major damage at least 26 homes in Polk County and 15 in Story County. Over 150 homes were destroyed in Greenfield and surrounding areas of Adair County. The governor submitted a request for federal disaster assistance for Adair, Polk, Story and Montgomery Counties yesterday.
“We already had FEMA on the ground based on the tornado that went through on April 26,” Reynolds said, “so instead of the state doing an estimate and then FEMA coming in and doing an estimate, we were actually able to work together on some of this and so that’s helped expedite some of the process and some of the numbers.”
Officials estimate there is at least $11 million worth of damage from Tuesday’s tornadoes. Last week President Biden declared eight Iowa counties federal disaster areas for the storms that swept through a month ago and FEMA is operating temporary Disaster Recovery Centers in Minden and Harlan for residents affected by those April 26 events.