Iowa Highway Ends (etc.)

This is very interesting. Despite an EF2 tornado chewing up part of Traer with tree damage throughout town, and severe flooding on the Iowa River bad enough to close US 63 and swamp Chelsea (again), the list on the Iowa Homeland Security website does not include Tama County among the 19 counties designated for state resources and/or individual assistance since June 30.

The list does include Adair and Guthrie, which got hit with large hail earlier in the day on June 30, and Black Hawk and Marshall, which had flooding on the Cedar and Iowa rivers. In fact, every county with a major segment of the Iowa River south of Iowa Falls except for Tama and Washington has received a declaration.

Admittedly, this post may carry a little whiff of “it’s not a disaster unless it happens to you,” but I’d be curious about the rationale for not granting Tama County access to assistance.

UPDATE: Disaster proclamation issued July 10.

The National Weather Service makes quick work of storm damage surveys. It has a combined report for the July 6 Reinbeck and Traer tornadoes*, both rated EF1. I was going to make a composite map with the June 30 track, but this one is embedded in a PDF with a different mapping service so it will take some work.

The up-close storm chaser’s footage was wrapped into larger weather pieces yesterday on both Today and Good Morning America.

The Waterloo Courier used last week’s tornado as the main basis for an Iowans-are-awesome editorial.

*With one being June 30 and the other being July 6, we at least have that to differentiate the Traer tornadoes in the future, and worry less about “no, not that one, the other one”.

July 6, 2014: A small tornado in Tama County was visible from the Morrison farm. The debris in the foreground is from a different tornado that hit Monday. Photo by Judy Morrison.

The Traer area just had tornadoes roll through again. This is the worst outbreak in my lifetime, and most likely the worst in Tama County history.

The northern two townships of Tama County — the northernmost tier plus Perry and Clark specifically — have had three days in the past eight where tornado warnings were issued. (There was also a severe thunderstorm warning on June 27.)

The most recent tornado or tornadoes (may or may not have been the same one that hit near Reinbeck) was/were captured on video at the Buckingham corner, the southwest corner of Traer, and way way WAY too close for rational thought. It nearly took out the Zobel farmstead but only hit the barn, according to this tweet from Samantha Zobel. KWWL has a gallery that includes submitted pictures taken from Traer.

The expanded NWS report for the June 30 tornado is available now. The tornado was hard to see on radar because it was right about that time that the front congealed into a derecho that went east all the way to Lake Michigan. The Chicago NWS reports that two separate derechos formed that day. The first is tracked back to central Iowa at 2 PM; the Traer tornado warning was issued at 2:03.

From tornadoes to blizzards, it’s easy to see why Midwesterners have a healthy respect/fear of nature.

Video embedded and linked. My high school biology teacher, Lee Wiges, managed to get interviewed by both Channel 7 and Channel 9.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The damage to the south end of Traer Manufacturing, the large building with the red girders at the south of town in the aerial view, is mostly from the 2011 derecho. Additional siding was removed later. That particular building received a little more damage on the north side this time, but it’s only visible from the road. The buildings to the south, the Clearline buildings, were damaged Monday.

(A return to highway and school coverage will come eventually, but obviously I have shifted priorities at the moment.)

The official definition of the tornado track is much, MUCH narrower than the damage that is out there, I assure you. Apparently, it was “only” wind that sent three of the Bergers’ bins a quarter-mile away in three separate directions, and snapped corn off its stalks in two directions. (We didn’t even get a photo visit here!)

The official survey is in, and the National Weather Service says the tornado developed about 2 PM Monday, 3.2 miles northwest of Traer…

…which means it emerged literally on top of Denny and Jill Berger’s farm. KWWL has the sad story. Two of Berger’s bins are up the hill at our place. While our shed had the back half ripped out, their sheds are GONE.

The Waterloo Courier has a follow-up on the damage in town.

You don’t think it will happen to you until it happens to you. This is part of what the Morrison farmstead looks like after a tornado hit Monday.

The neighbor’s bins from a quarter-mile away are in our barnyard. NWS teams will be out Tuesday, but I think this shows damage consistent with an EF1.

A tweet from the KGAN reporter who did a short video segment shows a light pole down in the Prairie West addition of Traer. Here’s another tweet with damage pictures. More damage at Clearline. Lots of trees down in town.

Traer was in the line of severe storms three days in a row, as this Saturday tweet from KWWL’s Mark Schnackenberg shows.