Johnston High School, metro homes damaged in Tuesday's powerful storm system
Johnston High School sustained “extensive” damage in Tuesday's outbreak of storms, causing school to be canceled the following day.
Parts of the Des Moines metro were struck by tornado- and severe thunderstorm-warned storms that earlier had caused extensive damage and killed multiple people in southwest Iowa. The storm traveled through the western and northern suburbs, downing trees and damaging some homes, and into Cambridge and Nevada in Story County.
At one point Tuesday night, more than 26,000 homes in the metro were without power.
More: Updates: Tornado, storm damage still being felt in Iowa as clean up begins
Classes at Johnston High School are scheduled to resume Thursday, according to information shared by district spokesperson Lynn Meadows. Meadows told the Des Moines Register on Tuesday that the whole of the building had been affected, with glass shattered throughout the high school, damage to the roof, a shed that had been ripped apart and an overhead door that had been torn off.
A report she forwarded Wednesday from Superintendent Nikki Roorda provided more details about the damage:
The overhead door that was torn away in the auto body and welding area will need to be replaced and there's a temporary wall in place for now.
Two double-paned windows completely broke and three more were damaged.
The greenhouse sustained some minor structural damage that is assumed to be repairable, though the greenhouse's shed is "no longer in existence."
One section of fence at the stadium was downed. The stadium was being inspected Wednesday.
Parts of the school's roof appeared to have lifted during the storm but school officials could not readily see significant damage. An entry awning was also partly torn away.
An insurance agent was to walk through the building Wednesday.
Roorda thanked the district's grounds keepers and custodians for cleaning up a lot of debris from the school and neighboring properties to get the building ready for students to return on Thursday, though the courtyard with the broken windows will be closed to students.
More: Updates: Tornado, storm damage still being felt in Iowa as clean up begins
A senior awards ceremony that had been scheduled for Tuesday night was postponed until 7 p.m. Thursday due to the damage. Staff were told not to come to the building on Wednesday for their safety.
Meadows said the graduation ceremony scheduled for next week at the Knapp Center will go on as planned.
Damage in metro area sporadic but significant
Other storm damage in the western metro areas was sporadic but significant — especially where large tree limbs had fallen over parked cars or houses.
Capt. Ryan Evans, spokesperson with the Polk County Sheriff's Office, said Wednesday there were no major injuries in the county due to Tuesday's storms. There was an unconfirmed report of one person with minor injuries in north Polk County, he said.
Evans said most of the worst damage to homes, other buildings and trees was in the northern areas of the county, especially near Elkhart and White Oak.
In the metro, the timber roof over a concession stand area at the Urbandale Girls Recreation Association softball complex off 104th Street had collapsed, crushing beneath it a few picnic tables and part of some bleachers. Association leaders did not immediately respond Wednesday to an email asking about damage estimates.
And damage to the traffic lights at the intersection of Southeast Grimes Boulevard (Highway 141) and Southeast 37th Street in Grimes continued to cause traffic snarls as of Wednesday afternoon.
Evans said the storm had knocked loose an electrical wire that contacted the lights and "fried everything." Travelers were asked to consider avoiding traveling on Iowa Highway 141 for the day.
On 33rd Street in West Des Moines, fallen tree limbs had damaged roofs of a few homes.
Kyle Wilson was cleaning up outside his and his wife's home, where a tarp covered a hole in the roof about a foot long left by a limb that had punctured down through to the drywall ceiling in their office. Wilson, who was on his way home from work when the storm hit, said his wife had gone into the basement before the tree fell.
"It's just a nuisance. We got off pretty easy," he said of the damage. He just wanted to be sure the roof was patched enough to keep out more rain.
Heavy rains over the last several weeks and Tuesday evening prompted some flood warnings, too.
As of midday Wednesday, both of Des Moines' major rivers, the Raccoon and the Des Moines, were above flood stage. Both rivers were expected to crest Wednesday night. The National Weather Service forecasts more rain, possibly heavy, on Thursday night.
Story County towns Nevada, Cambridge see major damage
While Tuesday’s tornado didn't travel through Nevada's city limits, City Administrator Jordan Cook said damage and power outages were reported south of town.
"A lot of the damage occurred along 270th Street and further south," Cook said.
A little over an hour had passed since a tornado hit June and Larry Handsacker’s house off of 650th Avenue near Nevada, and their family was already on the scene, pulling valued possessions from the wreckage.
Which, in June Handsacker’s case, are her dolls.
“All my dolls!” she said, pointing to a nearly intact china cabinet just inches from where the tornado cleaved her home in half. ”And those were just the dolls I bought, not the ones I made.”
She was in the dining room when the tornado passed through her home. She had left her husband in the basement for a moment to grab her phone when insulation came crashing down around her. They had to crawl over the debris to get out.
“I have over 100 porcelain dolls — ceramic pieces I made,” Handsacker said. “We don’t know where they are yet. It’ll be a matter of getting in there.”
Her own grandparents lost their home in the five-tornado spree that touched down in Charles City in 1968, and her grandfather was trapped for three days in his car.
She said she and her husband know they’re lucky they came away unscathed; they believe that God was looking out for them.
“It pays to teach Sunday school!," she said. "Do you know how horrible those kids behave?”
Before reaching town, an apparent tornado crossed U.S. Highway 30 just east of Nevada. Iowa Department of Transportation cameras showed the tornado toppling a stopped semitrailer. Sgt. Alex Dinkla, spokesperson for the Iowa State Patrol, said the driver was uninjured.
In Cambridge, Dee Gibbs, whose parents live just a mile from the damaged areas, was combing through the leftover debris Wednesday morning.
"It knocked down a lot of electrical poles," Gibbs said. "Big trees are down, power lines are down; it totally tore all the buildings down. Grain bins were picked up and thrown into the field, and there was a car in the field."
Reporters Addison Lathers and Celia Brocker contributed to this story.
Phillip Sitter covers the western suburbs for the Des Moines Register. Phillip can be reached via email at psitter@gannett.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @pslifeisabeauty.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Johnston High School, Des Moines metro homes damaged in severe storms
