'All of the sudden, boom': Iowans wake to more twisters after deadly tornadoes Tuesday

Enough, already.

Days after tornadoes belted the state once again, tearing through the heart of Greenfield, Iowans woke to the early Friday morning blare of another round of sirens as a band of dangerous storms spun up more twisters in the Hawkeye State.

Mercifully, the destruction was much less severe than Tuesday's carnage wrought by an EF4 tornado that punched through Greenfield, killing four people, injuring at least 35 others and damaging or destroying 153 homes.

Even so, an EF1 tornado was confirmed in Keokuk County, just northwest of Delta, Iowa, on Friday morning. The brief tornado caused significant damage to trees and outbuildings, the weather service reported.

And in Johnston, the National Weather Service confirmed an EF0 tornado that tracked from the south to eastern portion of the city from 4:53 a.m. to 4:57 a.m.

It was the second tornado to hit Johnston this week. An EF2 tornado started in Johnston Tuesday before continuing 41 miles through Polk and Story counties before ending near Zearing.

It touched down near Johnston High School, causing "extensive" damage that canceled classes for Wednesday.

Friday morning's storms knocked out power to tens of thousands of Iowans, with more than 14,000 MidAmerican Energy customers still without power at noon. At one point the utility reported more than 47,000 outages.

Early reports indicated damage to trees, power lines and farm property. There were reports of multiple semi-trucks tipped on Iowa interstates.

Baseball size hail also was reported to the National Weather Service from the Humeston area. Hail an inch in diameter was reported in places such as Milford, Nevada and Readlyn.

Frytown farmer describes storm's 'chaos'

Rick Brenneman woke up around 5 a.m. Friday as he always does, joking that he “works from home” as a farmer in southwest Johnson County.

He noticed windy conditions as he started his day just outside the unincorporated community of Frytown.

“All of the sudden, boom,” Brenneman said. “There were trees falling in my backyard, branches falling, whatever. It was chaos. Crazy.”

He hunkered in his home for about five minutes as the storm — which Johnson County Emergency Management later confirmed as an EF0 or EF1 tornado — passed through.

“Then, I looked out the front door,” Brenneman said. “The barn was gone.”

Damage assessment still underway in Greenfield

On Friday, FEMA announced federal disaster funding for Iowa to supplement recovery efforts in the areas affected by severe storms, tornadoes and flooding from the May 20-21 destruction.

Federal funding is available to affected residents in Adair, Montgomery, Polk and Story counties. Assistance can include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses and other programs to help individuals and business owners recover from the effects of the disaster.

Meanwhile, the director of Iowa’s health and human services agency says the state will soon undertake an effort to better prepare to respond to the next disaster.

The state recently underwent a massive realignment of its human services and public health agencies, forming the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services. As part of the next steps in that alignment, the director of the agency, Kelly Garcia, said she foresees shifting the current county-based public health system to a regional system.

On an episode of “Iowa Press” on Iowa PBS on Friday, Garcia said the department learned during the pandemic that local agencies were not meeting benchmarks in every area to be prepared to respond to every event, such as the recent storms that devastated Greenfield.

While the goal is to maintain public health presence in every county, Garcia said the state needs “strong systems” that can respond to natural disasters, communicable disease outbreaks or other emergencies.

“Iowans always come together, so that is there,” Garcia said. “I think we're seeing it today in Greenfield. And that is a wonderful aspect of Iowa's very unique culture. But we want those government systems to be equally prepared to respond.”

More bad weather could lie ahead for Iowa on Sunday, Monday

Unfortunately, Iowa isn't done with intemperate weather.

Thunderstorms are possible before 1 p.m. Sunday, with wind gusts up to 18 mph. Monday also has a chance of lingering showers.

For Memorial Day, there's a 20% chance of showers and thunderstorms in Des Moines. As the day goes on, it will be mostly sunny with a high near 73 degrees.

The evening will be mostly clear with a low of around 53 degrees.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Friday morning sirens wake Iowans to yet more tornadoes across state