Crazy severe weather 7/19/18 in Central Iowa

Last Thursday we had some severe storms drop down and tear up some cities pretty badly. First there were 2-6 tornadoes that touched down near and around Bondurant Iowa. One of these dropped on the west side of town and did some major damage. A friend I work with lost his house. His family is alright but last I knew he is still missing his dog and cat.

Later one ravaged the west end of Pella Iowa tearing up multiple buildings at the Vermeer manufacturing plant. The damage was insane. The vehicles in the parking lot were stacked 6 high (or higher) and had sheet metal from the buildings wrapped around them. Parts of the roof were found over a mile away.

There was also a large one that went through the west end of Marshalltown and ended up going through their historic down town ripping the top of their court house off and damaging several buildings including a hospital.

All in all everyone were really lucky/blessed. No fatalities were reported from any of these. That is just amazing. Vermeer was holding their 70th Anniversary and had a visitor day. They had guests from all over the world there. The building they sent everyone to they use for the shelter took a direct hit.

Here are some pics I got. The first 2 are leaving my parent's drive way. This is the tornado that went through Bondurant. That is roughly 7 miles from mom and dad's place.

I've always had a thing for tornado's. When I was a kid I was at my Grandmother and grandfather's house. They lived on a very old farm that had a storm cellar behind the house. I was probably 4 or 5 or so. I was outside mowing the grass with one of those push type foot removers and I saw a tornado. I ran in and told Grandma that the Tazmanian Devil was coming! She grabbed me up and off to the cellar we went. I still have the image in my mind today...... We just got in and she just got the doors shut and she realized the cellar inner door was stuck. We sat on the steps and were more above ground than not. You could see the tornado passing through the wall. Ever since I've had the inclination to chase them when possible.

These tornadoes looked close so I headed toward town to get a better view. By the time I got out of town the tornado on the ground had lifted. The road was blocked by law enforcement so I went another way to where the tornado lifted. It made it to the ground 2 more times but eventually fizzled out over some farm ground. The area it stopped is just west of where Allyson's brothers live. It was less than a half mile from where her brother Dewayne and his wife just put up a million dollar wedding barn.

I sat at a T intersection watching the storm and also noticing insulation and tar paper falling from the sky. I knew then that it had gotten some homes/buildings. I decided it was time to head to work so I headed back towards my parent's town. As I was driving, I saw more debris floating in the air. This was 8 miles or so from where the tornado did the damage.

As I got closer to Mitchellville, I saw the storm building again and was hammering Colfax with rain pretty hard. I decided to drive towards the SE just in case. Now this storm was headed towards our town..... I came up over the hill and there were 2 people on the narrow shoulder more in the road. At first I was wondering what in the heck they were doing! Then I looked to the SE again and saw the tornado on the ground. Yikes! That SOB is just west of our town. I hauled butt for a while and got to the point where it eventually lifted. Thank god, that thing was less than a mile west of our town. Straight inline with the area of our place.

I sat on another gravel road until I saw yet another large funnel cloud form and touch down. That storm made several more and unfortunately that is the storm that produced the Pella tornado. I finally ran out of time and had to head to work. :LOL:

The last picture is looking SE from my Dad's place looking towards where I live. If you zoom in on that tower, that is the tornado that could have torn up our town . I'm sure glad it didn't!

27 or more tornadoes were reported in Iowa alone.

https://www.google.com/search?q=bond...hrome&ie=UTF-8

https://www.google.com/search?ei=yE9....0.ODfMG7ydheY

https://www.google.com/search?ei=4k9....0.pqo7SCfGrpk