'The quickest thing I've ever seen': Multiple tornadoes touch down in eastern Iowa

Multiple tornadoes ripped through eastern Iowa Monday afternoon, damaging several homes, barns and trees. 

Local authorities reported a half-dozen tornadoes in the eastern part of the state as a severe weather system moved eastward Monday afternoon. No injuries have been reported. The National Weather Service is working on surveying the sites. 

"It was about the quickest thing I've ever seen." said Shawn Zweibohmer, who was working on a house he owns outside Charles City Monday afternoon when the tornado came through. "There was no alert, there was nothing."

Zweibohmer said he and his daughter were in the basement of the home when the tornado struck, toppling a large evergreen tree onto the home's roof. 

"The wind just wouldn't quit," he said. "It just kept beating against the house."

► More than 100 people help rural Iowa family after a tornado demolished their house

► Strong storms expected to hit Des Moines metro Tuesday could bring hail, tornadoes

The National Weather Service in La Crosse, Wisconsin, confirmed that an EF-1 tornado descended on the area near the Floyd County Fairgrounds in Charles City around 12:30 p.m. Charles City is about 30 miles east of Mason City. 

The twister completely flattened two of the fairgrounds buildings and severely damaged two more. It also destroyed two large buildings at nearby Floyd County Ag and several area homes. A total of 11 properties were affected, said Floyd County Emergency Management director Lezlie Weber. 

Floyd County Fair Society president Amy Staudt, who was inside the main building at the fairgrounds during the storm, said the tornado had come and gone before she received any weather alerts.

She recalled hearing a roar outside and the sound of breaking glass, but didn't realize it was a tornado until after it had passed. 

"The only thing that goes through my head is how blessed I am right now," she said. "I'm here talking about this episode as I'm looking out at stuff that's just been flattened." 

Craig Anderson, the fair board's treasurer, said he believes that four buildings will be a total loss, including the fairgrounds' beef and swine barn. There are about 10 buildings that sustained damage in all, he said, which he believes to be hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

Anderson said the board plans to meet and come up with both a short-term plan on what it will do for its 2019 county fair, which is July 18, as well as long-term rebuilding plans for the future. 

"We're going to have a fair," he said. 

Across the road, Floyd County Ag owner Steve Eastman said he believed two large buildings on his site are a complete loss, along with some of the equipment. The financial impact could be up to a million dollars, he said. 

Three homes were rendered uninhabitable in Floyd County by the damage, Weber said. The Red Cross has been contacted to assist the families.

Those with destroyed homes included Doug and Lorraine Hoeft, who were in Charles City planning to get lunch when they received a call that their home, which they built 43 years ago, had been hit.

"Then the neighbor across the road called and said you'd better come home, half your house is gone," Doug Hoeft said. 

He came home to find the tornado had ripped apart his living room and kitchen and threw his roof dozens of feet behind his home, flattening a row of evergreen trees in his backyard. An army of friends and family members arrived throughout the afternoon to help with the cleanup. 

"People just kept calling and people just kept showing up," he said. 

Dozens of volunteers also flooded the Floyd County Fairgrounds Monday afternoon to help clean up, some of them bringing machinery. 

A phone tree began to branch out to FFA advisers, fair board members, livestock superintendents and 4H leaders in the area. Around 35 people were soon at the grounds, volunteering for about three hours to start picking up what had been torn apart.

“A lot of people have their summers invested in making sure people enjoy their fairs,” said Hanna Hartman, an instructor and FFA adviser at Rudd-Rockford-Marble Rock. “You can just tell how deeply it impacts everybody.”

Heidi Hain, an instructor and FFA adviser at Nashua-Plainfield, said that some farmers who haven’t been able to plant crops yet because of the wet spring dropped what they were doing to help.

“They were more worried about the kids than they were about their own farms," she said. "It says a lot about our community and the dedication that people have to the things that they do.”

More tornadoes hit Iowa

The National Weather Service in La Crosse said another tornado was confirmed at 1:14 p.m. Monday near Elma, and another near Lime Springs at 1:41 p.m. that caused home and tree damage, according to law enforcement. 

In southeast Iowa, an emergency manager in Houghton reported a tornado had brought down two barns. A trained spotter observed a tornado in Cantril that damaged two houses south of Highway 2. Another trained spotter also observed a tornado in eastern Des Moines County.

Jesse Hoover was visiting his parents in Van Buren County along with his wife and four children as an unconfirmed tornado destroyed much of the two-story home where they have lived for two years.

Images from television station KTVO showed the roof of a house resting on the ground, and planks that once held the home together scattered yards from the building. The television station reports no one was in the building when winds ripped it apart. 

Hoover's father-in-law Edwin Ramer, of Gorin, Missouri, was one the first to see the destruction to his son-in-law and daughter's home near Cantril around 2:30 p.m. 

Within an hour, word had spread into Cantril where Dutchman's Store owner Clair Zimmerman, who had already planned to close early on Memorial Day, began to tell his customers about the damage done to the Hoover's home after a storm moved through the area. Many went to help with the cleanup effort.

Jeff Mercurio, of Fairfield, was shopping at the Dutchman's Store when he heard from Zimmerman about the cleanup effort. Mercurio and his wife of twenty years, Wanda Drozd, drove the 10 minutes down Highway 2 to witness more than 100 people helping salvage anything they could from the home.

Vehicles and trailers lined the gravel road shuttling debris away from the two homes damaged while church members and locals helped the Hoover family. No injuries were reported, and they plan to stay with family nearby.

The National Weather Service Quad Cities Office has not confirmed that a tornado moved through the area. A representative with the office said NWS officials will survey damage to the area and confirm that a tornado passed through the area Tuesday.

The severe weather impacted Memorial Day plans, including presidential candidates campaigning in the state.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren had wrapped up a meet-and-greet just after 2 p.m. at Port of Burlington along the Mississippi River Monday when the tornado sirens sounded. About 25 people, including the Massachusetts senator, her staff, reporters and a few guests, sheltered in an inner room at the venue for about 20 minutes until the storm passed. 

Staff writers Joseph Cress, Kim Norvell, Aimee Breaux and Kelly McGowan contributed to this story.