A Spring Breeze

Bright and early Monday morning the phone rang. 7:00 to be exact. It was my mother, Paddy, asking if I was ok. I thought she was asking me because I answered in a groggy voice, she just having woken me. I said I was fine but she said that she wasn’t. A severe storm had swept through the southwest part of town. It missed our house and we weren’t even aware it had happened. She said their electricity was out and could she and my sister, Lisa, come over and have some coffee. Sure. She said she had some trees down.

A little while later they arrived, had some coffee and told their story. Mom said she was asleep on Sunday night, but was awakened by a loud POP when the winds crashed through. She could see there was damage, but the extent of it eluded them till the morning. She had 5 or 6 trees down, most of them she had planted. Some were nearly 50 years old. Just about all of them had trunks that were over a foot in diameter. They went home and Karen and I followed a little later. Here is the panorama that presented itself to us…

This is a 180 degree view. Click on the picture to see it larger. Here are some close ups…

Here is the article that appeared in the Cedar Rapids Gazette…

Southwest Cedar Rapids sustains storm damage

By Dave Franzman, Nadia Crow and Mark Carlson, The Gazette

CEDAR RAPIDS – Parts of southwest Cedar Rapids were heavily affected when strong winds blew through late Sunday.

The branch manager of Gypsum Supply Company, 55 43rd Ave. SW, said he got a call shortly after midnight Monday telling him portions of the business were damaged.

Bill Larson said three large warehouse buildings were destroyed and another was damaged. The warehouses contained insulation, ceiling tiles and other building materials, as well as several delivery trucks.

No one was hurt, and the company was still making deliveries Monday.

Permeate Refining, a wasteto-energy plant that burns waste for Alliant Energy, also sustained significant damage at its building. Company officials said the damage could approach $500,000.

Falling trees were the source of a lot of damage. Larry Hamilton, who lives at the Prairie Oaks Mobile Home Court off Bowling Street SW, said a tree fell on top of his mobile home, and a branch that crashed through the side and window smacked him while he was lying in bed.

‘I was asleep and all of a sudden ‘kaboom’ … I hurt my back, got a few scratches but that’s about it,’ Hamilton said.

Falling trees or branches hit about a dozen manufactured homes, and Prairie Oaks’ owner said he thought one was a total loss. He also said about 50 or 60 trees fell over during the storm.

According to the National Weather Service, the damage resulted from 70 mph to 80 mph straight line winds.

Willard Lynch, a resident of a subdivision near Kirkwood Community College, said he woke to the sound of a tree falling.

‘The wind was just terrific. That woke me up. My wife woke me up and said we better go to the basement. I didn’t think it was that bad, then I heard the crash,’ Lynch said. He added the tree hit a neighbor’s garage.

According to the city of Cedar Rapids, trees were damaged at more than 200 public locations. Some residential streets were closed for part of the day while city staff and utility workers cleaned up the mess.

According to Alliant Energy, nearly 48,000 customers lost power as a result of the storm. A power outage forced Prairie High School in Cedar Rapids to close after a transformer went offline. The outage also affected the College Community school district’s computer servers.

A generator was put in place Monday and classes were scheduled to resume at Prairie High School today, with district officials saying they believed the school would have to rely on the generator for several days.

Meanwhile, in Iowa City, several residents called 911 late Sunday after sirens were activated.

The policy, which changed two years ago, is to sound sirens during any storm that threatens winds of 70 mph or greater, or that produces golfball sized hail.

‘Calls to 911 can tie up our dispatchers from handling real emergencies,’ said Tom Jones, executive director of the Johnson County Joint Emergency Communications Center. ‘People should go indoors, go in the basement and get information from local media,’ when sirens sound, Jones said.